Fair Corinna,
‘I have ſent your two poems back again, after having kept them ſo long from you: They were I thought too good to be a woman’s; ſome of my friends to whom I read them, were of the ſame opinion. It is not very gallant I muſt confeſs to ſay this of the fair ſex; but, moſt certain it is, they generally write with more ſoftneſs than ſtrength. On the contrary, you want neither vigour in your thoughts, nor force in your expreſſion, nor harmony in your numbers; and methinks, I find much of Orinda in your manner, (to whom I had the honour to be related, and alſo to be known) but I am ſo taken up with my own ſtudies, that I have not leiſure to deſcend to particulars, being in the mean time, the fair Corinna’s
Moſt humble, and
Moſt faithful ſervant
JOHN DRYDEN.
Nov. 12, 1699.
Our amiable poeteſs, in a letter to Dr. Talbot, Biſhop of Durham, has given ſome farther particulars of her life. We have already ſeen that ſhe was addreſſed upon honourable terms, by Mr. Gwynnet, of the Middle Temple, ſon of a gentleman in Glouceſterſhire. Upon his firſt diſcovering his paſſion to Corinna, ſhe had honour enough to remonſtrate to him the inequality of their fortune, as her affairs were then in a very perplexed ſituation. This objection was ſoon ſurmounted by a lover, eſpecially as his father had given him poſſeſſion of the greateſt part of his eſtate, and leave to pleaſe himſelf. Mr. Gwynnet no ſooner obtained this, than he came to London, and claimed Corinna’s promiſe of marriage: But her mother being then in a very weak
