Bell’s Laureates I 33care for a sickly teenage daughter and an elderly mother. Moreover,
she was partially incapacitated by a mysterious illness she suffered in- She was therefore in need of a profession. The Memoirs (1801)
presents this return as momentous, as “the commencement of her
literary career”: “On her arrival in London, she was affectionately
received by the few friends whose attachment neither detraction nor
adverse fortunes could weaken or estrange” (7: 275). Robinson found
herself “surrounded by social and rational friends,” among them,
she notes, the Prince and his brother, the Duke of York (7: 275).
Robinson, furthermore, remained on friendly terms with Fox, who
also was a friend of Tarleton, and with Sheridan, who had an uneasy
political relationship with Fox. The Memoirs additionally describe the
impromptu composition of “Lines to Him Who Will Understand
Them” in the company of Richard Burke, son of Edmund Burke (7:
276). Robinson thus returned to a heady social network of eminent
Whigs who welcomed her home. Was Topham or Bell among them?
Is it possible someone presented Robinson with Bell’s lovely volumes,
The Poetry of the World? Preoccupied as her poetry would be with
fame, Robinson surely could not have resisted the final page’s guar-
antee “to transmit to Posterity all the POETRY which shall hereafter
appear in the WORLD” and its implied invitation: “Correspondents,
of talents, therefore, will have the gratification of finding their favors
elegantly and respectably preserved” (2: 144). In addition to the like-
lihood that either Topham or Bell directly solicited her correspon-
dence, she would have found irresistible the idea that her poetry could
be “elegantly and respectably preserved” after having endured the
indignity of the “Perdita” epithet and its humiliating associations.
Robinson was willing to work for her poetic immortality as a profes-
sional writer, even if she had to start by earning pennies by contribut-
ing newspaper verse.
Robinson’s return to England was also her return to publicity. Just
ten days before the publication of The Poetry of the World that same
paper reported, on 4 June, that “Mrs. Robinson has left Aix, and
Spa; and means to continue in London.” Although she had been in
England since the beginning of the year, this particular item suggests
that Topham and his editor, the Reverend Charles Este, were taking
note of her movements and possibly that they were socializing with
her; a news item, or puff, such as this suggests that they were solic-
iting her to contribute. Insipid as this item is, it was the first press
report on Robinson in several years that did not portray Robinson as
an exemplar of female depravity and that did not exult in reporting
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