66 The Poetry of Mary Robinsonremarked, “Mrs. Robinson improves in her poetical f lights—the
sight of her princely Corydon gives fresh animation to her rural
theme” (29 July 1790). Though the correspondent resists the Perdita
and Florizel appellations, the pastoral allusion nonetheless serves to
remind readers of the stage- setting in which the Shakespearean name-
sakes of Robinson and the Prince performed, and thus, of course, of
Robinson’s previous infamy. For practical reasons, Robinson could
not forsake the Prince, depending as she did on her promised annu-
ity from him. She similarly stayed close to Fox, although in more
figurative ways. Her personal and professional survival required the
maintenance of these, and other, connections.
Unraveling Robinson’s political affiliations at the beginning of
her literary career is a complicated endeavor because the Whigs were
divided over issues ranging from the impeachment trial of Warren
Hastings to the Prince’s illegal marriage to Maria Fitzherbert.
Because the London papers were either subsidized by the government
or the opposition—and because the opposition itself was divided—
Robinson had to choose carefully where to send her poetry. When
she returned to England, Bell and Topham’s World was popular, but
it also was subsidized by the Treasury, which expected quid pro quo
in the form of favorable political coverage. Rather than extolling Pitt,
Topham and Sheridan obliged by attacking Fox, the Prime Minister’s
chief opponent and Sheridan’s frequent bête noir. Robinson did not
publish in the World until it became known that the Prince had
agreed to subsidize the paper: in September of 1788, the Prince paid
Topham a huge sum of money to cease attacks on his illegal wife,
Maria Fitzherbert; for the rest of the year the paper was recognized
as having the support of the Prince and his faction (Werkmeister,
London 163–5). Robinson’s first poem in the World appeared on 24
October 1788. Her loyalty to Fox, prior to this arrangement, may
have prevented her from contributing to a Ministerial paper such as
the World; however, even though Topham and Sheridan continued to
denounce Fox throughout the year, Robinson’s loyalty to the Prince
trumped her attachment to Fox. Robinson notably did not begin
her career at one of the opposition papers, where some of her later
friends—John Wolcot, John Taylor, Daniel Stuart—worked.
Robinson also intended to stick close to Bell, who advertised him-
self as “bookseller to the Prince of Wales.” That fall, around the time
Merry began writing as Leonardo to Robinson’s Laura, the King’s
illness became public knowledge, reported by all of the newspapers.
When Fox declared in December his support for the Prince becom-
ing Regent, with full monarchical authority, the World relented9780230100251_04_ch02.indd 669780230100251_04_ch02.indd 66 12/28/2010 11:08:26 AM12/28/2010 11:08:26 AM
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