Mary Robinson (poet)

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.

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.

Related Topics:
Banastre Tarleton - 4th Duke of Ancaster

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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.

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