Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/170

160 the colon, ſent her to Bath, where ſhe found ſome relief by pumping, and continued tolerably well for ſome years, even to bear the fatigue of an eight years ſuit at law, with an unjuſt executor; ſave that in over-walking, and ſudden paſſion, ſhe uſed to be pained, but not violent; and once or twice in a year a diſcharge of clean gall, with ſome portions of a ſkin, like thin kid leather, tinged with gall, which ſhe felt break from the place, and leave her ſore within; but the bone never made any attempt out-wards after the firſt three years. Being deprived of a competent fortune, by croſs accidents, ſhe has ſuffered all the extremities of a cloſe impriſonment, if want of all the neceſſaries of life, and lying on the boards for two years may be termed ſuch, during which time ſhe never felt the bone. But on her recovering liberty, and beginning to uſe exerciſe, her ſtomach, and belly, and head ſwelled to a monſtrous degree, and ſhe was judged in a galloping dropſy; but no proper medicines taking place, ſhe was given over as incurable, when nature unexpectedly helped itſelf, and in twelve hours’ time by ſtool, and vomit, ſhe voided about five gallons of dirty looking water, which greatly relieved her for ſome days, but gathered again as the ſwelling returned, and always abounded with a hectic, or ſuffocating aſthma in her ſtomach, and either a canine appetite or loathing. She has lately voided ſeveral extraneous membranes different from the former, and ſo frequent, that it keeps her very low, ſome of which ſhe has preserved in ſpirits, and humbly implores your honours’ judgment thereon.’

Under all theſe calamities, of which the above is a juſt repreſentation, did poor Corinna labour; and it is difficult to produce a life crouded with greater evils. The ſmall fortune which her father left her