Mary Robinson (poet)
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Mary Robinson, nee Darby (1756 or 1758-1800) the English poet, was also known for her role as Perdita (heroine of Shakespeare's A 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. Her affair with him ended relatively early (circa 1781), and "Perdita" Robinson was left to support herself through an annuity granted by the Crown (in return for some letters written by the Prince) in 1783 and through her writings. Today, she is remembered both as the first public mistress of George IV, and as a woman writer of the late 1700s.
Private life: childhood, marriage, and the theater
Mary Darby Robinson was born to a sea captain and his wife allegedly on 27 November 1758 according to her memoirs, but 1756 according to recently published research. 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 received a decent education, and came to the attention of actor David Garrick.
However, she and her mother preferred a good marriage. Mary accepted the proposal of an articled clerk Thomas Robinson, who claimed to have expectations from elderly relatives. Mary was then just 16 when they married in April 1774. It turned out that Thomas Robinson was not wealthy nor gentle-born, and the couple lived in London beyond their means, ending up in flight to Wales (where Mary's only daughter was born in November) and also in Thomas Robinson being imprisoned for debt. Since his wife and daughter had no home, they lived with him. During this time, Mary Robinson's first poems were published. Although they made little money, she did obtain the patronage of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire.
After Thomas Robinson obtained his release from prison, Mary decided to return to the theater. She acted in several roles at Drury Lane, beginning in 1776. It was her role as Perdita in Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale that brought her both public notoriety and the attentions of the Prince of Wales. Her affair with him, while it brought her many society friends, also meant that she could not return to the theater when the Prince's infatuation with her died out.
Subsequent career
Mary Robinson, who now lived separately from her husband, obtained an annuity for herself and a separate smaller annuity for her only surviving daughter. She had several love affairs, most notably with Banastre Tarleton, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War. 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.
From the late 1780s, Mary Robinson became known and acclaimed for her poetry and her novels. She also began to write her autobiography and to support the opinions of Mary Wollstonecraft. She died in late 1800, having survived several years of ill-health, and was survived by her daughter.
External links
Mary Darby Robinson biography
Mary Robinson profile
Mary Robinson profile (from a site dedicated to Tarleton)
Contemporary obituaries and death notices (from the Tarleton site)
Mary Robinson memoirs
Mary Robinson portrait, by Gainsborough