Bell’s Laureates I 51That bids my throbbing Pulses beat;
Soon shall that Vital Heat be o’er,
Those throbbing Pulses BEAT no more—
No!—I will breathe the spicy Gale,
Plunge the clear Stream, new Health exhale;
O’er my pale Cheek diffuse the Rose,
And DR INK OBLIVION TO MY WOES! (1: 53; 73–84)In a biographical reading, the poem stands as an appeal to
Robinson’s real- life lover, Tarleton, and a threat to take refuge with
her brother, a merchant in Italy. But it is otherwise unremarkable
on its own, and does not live up to Topham’s panegyric the next
day: He writes, “More fanciful and pathetic Lines, are scarcely to
be found in the whole body of English Literature” (1 November
1788). This is the puff for which Robinson was aiming. In con-
text with the poems the World was famous for printing, moreover,
t his poem is pract ically an erot ic invitat ion for correspondence w it h
Della Crusca. Robinson certainly intended for this poem to be read
in the series—as all of the best poems in the World were read—
knowing that Anna Matilda had complained that Della Crusca’s
proposed sojourn in Italy invariably would result in his infidel-
ity; Anna Matilda knows that “there, if right I ween, the Maid
INDIFFERENCE dies!” (World 1 April 1788). When Robinson sent
the poem, she may not have realized that Della Crusca was on his
way back to England and to Anna Matilda.
Della Crusca’s delayed poem to Anna Matilda (“IN vain I f ly
Thee—’tis in vain”) announcing his return appeared three days
before Laura’s “To Him Who Will Understand It,” on 28 October.
In it, Della Crusca complains of Anna Matilda’s infidelity to him with
Greatheed’s Reuben avatar, referring to her poem “To Reuben,” which
appeared exclusively in her solo volume, The Poetry of Anna Matilda,
that fall: “Ah, REUBEN is the name I hear!—/ For him my faithless
ANNA weaves / A wreath of Rose and Myrtle Leaves.... ” This refer-
ence is a plug for her book, which was printed and sold by Bell. Merry
thus revives the correspondence in the paper as a way of inscribing the
book’s publication back into the network, while promoting them at
the same time. In the poem, Della Crusca also remarks on the English
Review’s supposition that he and Anna Matilda are one person; he
turns this into ludic- erotic fodder:For e’en cold Critics have conceiv’d,
So much alike our measures run,9780230100251_03_ch01.indd 519780230100251_03_ch01.indd 51 12/31/2010 4:20:15 PM12/31/2010 4:20:15 PM
10.1057/9780230118034 - The Poetry of Mary Robinson, Daniel RobinsonCopyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to Universitetsbiblioteket iTr
omso - PalgraveConnect - 2011-04-13