94 The Poetry of Mary Robinsonpassion destroyed him: he “became perfectly rabid with the French
revolution; associated himself with the radical press, and spoke its furi-
ous and disgusting language.” Although the ignominy of Della Crusca
would outlive Merry, Boaden remarks that, as Merry began making
these unsavory associations, “the poet and the gentleman vanished
together” (284). Merry never published anything else as Della Crusca,
but the label stuck to him like tar and there were many happy to supply
the feathers.
The Baviad is the best example of how this came to be. W ithin only
one year, according to Horace Walpole, Merry had been “immortal-
ised, not by his verses, but by those of the ‘Baviad’ ” (391). But this is
not entirely accurate. To Gifford, Robert Merry is not even a person;
Della Crusca, rather, is a cynical commercial machination of Bell. As
Bostetter long ago observed, Gifford’s satire was politically motivated.
Gifford would go on to become the great Tory satirist and editor of
the Anti- Jacobin and later the Quarterly Review, having in the latter
capacity no small impact on the reception of the second- generation
Romantic writers. The attacks on Merry are easily achieved, although
most of the wit appears in the footnotes, where Gifford quotes cringe-
inducing passages to mount evidence. Gamer asserts that Gifford’s
anger derives, not so much from the original newspaper poetry, but
from Bell’s influence on popular culture (“Bell’s Poetics” 43–8).
Gifford represents Bell as a degraded taste- maker, crassly commercial
and responsible for denigrating literary culture with his pretentions.
To Gifford, Bell fueled the ambitions of unworthy poets by giving
them prominence in popular culture and profited by selling his wares
to an ignorant and susceptible public: these readers now “fancy ‘BELL’S
POETICS’ only sweet, / And intercept his hawkers in the street” (185–6).
Gifford’s malice toward Bell was unrelenting. In the second edition of
1793, Gifford added a spurious riposte from Bell, and in the sequel to
the Baviad, the Mæviad of 1795, Gifford inserted in his copious notes
a bogus sonnet purportedly by Bell in which the publisher hilariously
impugns Gifford as a “Monster of Turpitude!” (50).^14 Laura Maria, as
one of “Bell’s whole choir” (8), is not exempt from the parody, appear-
ing extensively in footnoted assaults on Della Crusca where Gifford
mocks her hyperbolic praise of him. Gifford’s ridicule of Cowley’s cor-
respondence as Anna Matilda is funny: “See Cowley frisk it to one
ding- dong chime, / And weekly cuckold her poor spouse in rhyme”
(9). But Gifford’s ad hominem against Robinson herself is particu-
larly vicious: “See Robinson forget her state, and move / On crutches
tow’rds the grave, to ‘Light o’ Love’ ” (9). Not only does Gifford
mock Robinson’s disability, he also rudely implies via Shakespearean9780230100251_04_ch02.indd 949780230100251_04_ch02.indd 94 12/28/2010 11:08:30 AM12/28/2010 11:08:30 AM
10.1057/9780230118034 - The Poetry of Mary Robinson, Daniel RobinsonCopyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to Universitetsbiblioteket iTr
omso - PalgraveConnect - 2011-04-13