The Poetry of Mary Robinson: Form and Fame

110 The Poetry of Mary Robinson

(Werkmeister, Newspaper 143). Taylor was one of the new proprietors

and may have had a hand in the coup. But that does not appear to

have damaged his friendship with Robinson or diminished his appre-

ciation of her poetry.

In roughly the second half of her career, Robinson’s radicalism is

abundantly clear, so scholars interested in Robinson tend to presume

that she held consistently radical political views running from Ainsi

va le monde through Lyrical Tales. Her political views from 1788 to

1795 are actually far murkier and more difficult to discern. I have

attempted to unravel those aspects of her publicity that are particu-

larly relevant to her quest for poetic fame, but these reveal greater

complexities and seeming contradictions. As she established herself

as the English Sappho, her poetical publicity, as distinguished from

her previous celebrity, involves an array of political and professional

networking that attests to her dexterity as an actor in those networks

and that firmly established her literary career. In her personal life,

Robinson thrived on social intercourse, and here at the middle of her

career, her social circle somehow managed to include such antago-

nists as Merry and Taylor. Whatever her true feelings were, Robinson

wisely maintained positions and connections that facilitated that

career. After the most repressive measures of Pitt’s government go

into effect—particularly the “Gagging Acts” of 1795—Robinson

becomes a resolute and committed radical whose associates include

Wollstonecraft, Godwin, and Coleridge. She would soon find herself,

like Fox, in the “political wilderness” but without anything like his

resources. She had to continue to rely on her Muse and on her pen in

order to survive.

9780230100251_04_ch02.indd 1109780230100251_04_ch02.indd 110 12/28/2010 11:08:32 AM12/28/2010 11:08:32 AM

10.1057/9780230118034 - The Poetry of Mary Robinson, Daniel Robinson

Cop

yright material fr

om www

.palgra

veconnect.com - licensed to Univer

sitetsbib

lioteket i

Tr

omso - P

algra

veConnect - 2011-04-13