Mrs. M. Robinson [Mary Robinson] [Perdita] — Poems by Mrs. M. Robinson

London, J. Bell, 1791 . First edition. Leather. The very scarce first edition of this celebrated collection of poems by 'the English Sappho' Mary Robinson, a mistress of King George IV. A very scarce first edition. The collected poems of English actress, poet, dramatist, novelist, and celebrity figure Mary Robinson, who was known as "the English Sappho" during her lifetime, and earned the nickname 'Perdita' for her role in 'The Winter's Tale&apos. Lacking the frontispiece. ESTC T99736, with errata leaf to rear. A second volume of this work was published in 1793. Robinson was the first public mistress of King George IV while he was still Prince of Wales.  Reviews of her poetry were positive, and noted traces in her poems of a sensibility that would later be termed Romanticism. She was named by her friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge "as a woman of undoubted genius." In a half calf binding with marbled paper covered boards. Front board detached but present. Rear joint starting, with board tenderly held. Lacking frontispiece. Internally, firmly bound. Pages a touch age toned to perimeters but generally clean, with only the odd handling mark. Good Only . Ill.: None. Good Only .