Elizabeth Thomas

Who was Elizabeth Thomas?

Elizabeth Thomas, poet, was born in London, the only child of Elizabeth Osborne, aged 16, and lawyer Emmanuel Thomas, aged 60. Her father died when she was an infant and she and her mother faced financial hardship. She was educated at home, was well read, and learnt some French and Latin. 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 Dryden two poems not long before his death, and he responded, "your Verses were, I thought, too good to be a Woman's." He went on to compare her to Katherine Philips, and it was he 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.