The Poetry of Mary Robinson: Form and Fame

Bell’s Laureates II 93

who in taste excel, / From tuneful ARNO down to Delphic BELL”—

and their “Oracular puffs.” A phony poetic response signed “Laura

Maria” appeared on 25 February 1791. Around this time, Topham

even had the nerve to publish two new volumes of The Poetry of the

World in 1791, one with an engraved fictional image of Laura Maria,

even though no poems under that signature appeared in the paper

(or in the volume). Before Gifford’s Baviad, Robinson, however,

remained relatively unscathed from her association with Merry, who

continued to publish under his own name, not as Della Crusca. On

21 April 1791, promoting her forthcoming volume, Bell announced

formally in the Oracle what readers had known for months: “Mrs.

ROBINSON’S exquisite Collection of Poems, will include those that

have appeared under the signature of Laura Maria.” W hat happened

to Merry did not happen to her.

Merry was committed to his new passion—France and the

Revolution—and to the effacement of Della Crusca. A month after

The Laurel of Liberty, his musical pantomime called The Picture of

Paris was staged at Covent Garden and published by Thomas Cadell.

Intent on being the laureate of the Revolution, Merry wrote Ode for

the Fourteenth of July, 1791, the Day Consecrated to Freedom, which Bell

timely published, with indirect repercussions to come over the next year

for his business. Composed for a musical setting, this poem is a bit more

subdued stylistically than The Laurel of Liberty but has no less enthusi-

asm for its cause. A year before Thomas Spence’s Pig’s Meat, or Lessons

for the Swinish Multitude, Merry, in his ode, scornfully quotes Burke’s

phrase “the swinish multitude,” and provides a Paineite chorus to be

sung: “Assert the hallow’d Rights which Nature gave, / And let your last,

best vow be FREEDOM OR THE GRAVE.” Although he stopped using the

avatar, Merry continued to be disparaged as Della Crusca, while Della

Cruscan became a codeword not just for bad poetry but also for Jacobin

sentiments. In November of 1792, just as Paine was about to go to trial

for libeling the English constitution and as Robespierre takes control of

the French National Convention, Della Crusca is associated with noto-

rious radicals and with dangerous revolutionary activity. The World, still

supported by the Treasury, unequivocally expressed its concern over the

arming of France and of the London Corresponding Society; the paper

identified specifically threatening individuals in an impressive and apt

metaphor: “When Carbine is loaded with Dr. Maxwell’s Pills, wadded

by Della Crusca and Holcroft, and primed by Parson Tooke, Paine’s

Nose only will be wanting to give fire” (29 November 1792).^13 This

is an illustrious list of radicals. Of course Della Crusca seems to be the

ridiculous incongruity here. According to Boaden, Merry’s political

9780230100251_04_ch02.indd 939780230100251_04_ch02.indd 93 12/28/2010 11:08:30 AM12/28/2010 11:08:30 AM

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