Robert Merry (1755-1798)

The eldest son of a governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, Robert Merry was educated at Harrow and tutored by Samuel Parr; he entered Christ's College Cambridge as a pensioner in 1771 and was admitted to Lincoln's Inn (1770), but upon his father's death bought a commission in the Horse Guards. Merry settled in Florence in 1784 where he was the leader of what would become the Della Cruscan movement. Returning to London in 1787 he carried on a celebrated verse correspondence with Mary Robinson and Hannah Cowley. Merry visited revolutionary Paris several times before emigrating to the United States in 1796.

TEXT RECORDS:

1785Il Viaggio.
1785La Diamora.
1785Ode to Indolence.
1785Ode to Summer.
1785Ode to Winter.
1785Sir Roland. A Fragment.
1787Elegy written on the Plain of Fontenoy.
1787Ode to Tranquility.
1787On Mr. Palmer's Recital of Collins's Ode on the Passions.
1787The Adieu and Recall to Love.
1787To Anna Matilda.
1788Diversity. A Poem.
1788Ode to Mrs. Siddons.
1789Ode on the Restoration of his Majesty.
1790Inscription, written at La Grand Chartreuse, upon visiting it a second Time, after an Absence of Eighteen Months.
1795The Wounded Soldier, a Poem.
1796The Pains of Memory. A Poem.

PUBLICATIONS:

The Arno miscellany [Merry, et. al.] 1784.
The Florence miscellany [Merry, et. al.] 1785.
Roberto Manners, poemetto [trans. Merry]. 1785.
Paulina, or the Russian daughter: a poem. 1787.
Diversity: a poem by Della Crusca. 1788.
Poetry of the world [includes verse by Merry]. 1788.
Ode on the restoration of His Majesty. 1789.
The laurel of liberty, a poem. 1790.
The airs, duetts and choruses of the pantomime the Picture of Paris. 1790.
Lorenzo: a tragedy. 1791.
Ode for the fourteenth of July. 1791.
Fenelon; or, the nuns of Cambray: a serious drama. 1795.
The wounded soldier: a poem. 1795?
The pains of memory. A poem. 1796.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

Harrow
Christ's College Cambridge
Lincoln's Inn
Inns of Court

actor
poet
dramatist

European Magazine
The World
The Courier
The Oracle
The Argus
The Telegraph
Philadelphia Monthly Magazine

George Monck Berkeley
Hannah Cowley
Bertie Greatheed
Edward Jerningham
Samuel Parr
William Parsons
Hester Thrale Piozzi
Mary Robinson
Samuel Rogers
John Taylor Esq.
Richard Tickell

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL.

Catalogue of five hundred Celebrated Authors (1788); "Some Account of Robert Merry, Esq." in European Magazine 24 (December 1793) 411-12 [portrait]; "Biographical Anecdotes of Mrs. Merry" Philadelphia Magazine 1 (April 1798) 185-88; David Rivers, Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798); "Robert Merry" Weekly Magazine [Philadelphia] 4 (20 April 1799) 51-52 [from Rivers]; obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 69 (March 1799) 252-54; "Memoir of Mr. Robert Merry" Monthly Magazine 7 (April 1799) 255-58; Robert Southey, Specimens of Later English Poets (1807); Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); Biographia Dramatica (1812); Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Blackwood's Magazine 10:696; The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Roderick Marshall, in Italy in English Literature 1755-1815 (1934); Venn and Venn, Alum. Cant. (1940-54); J. L. Clifford, "Merry: a pre-Byronic Hero" Bulletin of John Rylands Library 27 (1943) 74-96; Edward E. Bostetter, "The Original Della Cruscans" Huntington Library Quarterly 19 (1956) 277-300; W. N. Hargreaves-Mawdsley, The English Della Cruscans and their Time, 1783-1828 (1967); Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Robert Merry:

1.	1787 Hannah Cowley, "To Della Crusca. The Pen" The World (10 July 1787).
2.	1787 Hannah Cowley, "Stanzas [on Della Crusca's Elegy on the Plain of Fontenoy]" The World (23 November 1787).
3.	1788 Crulla Desca, "Ode. To the Rev. Mr. —" Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (18 January 1788).
4.	1788 Veritas, "To Della Crusca and Arley" The World (16 July 1788).
5.	1788 Hannah Cowley ("Anna Matilda"), "To Della Crusca" 1788; The World (26 February 1789).
6.	1788 ca. Mary Robinson, "Ode to Della Crusca" 1788 ca.; Robinson, Poetical Works (1806) 1:87-90.
7.	1788 Anna Seward to Hester Thrale Piozzi, 13 March 1788; Letters, ed. Scott (1811) 2:53-56.
8.	1788 Crulla Desca, "Della Crusca" Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (11 March 1788).
9.	1789 Rosalia, "To Della Crusca" Morning Post and Daily Advertiser (24 November 1789).
10.	1789 Anonymous, "To Della Crusca" Morning Post and Daily Advertiser (17 December 1789).
11.	1790 Anna Seward to Hester Thrale Piozzi, 20 February 1790; Letters, ed. Scott (1811) 2:374-80.
12.	1790 Philenia, "To the inimitable Author of the Poems under the Signature of Della Crusca" Massachusetts Magazine or Monthly Museum 2 (December 1790) 761.
13.	1790 Andrew Macdonald, "New Probationary Odes for the Laureatship VII. By a Minstrel of the Della Cruscan Choir" Macdonald, Miscellaneous Works (1791) 79-82.
14.	1791 William Gifford, in The Baviad (1791) 9-15.
15.	1791 Louisa, "To the Author of the Tragedy of Lorenzo" The Oracle (12 April 1791).
16.	1791 The Parson, "On the rumoured Marriage between Miss Brunton of Covent Garden Theatre, and Mr. Merry" Whitehall Evening Post (21 June 1791).
17.	1791 Julia, "On Mr. Merry's Marriage with Miss Brunton, in consequence of her charming Performance of Zoriana in his Tragedy of Lorenzo" The Oracle (29 October 1791).
18.	1791 Frances Burney, 1791; Diary and Letters of the Author of Madam D'Arblay, ed. Austin Dobson (1904-05) 5:39-40.
19.	1791 Anonymous, "Extempore Pun, on the Farce of The Merry Mourners being succeeded by a new Tragedy by Mr. Merry" Morning Chronicle (6 April 1791).
20.	1795 Anastasia, "To Della Crusca, on reading The Slaves, an Elegy, written by him in 1788" The Telegraph (18 August 1795).
21.	1796 Robert Southey to G. C. Bedford, June 26, 1796; Life and Correspondence (1849-50) 1:282.
22.	1796 Della Crusca, "Indifference. Inscribed to the luxurious Nymph of Fancy, Lydia, Laetitia, Laura, Larinetta, Lovesong" Tomahawk! or Censor General (23 January 1796).
23.	1796 G. L. G. of Baltimore, "Ode to Mr. R. Merry, on his Arrival in America" 1796; American Universal Magazine [Philadelphia] 2 (1 May 1797) 189-91.
24.	1797 William Cobbett to William Gifford, 29 October 1797; Smiles, Memoir of John Murray (1891) 1:136-37.
25.	1799 Anonymous, in "Memoir of Robert Merry" The Monthly Magazine 7 (April 1799) 256.
26.	1799 Anonymous, in Gentleman's Magazine 69 (March 1799) 253.
27.	1799 Rosa Maria, "Invocation to the Shade of Della Crusca" Morning Herald (15 April 1799).
28.	1799 Anonymous, "Epitaph on Merry, the Della-Cruscan Poet" City Gazette And Daily Advertiser [Charleston] (19 April 1799).
29.	1801 Alexander Thomson, in The British Parnassus, at the Close of the Eighteenth Century (1801) 55n.
30.	1806 Laura, "In Vindication of the Poems signed Della Crusca on reading Gifford's Baviad and Maeviad" Companion and Weekly Miscellany [Baltimore] 2 (4 October 1806) 366.
31.	1807 Robert Southey, in Specimens of the Later English Poets (1807) 3:445-46.
32.	1808 H. Fletcher, "Imitations and Parodies: Della Crusca" Universal Magazine NS 10 (November 1808) 392.
33.	1812 Anonymous, in Biographia Dramatica (1812) 1:508.
34.	1814 Edward Mangin, in A View of the Pleasures arising from Books: in Letters to a Lady (1814) 26-28.
35.	1817 Lord Byron to John Murray, 4 June 1817; Letters and Journals, ed. Rowland E. Prothero (1898-1901) 4:127-29.
36.	1825 William Hazlitt, in "Mr. Gifford" The Spirit of the Age: or Contemporary Portraits (1825) 300.
37.	1827 Robert Southey, in "Sayers's Works" Quarterly Review 35 (1827) 197-98.
38.	1832 John Taylor Esq., in Records of my Life (1832) 2:270-78.
39.	1850 Leigh Hunt, in Autobiography of Leigh Hunt (1850) 1:255-56.
40.	1887 P. W. Clayden, in The Early Life of Samuel Rogers (1887) 174-76.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Robert Merry:

1.	1788 Anonymous, in Catalogue of five hundred Celebrated Authors (1788).
2.	1792 Anonymous, "Biographical List of Living English Poets" Gentleman's Magazine 62 (August 1792) 690.
3.	1793 Anonymous, in "Some Account of Robert Merry, Esq." European Magazine 24 (December 1793) 411-12.
4.	1798 David Rivers, in Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798) 2:40-42.
5.	1799 Anonymous, "Biographical Notice of Robert Merry" Monthly Magazine 7 (April 1799) 255-58.
6.	1799 Anonymous, Obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 69 (March 1799) 252-54.
7.	1812 Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 22:79-81.
8.	1832 William Clarke and Robert Shelton Mackenzie, in The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most eminent Persons who have flourished in Great Britain (1832-34) 3:571.
9.	1834 G. G. Cunningham, in Memoirs of Illustrious Englishmen (1834-37) 6:277-80.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1787 Hannah Cowley: Robert Merry, "To Anna Matilda" The World (31 July 1787).
2.	1788 Richard Tickell: Robert Merry, "Monody. Addressed to Mr. Tickell" Poetry of the World (1788) 1:76-77.
3.	1791 Mary Robinson: Robert Merry, "Stanzas, to Mrs. Robinson on reading her Poems" New London Magazine 7 (December 1791) 580.
4.	1794 Samuel Rogers: Robert Merry to Samuel Rogers, January 1794; P. W. Clayden, The Early Life of Samuel Rogers (1887) 284.