The Poetry of Mary Robinson: Form and Fame

Stuart’s Laureates I 177

that points directly to the literary and satirical associations the poet

wishes to make:

AGAIN I smite the bounding string

Of pious pomp, and sacred joys to sing!

Not like a Poet, lofty and sublime,

Like PINDAR (Peter- nam’d), or MATTHEW BRAMBLE,

But a poor spinster of the rudest rhyme,

Whose PEGASUS no lofty f light pursues,

To revel midst Parnassian dews,

But doom’d a sorry jade, o’er mortal scenes to amble. (1: 351; 1–8)

Tabitha here defers to Wolcot’s and Macdonald’s satirical personae,

so it is clear that the character Robinson develops owes more to

them than to Smollett. The satire is disorienting, though, because

the poem oscillates between sarcastic attack and more praise of the

Whig heroes—“Some bright examples”—attending the procession,

with the result of such encomia appearing to be at least facetious (1:

353; 84). The poem concludes with a tribute to Georgiana, Duchess

of Devonshire, that bears one of Robinson’s most distinctive marks:

“And thou, DEVONIA, beauteous Dame! / Thou too shalt share a

wreath of Fame” (91–2). But one wonders if praise from Tabitha

Bramble is supposed to be valued or not.

This Tabitha Bramble is aggressively hostile to authority and is

not really the homespun neophyte she claims to be. Certainly, the

litany of Pitt’s ministers and courtiers who appear in “Ode Fourth.

For New Year’s Day” is meant to embarrass them as more fitting sub-

jects for Poet Laureate Henry James Pye, who, in that post, “makes

poor Pegassus—a venal hack— / Carrying triumphant home,—a

butt of sack!” (1: 355; 29–30). Tabitha impugns the integrity of the

royal laureate, who receives only a small pittance and a cask of wine

for his loyalty. “The Patron of the Muses pays— / the glozer for

his dulcet lays,” she writes, making a cunning allusion to Milton’s

Satan and thus suggesting an unholy alliance (33–4).^7 These poems

become increasingly overt in their attacks on Pitt and increasingly

ad hominem. Employing the traditional “derry down” refrain from

popular English songs, “A New Song, to an Old Tune” exposes

Pitt’s wa rmonger ing as a n excuse for ta xat ion from wh ich he h imself

profits:

Oh! B—y loves War, for he pockets the shiners;

And mocks the plain sense of the patriot diviners;

9780230100251_06_ch04.indd 1779780230100251_06_ch04.indd 177 12/28/2010 11:08:52 AM12/28/2010 11:08:52 AM

10.1057/9780230118034 - The Poetry of Mary Robinson, Daniel Robinson

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