Anastasia Robinson

[n 1] She created roles in the world premieres of several of Handel's operas, including Zenobia in Radamisto (1720), Irene in Muzio Scevola (1721), Elmira in Floridante (1721), Matilda in Ottone (1723), Teodata in Flavio (1723), and Cornelia in Giulio Cesare (1724).

Robinson's late career was overshadowed by a scandal in February 1724 involving the Italian castrato Senesino and Charles Mordaunt, 3rd Earl of Peterborough.

Swift's writing inspired a number of widely circulated misogynistic, sexually provocative and subversive epistles written about Robinson, Senesino, the Earl, and the castrato Farinelli between 1724 and 1736.

In 1722 (or possibly 1723) she had secretly married Charles Mordaunt, 3rd Earl of Peterborough, although he did not acknowledge her status as his wife until 1735, just before his death; until then they lived separately, and society regarded her as his mistress.

In 1722 (or possibly 1723) Anastasia Robinson secretly married Charles Mordaunt, 3rd Earl of Peterborough, although he did not acknowledge her status as his wife until 1735, just before his death; until then they lived separately, and society regarded her as his mistress.

The English public, unaware of the Earl and Robinson's marriage, gossiped widely on the hypocrisy of a woman who was a mistress complaining of sexual impropriety on the opera stage.

[3] Swift's writing in turn inspired the creation of a number of obscene, misogynistic, and at times sexually subversive epistles written about Robinson, Senesino, the Earl of Peterborough, and the castrato Farinelli between 1724 and 1736.

Handel was careful to use the orchestra to support the music he wrote for her, but the dramatic demands of her roles in Giulio Cesare and Flavio suggest that she possessed a not inconsiderable talent as an actress.

De Fabrice, a Hanoverian diplomat visiting London in the early 1720s, compared her favourably to the extraordinary Margherita Durastanti (Sesto to Robinson's Cornelia in Cesare).