Bell’s Laureates II 87earlier, and her first foray into the British debate over the French
Revolution. According to her Memoirs, Merry sent Robinson a copy
of The Laurel of Liberty on a Saturday; by Tuesday, Robinson’s Ainsi
va le monde, dedicated to Merry, was at press (7: 279). The composi-
tion, publication, and reception of the poem, then, is something of
a watershed event in Robinson’s career, proving that she could suc-
cessfully reinvent herself as a poet and as a political writer. Within a
month, the true identity of Laura Maria was known, and Robinson
likely braced herself for the return of the Perdita epithet. It came from
the General Magazine and Impartial Review, who neglected to men-
tion Robinson by name but attributed the poem to “the pen of the
celebrated Perdita” instead. The review was kind, however, character-
izing the poem as having “very refined sensibility, connected with
considerable richness of fancy, and correctness of taste” (548). The
review makes only an oblique reference to her scandalous past while
praising Robinson’s “naturally generous mind, which, pity is it, a pass-
ing cloud should ever have shadowed” (548). Significantly, this is the
only time the “Perdita” epithet would appear in periodical reviews of
Robinson’s poetry during her lifetime. The Critical Review, more-
over, recognized the poem as a bid for her own poetic preeminence,
pointing out that, although she supposes the laurel “will be conferred
on her, in consequence of her celebrating Mr. Merry’s patriotic ardor
and poetic genius, we think she is entitled to, and will obtain praise
from a much more honourable cause, her own merit” (74). To wn and
Country Magazine similarly recognized that, in her tribute to Merry,
Robinson “under- rates her merits, if she supposes Mr. Merry is her
superior in the art of poetry” (72). Robinson’s formal choices are fun-
damentally competitive, and her tribute to Merry, while not altogether
disingenuous, is also a cunning assertion of her poetic talents.
Robinson’s tribute to Merry was also a temporary baff le for her
inevitable publicity. Ainsi va le monde is more about her poetry than
Merry’s, although it is closely bound to his. As Merry had done,
Robinson adopts the form appropriate for lofty poetical discourse—
the heroic couplet. Echoes of Pope, not heard in Merry’s poem, rever-
berate throughout Robinson’s as part of her own claim to poetic
legitimacy. At 340 lines, Robinson’s poem is almost exactly half the
length of The Laurel of Liberty, a fact that likely accounts for its more
favorable reception. More so than Merry, Robinson chooses to make
her poem as much about poetry as politics, making an explicit connec-
tion between social and political liberty and intellectual freedom. Like
Price, although far more subtly, Robinson suggests that, since 1688,
the “progress of Liberty”—a phrase she will employ again later for her
long, blank- verse poem—may have slowed after 100 years, and that9780230100251_04_ch02.indd 879780230100251_04_ch02.indd 87 12/28/2010 11:08:29 AM12/28/2010 11:08:29 AM
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