from "A Letter from Artemesia in the Town to Chloe in the Country"
Rochester’s "Artemisa to Chloe" is a hall of mirrors – Rochester imitates the bluestocking Chloe who tells her friend Artemisa about meeting the libertine lady, who in turn tells the story of Corinna and her seduction/destruction by the worst of them all, the "man of wit". A moral ladder is descended, except that, if we know Rochester’s other poetry, we will know that he is the "man of wit" and the "ill-natured jest" that ruins Corinna’s life is his poem "A Ramble in Saint James’ Park." At the bottom of the hierarchy the poem sets up we find the one who started the whole thing: / /