Bell’s Laureates I 23Chapel,” both in octosyllabic couplets, which is the form of many of
Robinson’s Oberon poems.
Robinson’s first use of the Oberon avatar involves Merry, who by
this time was no longer using the Della Crusca avatar. Her “To the
Queen of the Fairies,” signed “Oberon,” appeared in the Oracle on
3 June 1790 and is part of a series of poems initiated by Merry writ-
ing as “Il Ferito,” which is Italian for “the injured man.” And this
exchange also involves Bell, who, in addition to publishing the news-
paper in which these poems appeared, would publish later that year
Merry’s Laurel of Liberty and Robinson’s Ainsi va le monde (to be
discussed in chapter two). Other cultural inf luences from newspaper
reports may be in play as well: Robinson may have seen or, more
likely, heard or read about Henry Fuseli’s Titania Awakening, which
the papers described as “Oberon”; even a prominent racehorse named
“Oberon” was covered in the papers—and certainly the Prince of
Wales and his circle were following such topics. But most likely the
pseudonym is an inside joke for Bell and others among Sheridan’s
Drury Lane crowd. Robinson’s pseudonym is a reference to Susannah
Cibber’s popular one- act comedy The Oracle, which premiered in
1753 on Drury Lane and enjoyed several revivals there and at Covent
Garden until the end of the century. Cibber’s play, adapted from a
French comedy by Germain- François de Saint- Foix, tells the story of
the young Oberon, son of the fairy queen, who falls in love with the
mortal Cinthia, thus fulfilling the prophecy of an oracle who foretold
the young fairy would marry a beautiful princess. A renowned actress
and singer, Cibber, also the daughter- in- law of Colley Cibber who
managed Drury Lane before David Garrick did, was for two decades
Garrick’s leading lady and became the highest paid actress at Drury
Lane until her death in 1766. So, referring to the Oberon of Cibber’s
comedy, Robinson’s pseudonym makes a kind of pun on the name
of the newspaper in which it exclusively appeared (until many years
later). Moreover, as is typical of Robinson, the reference to Cibber is
particularly self- ref lexive: Cibber had been, like Robinson, Garrick’s
protégée, and Robinson recalled in her Memoirs that Garrick used to
praise her by comparing her to “his favourite Cibber” (7: 207). Even
more than this, Cibber also was the most famous actress to play the
role of Perdita in Garrick’s adaptation of The Winter’s Tale prior to
Robinson’s fateful portrayal of the part.
Again, Robinson is not playing a character that presumably has
a particular—or characteristic—subjectivity. She is presenting an
alternate version of herself. Robinson, therefore, is not playing
the role of Oberon as if it were a character. The avatar performs a9780230100251_03_ch01.indd 239780230100251_03_ch01.indd 23 12/31/2010 4:20:09 PM12/31/2010 4:20:09 PM
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omso - PalgraveConnect - 2011-04-13