Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Mary Robinson
-
Standard Name: Robinson, Mary
Birth Name: Mary Darby
Married Name: Mrs Mary Robinson
Nickname: Perdita
Pseudonym: A Friend to Humanity
Pseudonym: Miss Randall
Pseudonym: Anne Frances Randall
Pseudonym: Laura
Pseudonym: Laura-Maria
Pseudonym: Julia
Pseudonym: Daphne
Pseudonym: Oberon
Pseudonym: Echo
Pseudonym: Louisa
Pseudonym: Tabitha Bramble
Indexed Name: Mrs Thomas Robinson
MR
, scandalous woman and Romantic poet, was also a forceful and emotional, radical writer in many other genres: novels, scholarship, memoirs, drama, periodical essays, and translation. During the last two years of her life her level of productivity was almost frenetic, and the quality of her writing was adversely affected.
In 1800 appeared a pamphlet essay which may be by JP
or to her and her sister
: A Defence of the Profession of an Actor.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Stuart Bennett Rare Books & Manuscripts: A Catalogue of Books By, For, and About Women of the British Isles, 1696-1892. Stuart Bennett Rare Books & Manuscripts.
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and Thomas McLean
Textual Production
Jean Plaidy
The first-named is George I
's rejected queen
(accused of adultery and imprisoned for life before her husband came to the English throne, while her alleged lover
was assassinated). The protagonist of the second novel...
Friends, Associates
Eliza Parsons
Mary Robinson
, writing to Samuel Jackson Pratt
about visiting authoresses, said she expected soon to see Mrs Parsons—that is EP
—at her daughter's house at Englefield Common.
Robinson, Mary. Letter to Samuel Jackson Pratt, 31 August 1800.
Intertextuality and Influence
Emma Parker
Fitz-Edward, set in Wales, has poems interspersed, besides the lines of verse heading its chapters, which include the work of Anna Letitia Barbauld
, Mary Robinson
, Mary Tighe
, and EP
herself, cited as Emma De Lisle.
McLeod, Deborah. The Minerva Press. University of Alberta.
Textual Production
Charlotte Nooth
His De la littérature des Nègres in its original form reflects internationalism, anglophilia, and perhaps even proto-feminism. The title-page quotes Mary Robinson
. The roll of honour of white activists for abolition and racial equality...
MLCC
mentions her warm friendships with leading officers of the Royal Navy
, whom she knew through her husband's position. A number of writers too, including Mariana Starke
, became her personal friends.
Crawford, Elizabeth. “Posts tagged Mariana Starke”. Woman and her Sphere.
2 November 2012
Family and Intimate relationships
Sophia King
In SK
's life, as in her sister's, their father, John King
, the former Jacob Rey, loomed large. He was a self-made man, a money-lender, a political radical and associate of Wilkes
, the...
Intertextuality and Influence
Sophia King
The dutiful daughters thank their father for his care of their education. Pieces by the two sisters mostly alternate. SK
claims in a note that she composed her De Clifford's Ghost at the age of...
Family and Intimate relationships
Naomi Jacob
She describes her mother as in advance of her times in many ways: a bicycle rider, a Poor Law Guardian,
Jacob, Naomi. Me: A Chronicle about Other People. Hutchinson.
38
witty, charming, deeply religious, but with no money and no idea how to...
Reception
Anne Irwin
AI
's Epistle to Pope was anthologized in The New Foundling Hospital for Wit, in the 1770s. Mary Robinson
, praising it in 1799, thought it was written by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
.
Textual Production
Elizabeth Inchbald
Its source was L'heureuse erreur by Joseph Patrat
, which had been successful in France.
Manvell, Roger. Elizabeth Inchbald: England’s Principal Woman Dramatist and Independent Woman of Letters in 18th Century London. University Press of America.
34
Mary Robinson
bought a copy.
Friends, Associates
Mary Hays
This was her most formative and most famous friendship. She had approached Wollstonecraft after the latter published Vindication of the Rights of Woman early that same year. Wollstonecraft proved a valuable professional mentor. Another relationship...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Laetitia-Matilda Hawkins
She praises Mary Robinson
(Our Perdita) both in literary terms for her works of genius
Hawkins, Laetitia-Matilda. Memoirs, Anecdotes, Facts and Opinions. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, and C. and J. Rivington.
2: 24
and in moral terms for the resilience with which she worked for her child (housework as...
Timeline
No timeline events available.
Texts
Robinson, Mary. The Widow. Hookham and Carpenter, 1794.
Robinson, Mary. The Works of Mary Robinson. Editor Brewer, William D., Pickering and Chatto, 2010.
Robinson, Mary. Thoughts on the Condition of Women. Printed by G. Woodfall for T. N. Longman and O. Rees, 1799.
Robinson, Mary. Vancenza. Printed for the authoress, 1792.
Robinson, Mary. Walsingham. T. N. Longman, 1797.
Robinson, Mary. Walsingham, or, The Pupil of Nature. Editor Shaffer, Julie A., Broadview Press, 2003.