The Poetry of Mary Robinson: Form and Fame

188 The Poetry of Mary Robinson

July 1800. But the chief responsibility for filling that space rested

on Robinson’s shoulders, severely taxing her as her health declined.

Letters recently republished by Sharon Setzer show that Stuart nearly

terminated her employment due to her illness and consequent failure

to contribute poetry (“ ‘Original’ ” 322). Because her work for Stuart

was her primary source of income during the last few months of her

life, and she was being besieged by creditors, she was horrified at the

prospect of losing her weekly salary:

I have of late been less useful to the paper than heretofore, and this

morning I received a letter from him, requesting permission to close the

partnership. Indeed I have for some weeks past laboured at the hazard

of my life, and have frequently written verses when my physician abso-

lutely forbade me t he use of my pen. During near t welve mont hs I have

incessantly labored for the paper. I could not continue those labors

with quite so much industry; and now that I most want the reward of

my toil, – the season of my harvest is over, and my prospects for the

present blighted! Such are the vicissitudes of literary occupations! I

am weary of them: and if I had a mountain hovel, with a certain and

regular income, however small, I would bid farewell to scribbling—for

ever. (qtd. in Setzer, “ ‘Original’ ” 322)

This accords with a remark in the Memoirs: “When necessitated by pain

and languor to limit her exertions, her unfeeling employers accused her

of negligence” (7: 288). Moreover and to the purpose, the letter empha-

sizes that the nature of her position was contributory, not editorial.^13

Robinson, then, served not so much as the editor of a section in

the paper, but as one on whom Stuart depended to fill columns in

order to keep readers coming back for more. This duty extended to

procuring poetry in addition to what she herself was able to com-

pose, and to supplying news items about writers and celebrities with

whom she was familiar, including herself. We know that Stuart didn’t

publish everything that Southey, for instance, sent him, such as the

poems that appear in Letters from the Lake Poets to Stuart and “The

Guns Have Ceased their Thunder” in Lynda Pratt’s edition. Stuart

had the final word on what poems he published, although he cer-

tainly welcomed suggestions from his chief literary correspondents.

And, needless to say, neither correspondent was receiving unsolic-

ited submissions at their homes or in The Strand. During his tenure,

Southey was mostly in and around Bath, Bristol, and Burton with vis-

its to Nether Stowey and obligatory trips to London. And Robinson

was living with her daughter at Windsor, not a great distance away,

but where she was rendered essentially an invalid by paralysis and

illness. They clearly were correspondents in a literal sense: they sent

9780230100251_06_ch04.indd 1889780230100251_06_ch04.indd 188 12/28/2010 11:08:54 AM12/28/2010 11:08:54 AM

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

Cop

yright material fr

om www

.palgra

veconnect.com - licensed to Univer

sitetsbib

lioteket i

Tr

omso - P

algra

veConnect - 2011-04-13