82 The Poetry of Mary Robinsoneven concludes with a quotation—“^ ‘If I e’er could Please – I please no
more’ ” (1: 120; 106) —from Della Crusca’s poem to Anna Matilda,
beginning “In vain I f ly thee.” Robinson’s poem “To the Muse of
Poetry” (1: 120–3) responds to Armida and includes the “weedy
waste” from the final Anna Matilda poem to Della Crusca, thus wink-
ing at Cowley’s authorship of the Armida poems. These avatars allude
to Tasso’s epic poem Jerusalem Delivered (1581), as well as to Sacchini’s
opera Armida (1772), which was performed at the Pantheon Opera
House in Haymarket at the time these poems appeared. Although
similarly ludic, these operatic avatars are obviously designed for Bell’s
Oracle to distinguish them from the more erotic and less refined play
of the Della Crusca network. Robinson, for instance, asks the Muse of
Poetry to bless Rinaldo’s “TRUE POETIC Mind” with her “chaste celes-
tial ray” (1: 122; 100–1). And she warns Rinaldo to ensure that his
“varying FANCY” never will “tread / The paths of vitiated Taste” (1:
123; 110–11). Maintaining good taste will ensure his fame, Robinson
insists, while abandoning it will consign him to oblivion. In terms
of taste, Bell obviously wanted to replay the sensation of 1788–9 in
the World but in the more refined Oracle; no correspondence, how-
ever, caught fire as the previous one had done, perhaps because these
later iterations were less amusing. During 1790 and 1791, other poets
using such avatars as Ignotus (William Kendall) and Cesario (Miss
M. Vaughan) continued to correspond with Robinson’s Laura avatar
instead of her Laura Maria one.^11 Robinson’s 1791 volume includes
her responses. Because the issues of the Oracle during this time have
been lost, however, it is difficult to determine if Robinson signed any
of these poems as Laura; if so, she seems to have drawn a distinction
between the two avatars: she revives Laura as the erotic correspondent,
while Laura Maria maintains a somewhat aloof position above such
poetic exchanges. This reading is further confirmed by Robinson’s
exchanges in the Oracle of 1792 and 1793 with Arno, the avatar of
the paper’s editor, playwright James Boaden. In these exchanges, she
writes as Laura or as Julia, but they are decidedly more platonic. Even
as Laura, Robinson studiously avoids an erotic exchange as overheated
as that between Della Crusca and Anna Matilda. As Julia, for instance,
Robinson responds to Carlos, rejecting “FICKLE LOVE” and offering
only “Meek FRIENDSHIP,” which “Phoenix- like, shall rise, / Amidst
the f lame, where PASSION DIES” (1: 179–80; 38, 59–60). Because her
identity was known, and the “Perdita” epithet was still in currency, she
wanted to preclude any whiff of sex, however poetic.
Robinson reserved Laura Maria’s correspondence for Merry alone.
Her first book with Bell, Ainsi va le monde, appeared in November9780230100251_04_ch02.indd 829780230100251_04_ch02.indd 82 12/28/2010 11:08:28 AM12/28/2010 11:08:28 AM
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