Mary Robinson (née Darby; 27 November 1757 – 26 December 1800) was an English actress, poet, dramatist, novelist and famous beauty, the subject of many portraits by the leading painters of the day. Born in Bristol, her career soon took her to London; she also lived in France and Germany for some years in the 1780s.
She enjoyed poetry from the age of seven and started working, first as a teacher and then as an actress, from the age of 14. She wrote many plays, poems and novels. She was a celebrity, initially as an actress, gossiped about in newspapers, famous for her acting and writing. During her lifetime she was known as "the English Sappho". She earned her nickname "Perdita" for her role as Perdita (heroine of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale) in 1779, and was the first public mistress of King George IV while he was still Prince of Wales. Robinson is the author of the Gothic novels Vancenza; or, the Dangers of Credulity (1792) and Hubert de Sevrac (1796).
