The Poetry of Mary Robinson: Form and Fame

Stuart’s Laureates I 157

Certainly, Robinson’s references in the Letter point to a wide knowl-

edge of historical women. The pseudonym “Portia,” of course, also

acknowledges the theatrical history of the character, most particu-

larly Sarah Siddons’ famous portrayal of Portia in The Merchant of

Ve nice during the late 1780s. This Portia is one of Shakespeare’s most

intelligent heroines and delivers the “quality of mercy” speech in her

judgment of Shylock. Unlike readers and audiences today, Robinson

likely was not troubled by the character’s anti- Semitism. Eighteenth-

century audiences saw Portia as a figure associated with justice

and intelligence, who uses language to outwit Shylock and to save

Antonio from having to render the pound of f lesh. Moreover, Portia

is a “breeches” role, for she disguises herself as a lawyer. Although

Robinson herself never played the character when she was an actress,

the persona resonates with her theatrical past. So, like most of her

avatars, it points obliquely at herself.

As she had done with Laura Maria for the Oracle, Robinson used

the “Portia” signature exclusively for the Morning Post. To match

the significations of the pseudonym and the political positions of the

paper, she designed the persona as a politically liberal, intellectually

rigorous, and superlatively feminine voice of reason and humanitar-

ian concern. It is her most exclusively political avatar. And she clearly

intended Portia to have longevity, albeit unrealized. Her first Portia

poem is her sonnet “To Liberty,” identified in the Morning Post as

“SONNET I” (10 January 1795); the sonnet “To Philanthropy” is

“SONNET II” (23 January 1795); this indicates they are part of a

ser ie s of son net s t hat R obi n son appa rent ly aba ndoned — perhaps when

she decided to write Sappho and Phaon. These are formally “illegiti-

mate” sonnets, but they are fiercely incisive. After a year in which

Pitt’s suspension of habeas corpus allowed authorities to keep reform-

ers and radicals in prison without indicting them, and just weeks after

the conclusion of the treason trials, a sonnet in the Morning Post

praising Liberty as “Transcendent and sublime!” and as the “inmate”

of Truth is a bold but necessary statement for those who opposed

such repressive measures. It also impugns the authority of Pitt’s gov-

ernment in its tyranny at home and its conduct of the war abroad:

’Tis thine, where sanguinary Demons low’r

Amidst the thick’ning host to force thy way;

To quell the minions of oppressive pow’r,

And crush the vaunting NOTHINGS of a day! (1: 314; 9–12)

The poem concludes with an apocalyptic vision characteristic of the

mid- 1790s: “Still shall the human mind thy name adore! / ’Till Chaos

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