In addition, she wrote poetry for print periodicals and served as poetry editor of The Morning Post, a newspaper to which the poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth submitted poetry as well. Robinson is most often remembered, however, for her high-profile status as a cultural icon and her scandalous affair with the then Prince of Wales, later King George IV.
Early Life and Career
In her Memoirs, Mary recounts a childhood of privilege that was cut short by the separation of her parents. Her mother’s resulting financial distress resulted in Robinson’s marriage at a young age to a man who would prove unfaithful and whose spending habits landed him, and his wife and infant daughter with him, in debtor’s prison.
It was while imprisoned with her husband that Robinson published her first volume of poetry, seeking and winning the patronage of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, an infamous figure in her own right. Once released from prison, both Robinsons continued in their immoderate spending habits, precipitating, in part, Mary’s decision to seek a career on stage, having met with encouragement from the actor David Garrick prior to her marriage.
Her Scandalous Royal Affair
Robinson was quite successful on stage, and was well known for her ability (and undoubtedly, her figure) in breeches parts. During this time, she produced only the epic poems “Captivity” and “Celadon,” but was quite successful as a stage actress.
While performing as “Perdita” in a command performance of “The Winter’s Tale,” Robinson attracted the attention of the young Prince of Wales, the future King George IV, who pursued her, in the guise of “Florizel,” and promised her, in exchange for leaving her husband and her career, a bond of 20,000 pounds.
Mary Robinson as “Fallen Woman”
Robinson’s affair with the Prince of Wales effectively ended her stage career and her marriage. Once the affair ended, the Prince reneged on his bond and Robinson resorted to extortion, threatening publication of his love letters to her if she didn’t receive payment.
The affair left her with an enduring reputation for notoriety. The popular press, assuming a role similar to today’s paparazzi, insinuated affairs with a number of prominent political figures such as Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Charles James Fox.
After her return from France in the late 1780s, Robinson began the longest-lasting relationship of her life with Banastre Tarleton, at the time a British war hero of the American Revolution. Their turbulent and profligate relationship would endure for 15 years. It was during this time that Robinson began writing in earnest, likely out of financial necessity, since the Royal Family reneged on its promise of an annuity.
A Popular Writer by Trade
Robinson’s literary output was unmatched during this time. She produced poetry in the periodical The World under the name “Laura Maria;” two later volumes of poetry; her sonnet sequence Sappho and Phaon; at least two novels; and two plays. It is also at this time that Robinson began to earn a reputation for her pseudonyms, which, though prolific, were not particularly concealing. Some of her many pen names include: Oberon, Tabitha Bramble, Lesbia, Julia, Sappho, and Anne Frances Randall.
Robinson’s Radical, Political Writings
In 1797, however, Robinson and Tarleton separated; he abruptly married the heiress Susan Priscilla Bertie, apparently to clear up his massive gambling debts. Robinson responded by writing The False Friend, a novel with a thinly disguised caricature of Tarleton as its villain. Following their separation, and undoubtedly influenced by her new friendship with William Godwin, Robinson next produced her most radical texts, Walsingham (1797), The Natural Daughter (1799), and A Letter to the Women of England, on the Injustice of Mental Subordination (1799; under the name Anne Frances Randall).
Robinson’s Lyrical Tales and the and the Lyrical Ballads
By the end of the 1790s, her health was in steady decline, but Robinson continued to write for The Morning Post, The Monthly Magazine, as well as to compose poetry for her Lyrical Tales, which was published just prior to her death in December, 1800, and which was arguably influenced by her correspondence with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whom she met in 1799, and with whom she exchanged works-in-progress. The title of her volume, released as it was only 2 months before the second edition of the Lyrical Ballads, is reported to have caused Wordsworth consternation: he unsuccessfully tried to change his title, deeming Robinson’s title “a great objection.”
A persistent and overwhelming notoriety?
After her death in 1800, her daughter, Maria Elizabeth Robinson edited and completed Robinson’s Memoirs and collected poetry for a volume that she called The Wild Wreath, a title that is taken from a line of Robinson’s poems. Even after her death, Robinson’s notoriety was problematic for those around her: when approached to contribute to The Wild Wreath, Coleridge is supposed to have written a piece, but refused to have it published with the collection out of concern for his reputation.
Recently, Robinson’s literature and scandalous life have been the subject of three biographies and numerous scholarly articles, which attempt to show that Robinson, because of her popularity as a writer and her creative innovations, deserves to be recognized for the important, Romantic-era writer that she was.
Resources and Further Reading
Byrne, Paula. Perdita: The Life of Mary Robinson. London: HarperCollins, 2004.
Davenport, Hester. The Prince’s Mistress: A Life of Mary Robinson. Phoenix Mill, UK: Sutton Publishing, 2004.
Gristwood, Sarah. Perdita: Royal Mistress, Writer, Romantic. London: Bantam, 2005.
Robinson, Mary. A Letter to the Women of England and The Natural Daughter. 1799. Ed. Sharon Setzer. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2003.
Robinson, Mary. Selected Poems. Ed. Judith Pascoe. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2000.
Robinson, Mary.Walsingham; Or, The Pupil of Nature. 1797. Ed. Julie Shaffer. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2003.
