Frances Burney (1776–1828) was an English playwright and

governess A governess is a largely obsolete term for a woman employed as a private tutor, who teaches and trains a child or children in their home. A governess often lives in the same residence as the children she is teaching. In contrast to a nanny, th ...

, named for her famous aunt.

Life and work

Frances Burney was a niece of the novelists

Frances Burney Frances Burney (13 June 1752 – 6 January 1840), also known as Fanny Burney and later Madame d'Arblay, was an English satirical novelist, diarist and playwright. In 1786–1790 she held the post as "Keeper of the Robes" to Charlotte of Mecklen ...

and

Sarah Burney Sarah Harriet Burney (29 August 1772 – 8 February 1844) was an English novelist, the daughter of musicologist and composer Charles Burney, and half-sister of the novelist and diarist Frances Burney (Madame d'Arblay). She had some intermittent ...

, and granddaughter of the musicologist

Charles Burney Charles Burney (7 April 1726 – 12 April 1814) was an English music historian, composer and musician. He was the father of the writers Frances Burney and Sarah Burney, of the explorer James Burney, and of Charles Burney, a classicist a ...

. One of eight children of musicians Esther "Hetty" Burney (1749–1832) and Charles Rousseau Burney (1747–1819), Burney became a governess at the age of 18, and worked in various such posts for the rest of her life. She spent periods in the households of Sir

Thomas Plumer Right-Hon. Sir Thomas Plumer (10 October 1753 – 24 March 1824) born 2nd s. of Mr Thomas Plumer, Esquire (Oct 1711 - 17 March 1781) a City of London Banker and a Director of Bank of England, sometime Wine Merchant, of Lilling Hall, Yorks., and ...

and Sir Henry Russell. She is known to have published one work, which, no doubt due to her name, has often been wrongly attributed to her famous aunt: in 1818, she had privately printed ''Tragic dramas; chiefly intended for representation in private families: to which is added, ''Aristodemus'', a tragedy, from the Italian of

Vincenzo Monti Vincenzo Monti (19 February 1754 – 13 October 1828) was an Italian poet, playwright, translator, and scholar, the greatest interpreter of Italian neoclassicism in all of its various phases. His verse translation of the ''Iliad'' is considered ...

''. The two "tragic dramas" of the title are ''Fitzormond, or, Cherished Resentment'' and ''Malek Adhel, the Champion of the Crescent'': both are three-act plays; both in verse; and each perhaps "overblown and melodramatic" for modern taste. The author of her ''ODNB'' entry speculates that Burney was affected by "the concerns of her grandfather

(1726–1814) about the potential impropriety of the stage, particularly for female dramatists": anxieties about feminine reputation that prevented Burney's aunt and namesake,

, from having her own plays performed when she was younger. Indeed, Burney's preface to ''Tragic dramas'' is largely concerned with defending the harmlessness of private, or "domestic drama." Charles Burney's strict views about the theatre were, arguably, even ahead of their time, as social attitudes had tightened by the time his granddaughter was writing (see Antitheatricality in the 18th century). Burney appears not to have had a close relationship with her famous aunt, who claimed in a letter to Esther, "I once thought I had caught a bit of her heart—& I tried for it, 3 or 4 years ago—but I see, & am sorry to see, my mistake."''The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney'' (Madame D'Arblay) 1791–1840, Vol. 11, ed. Joyce Hemlow et al. (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1984), p. 566. Quoted in ''ODNB'' entry. Frances Burney suffered attacks of

jaundice Jaundice, also known as icterus, is a yellowish or greenish pigmentation of the skin and sclera due to high bilirubin levels. Jaundice in adults is typically a sign indicating the presence of underlying diseases involving abnormal heme meta ...

throughout her life and died, in 1828, aged 52, in

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

Plays

*''Tragic dramas; chiefly intended for representation in private families: to which is added, ''Aristodemus'', a tragedy, from the Italian of

''. London: Printed for the author by Thomas Davison, 1818.

References

Bibliography

*Mann, David. "Frances Burney (1776–1828)." ''Women playwrights in England, Ireland, and Scotland, 1660–1823''. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996, pp. 63–64.
Internet Archive
*Plaskitt, Emma
"Burney, Frances (1776–1828)."
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Retrieved 14 March 2011. Subscription required. {{DEFAULTSORT:Burney, Frances 1776 births 1828 deaths 19th-century English women writers 19th-century English writers

Frances Frances is a French and English given name of Latin origin. In Latin the meaning of the name Frances is 'from France' or 'free one.' The male version of the name in English is Francis. The original Franciscus, meaning "Frenchman", comes from the ...

English governesses English women dramatists and playwrights English women poets