Beschreibung:

Autograph letter, signed, with initials to Fanny Burney on the reaction to Cecilia.
London: "Sat: Morng." [May?] 1782. 1½ pp., single sheet (230 x 180 mm). Condition : usual folds, lacking the address leaf. Provenance : Phillips New York, 30 September 1982, lot 720. thrale writes to burney relaying high praise for cecilia. The letter begins: "Well! sweetest Burney, how went your Party of Pedants? I keep no Company but Quality now, Dieu me pardonne -- Mrs. Price's Room was so full I breathed Quality, and am come home much puffed of course. We talked of Cecilia however & there all were on a Level; for we said the sweetest of Sayings, & the old Duchess of Portland will be well prepared I hope for she is reading it now for the 3d Time: I wish Dr. Lawrence would write notes to it. Mrs. Montagu however was more elegant in the Praise she gave it the night before…" The letter continues gossiping about Lady Emily's marriage and concludes with her asking Burney to visit "for such a Bit of Prattle as we had last Time." Thrale has seemingly dated this letter "5--82" at the top of the first page. However, Cecilia was not published until June 1782, suggesting the possibility that a number of manuscript copies of Cecilia were in circulation a month prior to publication. Indeed, Thrale first read such a manuscript version in May 1782 (see Diary & Letters of Madame D'Arblay II: pp. 84-85). However, the possibility also exists that the numerical inscription at the head of the letter refers to something other than the month of May and that the letter was written June 1782.