Bell’s Laureates II 65example, his poem on the humanitarian efforts of prison reformer
John Howard, “Howard, the Phil- Anthrope,” his widely praised anti-
war poem “Elegy Written on the Plain of Fontenoy,” or his abolition
poem “The Slaves. An Elegy.” But publishing these sober humani-
tarian pieces with the Della Crusca avatar was a miscalculation on
Merry’s part—such works confused readers because the avatar seemed
factitious, undermining the social and political sincerity these poems
undoubtedly were attempting to express. Merry’s professional, politi-
cal, and poetical miscalculations included the presumption that his
own authorial identity could overwrite the Della Crusca avatar as a
more coherent writerly self. As Merry became a politically committed
poet, this presumption would be his downfall, most devastatingly
at the hands of William Gifford. Della Crusca made it easy to attack
Robert Merry. Mary Robinson, for all her indebtedness to Merry as
a model, avoided making similar mistakes through the proliferation
and reconstitution of her various avatars.
The dispersal of the Della Crusca network involves the business
concerns of Bell and Topham and the reinvention of Mary Robinson as
“Laura Maria”—a new avatar that represents a more refined and ide-
alized, and eventually a more politically engaged, version of Robinson
than “Laura” does. While Laura develops an affiliation with Della
Crusca in order to achieve poetic fame, Laura Maria pays homage to
Merry himself as well as to his political views. Robinson’s association
with Merry and with Bell put her at the center of the liberal literati’s
response to the French Revolution. In the second half of the decade,
Robinson becomes increasingly radical; however, this chapter focuses
on the first stage of Robinson’s political engagements during which
her politics are more ambivalent, in contrast with her positions during
the final years of her life. As Robinson becomes politically engaged,
her formal choices ref lect these interests. Her assiduous networking
continues as she attempts to assert and to maintain control of her ava-
tars and her poetic forms—even as Merry loses control of his.Power Centers
The course of Robinson’s career reveals a consistent program of
positioning herself literally and figuratively close to powerful men.
Her residences in Brighton, on St. James Street, even finally at Old
Windsor, reveal patterns of geographical affiliation with her former
lover, t he Pr ince of Wa les, on whom Robinson depended for a por t ion
of her income. Such choices did not go unnoticed by the press: observ-
ing her proximity to the Prince in Brighton, the Public Advertiser9780230100251_04_ch02.indd 659780230100251_04_ch02.indd 65 12/28/2010 11:08:26 AM12/28/2010 11:08:26 AM
10.1057/9780230118034 - The Poetry of Mary Robinson, Daniel RobinsonCopyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to Universitetsbiblioteket iTr
omso - PalgraveConnect - 2011-04-13