The Poetry of Mary Robinson: Form and Fame

54 The Poetry of Mary Robinson

cautiously acknowledging the implicit warning in Laura’s renuncia-

tion, urges her to avoid Italy and to remain in England, where she can

learn fortitude perhaps in his company. He offers, “With mine thy

deep Aff lictions blend, / And for a LOVER LOST, receive a FRIEND.”

Laura is not so easily persuaded, however. After signaling her serious

poetic ambitions in “The Muse,” Laura’s response resumes the ludic

nature of the textual network by unmasking Leonardo as a feckless

lothario:

AND dost thou hope to fan my Flame

With the soft breath of FRIENDSHIP’S Name?

And dost thou think the thin disguise

Can veil the Mischief from my Eyes?

Alas! sweet BARD, the dazzling Ray

Did long, resistless, round me play!—

In REASON’S BUR NISH’D^ MANTLE drest,

It pour’d warm incense on my Breast,

My MIND in rosy fetters bound,

Then, smiling, gave th’ insidious wound. (“To Leonardo” 1: 55;

1–10)

Laura’s response thus opens by emphasizing her experience with

duplicitous offers of friendship; she has been fooled by passion dis-

guised as reason only to find her intellect held captive by her emo-

tions. This becomes a notable theme in Robinson’s work, particularly

in Sappho and Phaon, a s w e w i l l s e e i n c h a p t e r t h r e e. T hu s , R o b i n s o n’s

Laura means to distinguish herself from Cowley’s Anna Matilda,

who had encouraged “Platonic” friendship. Rejecting Leonardo’s

impropriety, Laura suggests that he pursue love elsewhere that he

may again feel the “ ‘Throb Divine’ ” of poetic inspiration; that is,

erotic fascination (1: 56; 46). Here she quotes directly Della Crusca’s

phrase from his second poem to Anna Matilda (21 August 1787),

slyly indicating her suspicion that Leonardo and Della Crusca are

one in the same.

Robinson’s Laura is the catalyst for the climax of the Della Crusca–

Anna Matilda exchange as it moves toward its second and final con-

clusion. Perhaps to throw readers off and so build suspense, Leonardo

responds with a sonnet, a form not associated with Della Crusca,

in tribute to the Laura avatar. Topham, in on the joke, prefaced it

with praise of the composition as “metrically correct, after the man-

ner of PETR ARCH” (10 January 1789). While not exactly the “legiti-

mate” sonnet, with an octave rhyming abbaabba, it does have the

9780230100251_03_ch01.indd 549780230100251_03_ch01.indd 54 12/31/2010 4:20:15 PM12/31/2010 4:20:15 PM

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

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