Mary Robinson
Portrait of Mary Robinson by Thomas
Gainsborough, 1781
Mary Robinson (née Darby) (27 November 1757 – 26
December 1800) was an English poet and novelist.
During her lifetime she is known as 'the English
Sappho'. She was also known for her role as
Perdita (heroine of Shakespeare's The Winter's
Tale) in 1779 and as the first public mistress
of George IV.
Private life: childhood, marriage, and the
theater
Mary Darby was born in Bristol, England to
John Darby, a sea captain, and Hester Seys.
According to her memoirs, Mary gives her birth
in 1758 but the year 1757 seems more likely
according to recently published research (see
appendix to Byrne, 2005). Her father deserted
her mother when Mary was still a child, and Mrs
Darby supported herself and the five children
born of the marriage by starting a school for
young girls (where Mary taught by her 14th
birthday). However, during one of his brief
returns to the family, Captain Darby had the
school closed (which he was entitled to do by
English law). Mary, who at one point attended a
school run by the social reformer Hannah More,
came to the attention of actor David Garrick.
Mary's mother encouraged her to accept the
proposal of an articled clerk, Thomas Robinson,
who claimed to have an inheritance. After the
early marriage, Mary discovered that Thomas
Robinson did not have an inheritance.
Subsequently, she supported their family. After
her husband squandered their money, the couple
fled to Wales (where Mary's only living daughter
was born in November). The family lived under
house-arrest after Thomas Robinson was
imprisoned for debt. During this time, Mary
Robinson found a patron in Georgiana, Duchess of
Devonshire who sponsored the publication of
Robinson's first volume of poems, Captivity.
After her husband obtained his release from
prison, Robinson decided to return to the
theater. She launched her acting career and took
to the stage, playing Juliet, at Drury Lane
Theatre in December 1776. Robinson was best
known for her facility with the 'breeches
parts', her performances as Viola in Twelfth
Night and Rosalind in As You Like It won her
extensive praise. But she gained popularity with
playing in Florizel and Perdita, an adaptation
of Shakespeare, with the role of Perdita
(heroine of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale) in
1779. It was during this performance that she
attracted the notice of the young Prince of
Wales, later King George IV of Great Britain and
Ireland, who offered her twenty thousand pounds
to become his mistress. With her new social
prominence, Robinson became a trend-setter in
London, introducing a loose, flowing muslin
style of gown based upon Grecian statuary that
became known as the Perdita. He ended the affair
in 1781, refusing to pay the promised sum. "Perdita"
Robinson was left to support herself through an
annuity promised by the Crown (but rarely paid),
in return for some letters written by the
Prince, and through her writings.
Subsequent career
After seeing her as Perdita, and declaring
himself enraptured with her, the Prince of Wales
offered Mary Robinson twenty thousand pounds to
become his mistress. However, he soon tired of
her and abandoned her after a year, refusing to
pay the money. Her reputation was destroyed by
the affair, and she could no longer find work as
an actress. Eventually, the Crown agreed to pay
Robinson five thousand pounds, in return for the
Prince's love letters to her. Some time later
she was able to negotiate a small annuity (five
hundred pounds) from the Crown, but this was
rarely paid.
Mary Robinson, who now lived separately from
her philandering husband, went on to have
several love affairs, most notably with Banastre
Tarleton, a soldier who had recently
distinguished himself fighting in the American
War of Independence. Their relationship survived
for the next 15 years, through Tarleton's rise
in military rank and his concomitant political
successes, through Mary's own various illnesses,
through financial vicissitudes and the efforts
of Tarleton's own family to end the
relationship. However, in the end, Tarleton
married Susan Bertie, an heiress and an
illegitimate daughter of the young 4th Duke of
Ancaster, and niece of his sisters Lady
Willoughby de Eresby and Lady Cholmondeley.
In 1783, at the age of 26, Robinson suffered
a mysterious illness that left her partially
paralyzed. Biographer Paula Byrne speculates
that a streptococcal infection resulting from a
miscarriage led to a severe rheumatic fever that
left her disabled for the rest of her life. From
the late 1780s, Mary Robinson became
distinguished for her poetry and was called "the
English Sappho." In addition to poems, she wrote
six novels, two plays, a feminist treatise, and
an autobiographical manuscript that was
incomplete at the time of her death. Like her
contemporary Mary Wollstonecraft, she championed
the rights of women and was an ardent supporter
of the French Revolution. She died in late 1800
in poverty at the age of 42, having survived
several years of ill health, and was survived by
her daughter, who was also a published novelist.
Literature
After years of scholarly neglect, Robinson's
literary afterlife continues apace. In addition
to regaining cultural notability because of
scholars who study her writing, she again
attained a degree of celebrity in recent years
when several biographies of her appeared,
including one by Paula Byrne that became a
top-ten bestseller after being selected for the
Richard and Judy Book Club.
