Mary Robinson's Ainsi va le Monde, a Poem is her first truly ambitious poem, her first book publication since her juvenile works over a decade earlier, and her first foray into the British debate over the French Revolution. After fleeing England in 1784 at the height of the “Perdita” scandal and her own celebrity, Robinson returned to London in 1788 and began writing poetry for publisher John Bell's newspapers under the pen-names “Laura” and then “Laura Maria.” Earning the attention of poet Robert Merry (1755–98), who famously wrote as “Della Crusca”, Robinson's “Laura” persona became playfully entangled in a fictional romance between Della Crusca and “Anna Matilda”, who was in reality playwright Hannah Cowley (1743–1809). The “love triangle” played out in the pages of Bell's paper The World during 1788 and 1789. Bell would capitalize...
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Citation: Robinson, Daniel. "Ainsi va le monde, A Poem". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 February 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=28522, accessed 09 June 2026.]
