Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/843

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OF CELEBRATED WOMEN.
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curable; when nature unexpectedly helped itself: but the water in her stomach gathered again, and was always attended with a hectic or suffocating asthma. Amongst her other misfortunes, she suffered the displeasure of Mr. Pope, who gave her a place in his Dunciad. Mr. Pope once paid her a visit, in company with Henry Cromwell, Esq; whose letters, by some accident, fell into her hands, with some of Pope's answers. As soon as that gentleman died, Mr. Curl found means to wheedle them from her, and immediately committed them to the press. This so enraged Mr. Pope, that he never forgave her. Not many months after she had been released from her gloomy habitation, she took a small lodging in Fleet-street, where she died 1730, aged 56, and was interred in the church of St. Bride.

Corinna, considered as an authoress, is of the second rate: she had not so much wit as Mrs. Behn, or Mrs. Manley, nor so happy a power of intellectual painting, but her poetry is soft and delicate, her letters sprightly and entertaining. Her poems were published after her death, by Curl; and two volumes of letters, which passed between her and Mr. Gwynnet.

Female Worthies.



THONA, a Moorish Spaniard, who is called HABIBA, of Valentia.

Skilled in grammar and jurisprudence, wrote celebrated books on both subjects. She died in the 506th year of the Hegira.

Bibliothecæ Arabico–Hispanæ Escurialiensis.



THYMELE, a musical Poetess, mentioned by Martial,

Said to have first introduced into the scene a sort of

dance,