Comic Collusion: Frances Burney's The Witlings and the Mentorship of Arthur Murphy

• Published in: Women's writing : the Elizabethan to Victorian period Vol. 28; no. 3; pp. 368 - 383
• Main Author: White, Willow
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 03.07.2021; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Arthur Murphy; Burney, Fanny (1752-1840); censorship; Dramatists; eighteenth century; Frances Burney; gender; laughing comedy; playwriting

Although it has been well documented that novelist and aspiring playwright Frances Burney was encouraged by playwright Arthur Murphy as she wrote her first play The Witlings (1779), the significance of his influence has never been fully acknowledged. A previously unexamined manuscript by Burney of a...