The Poetry of Mary Robinson: Form and Fame

Bell’s Laureates I 47

Popular culture always seeks, in spite of the odds, its own perpetu-

ation. Topham and Bell, surely with Merry and Cowley in tow, found

in this a golden opportunity. With his final poem, Della Crusca writes

to Topham of his removal to a great distance, which “would render

communication difficult and hazardous” (World 17 May 1788). He

adds wryly,

As to the Poems, if you think proper to collect and reprint them in a

more durable form, I submit them, with some other Productions here

adjoined, to your disposal; and I write this Letter, to empower you

to make over my right to Mr. BELL, or any other person you may

approve.

Of course, within just a few days, Topham announced the publication

by Bell of The Poetry of the World, including the previously empha-

sized “other Productions,” particularly a tragedy by Della Crusca

(22 May 1788). Anna Matilda, though, gets the last word on 26

May 1788 with her melodramatic goodbye to Della Crusca and, of

course, to poetry as well. But in closing, she imagines Della Crusca

singing a sweeter song than Petrarch’s over Laura’s grave, doubting

his constancy to her while comparing herself to a faithfully monoga-

mous swan. Thus she envisions her own death and her final words—

inevitably, “Della Crusca.” Topham’s headnote, however, guarantees

immortality to them both:

There is a period, when Envy and Malevolence will wound no lon-

ger. That period has arrived to these Poems. United, and yet mutu-

ally unknown, as have been DELLA CRUSCA and ANNA MATILDA;

• admired as they have been by all who have taste for Poetry – some
  have been found, who attempted at their abuse, in abusing the
  PAPER which conveyed them to the Public. They are now, however,
  going into a form, where Impression will be lasting; where praise
  will be unmixed; and it is amongst the best praises of these Poems,
  that they have set with the same splendour with which they rose.—
  Undiminished in Death! (26 May 1788)

In terms such as these, the transformation from ephemeral newspaper

to literary immortality is a comically hyperbolic apotheosis, a whimsi-

cal take on the poetic pursuit of eternal fame. But as a marketing ploy,

it also speaks to the commercial value of the poetry. The permanent

“form” results from an investment of capital that promised a greater

return than daily newspaper sales.

9780230100251_03_ch01.indd 479780230100251_03_ch01.indd 47 12/31/2010 4:20:14 PM12/31/2010 4:20:14 PM

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

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