Editing Frances Burney (section)

==''The Witlings''==
In 1779, encouraged by the public's warm reception of comic material in ''Evelina'', and with offers of help from [[Arthur Murphy (writer)|Arthur Murphy]] and [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan]], Burney began to write a [[Comedy drama|dramatic comedy]] called ''[[The Witlings]]''. The play satirised a wide segment of London society, including the literary world and its pretensions. It was not published at the time because Burney's father and the family friend Samuel Crisp thought it would offend some of the public by seeming to mock the [[Blue Stockings Society|Bluestockings]], and because they had reservations about the propriety of a woman writing comedy.<ref>Doody, p. 451. Saggini, pp. 90-132.</ref> The play tells the story of Celia and Beaufort, lovers kept apart by their families due to "economic insufficiency".<ref name="Commire, Klezmer 229" />

Burney's plays were rediscovered in 1945 when her papers were acquired by the [[Berg Collection]] of the [[New York Public Library]].<ref>[[Orange Tree Theatre]], Richmond, Surrey: programme notes by the director [[Sam Walters (director)|Sam Walters]] for his world première production of ''The Woman Hater'' 19 December 2007.</ref> A complete edition was published in Montreal in 1995, edited by Peter Sabor, Geoffrey Sill, and Stewart Cooke.<ref>''The Complete Plays of Frances Burney''. Vol. 1, Comedies; Vol. 2, Tragedies (McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal, 1995). {{ISBN|0-7735-1333-7}}</ref>