Elizabeth Thomas (poet)

Elizabeth Thomas (1675 – 1731), a poet, was born in London, the only child of Elizabeth Osborne (died 1719), aged 16, and lawyer Emmanuel Thomas (d. 1677), aged 60. Her father died when she was an infant, leaving Osborne to take care of her. Osborne and Thomas faced many financial difficulties while living in Surrey, but, after they returned to London to live in Great Russel Street. She was educated at home, was well read, and learnt some French and Latin. Thomas educated herself by buying books and reading, and by her mid twenties, she was a confident poet, which lead her to sharing her poetry with literary men. As an impoverished gentlewoman, she was dependent on others for patronage, and she was fortunate to be part of an illustrious artistic and literary circle which included Lady Mary Chudleigh, Mary Astell, Judith Drake, Elizabeth Elstob, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, John Norris, and painter Sarah Hoadly, wife of Benjamin Hoadly. She sent John Dryden, an English poet, two poems not long before his death, and he responded, "your Verses were, I thought, too good to be a Woman's." Dryden then compared Thomas to Katherine Philips, another female poet. John Dryden was also who gave her her nome de plume, "Corinna". Her first known publication was an elegy, "To the Memory of the Truly Honoured John Dryden, Esq", published anonymously in the collection Luctus Britannici (1700).

Thomas was engaged for sixteen years to Richard Gwinnett (1675–1717). The couple was not in a financial position to get married until 1716. Thomas later postponed the marriage in order to nurse her terminally ill mother. Gwinnett died the next year, and although he left Thomas a legacy, his family suppressed his will. After litigation, Thomas could not cover her legal costs. During their engagement they had maintained an extensive correspondence, much of which was published in Pylades and Corinna (1731–2) and The Honourable Lovers (1732; repr. 1736).

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