Mary Darby Robinson "Perdita" 1758-1800
In her autobiography Mary Robinson states that “she was born on the 27th November, 1758 in a mansion which backed onto the ancient cloisters of St. Augustine’s monastery in Bristol”. She became a very successful actress on the London stage, esteemed and admired for her beauty, although she refers to herself as being “swarthy”. Her portrait was painted by many of the leading artists of the late 18th century including Romney, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Zoffany and Gainsborough (whose portrait of her, painted in 1781, and now part of the Wallace Collection, is regarded as one of his masterpieces).
She was the daughter of Nicholas Darby, a sea captain and merchant businessman, and a lady “with aristocratic connections”. Her godfather was the 1st Earl of Northington, Lord Chancellor at the time of her birth. She was educated at good schools and had all the advantages of a well-off family until her father went to Labrador to establish permanent coastal fishing posts. This venture failed, leaving his family destitute and homeless. When 15 years old Mary attracted the attention of David Garrick, the famous actor, and it was proposed that she go on the stage. However, at the age of 16, under pressure from her mother, she married Thomas Robinson. He was a spendthrift, a liar, and an unfaithful husband, constantly in debt, and he and Mary and their daughter, christened Maria Elizabeth, moved from place to place many times to escape his creditors. Eventually his debts were such that in 1775 he spent nine months in the Fleet prison. Mary loyally shared his confinement although she knew that he had been unfaithful to her. During this time Mary published her first book of poems.
In 1776 Mary, with the help and encouragement of Dryden the playwright, became a successful Shakespearean actress, a career which was interrupted by the birth of a second daughter, Sophia, who died when 6 weeks old. When she played the part of “Perdita” in “A Winter’s Tale” she attracted the attention of the 17- year- old Prince Regent, later King George IV. He wrote her a note signed “Florizel”, one of the characters from “The Winter’s Tale”. He also sent her his portrait in miniature with “Je ne change qu’en mourant” on one side of a piece of paper and “Unalterable to my Perdita through life” on the other. She very soon became his mistress. The Prince Regent who, when he tired of her four years later, promised her a Bond for £20,000 later refused to pay it until she threatened to publish their letters. His father King George III then paid her £5,000 to “get my son out of this shameful scrape”. Mary later obtained a further £500 annuity for herself and a £200 annuity for her daughter, Maria.
For many months after he broke off his relationship with her, the Prince Regent alternated between declaring his love for her and ignoring her. Despite his shabby treatment of her, she later wrote of him “The graces of his person, the irresistible sweetness of his smile, the tenderness of his voice, will be remembered by me till every vision of this changing scene shall be forgotten”. After her final break-up with the Prince, Mary had relationships with many men. She lived in France and Germany, but following a miscarriage, and affected by acutely painful rheumatism, she returned to England.
From 1788 until her death in 1800, “her lively and prolific pen was rarely unemployed”. She wrote poems, pamphlets, translations, miscellaneous newspaper articles, her autobiography, several novels and plays (including a bestseller “Vincenza”). The Oxford DNB states “Her best poems, once ignored, are now read as significant contributions to Romanticism. In spite of her compromising personal life, many people admired her”. The poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge called her a “woman of undoubted genius. I never knew a human being with so full a mind, bad, good and indifferent, I grant you, but full & overflowing” he wrote in his collected letters some months before she died. Turner, in his book “Egham, Surrey: a history...” describes her as “vain and extravagant” and as “deeply in debt” when she died on December 26th, 1800, aged 43.
During this time she sometimes lived with her daughter Maria Elizabeth in Englefield Green. Where exactly in Englefield Green is not clear. Olwen Hedley in (“Round and about Windsor...”) and the Oxford DNB state that she “stayed with her daughter” at Englefield Cottage. When she died in 1800 she was interred at her own request in the churchyard of the Parish Church of St Peter and St Andrew, Old Windsor. Her monument, now sadly neglected, has two poems inscribed on it, “Lines to him who will understand them”, by herself, and “Epitaph on Mrs Robinson’s Monument” by the poet [Samuel Jackson] Pratt. Maria Elizabeth (Mary) edited and published her mother’s “Memoirs by Herself” in 1801 and her collected poems a few years later. She died in 1818 and is buried alongside her mother.
On Display:
1. Mrs Robinson from an oil painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A., 1791. From ROBINSON, Mary: Memoirs of the late Mrs Robinson written by herself. With a foreword by her daughter. New ed. London: Cobden-Sanderson, 1930.
2. A list of plays “Perdita” appeared in during the winter of 1777 (from her “Memoirs...”)
3. Mrs Robinson from an engraving in “Public characters”, 1801
4. “Perdita”. Painted by T. Gainsborough. 1781 (see above)
5. TURNER, F: Egham, Surrey: A History of the Parish under Church and Crown. 1926
6. Portrait of “Mrs Robinson” painted by Romney. From HEDLEY, Olwen: Round and About Windsor and District, Windsor: Oxley & Son, 1950 (original painting in the Wallace Collection)
7. “Lines to him who will understand them” by Mary Robinson
8. A photograph of one side of Mary Robinson’s monument.
9. Epitaph on Mrs Robinson’s Monument in the churchyard of Old Windsor by S. J. Pratt
JOAN WINTOUR
November 2012