There's no sinner like a young saint. 
The Rover, Part I, Act I, sc. ii
Patience is a flatterer, sir, and an ass, sir.
The Feigned Courtesans, Act III, sc. i (1679)
Variety is the soul of pleasure.
The Rover, Part II, Act I (1681)
Come away; poverty's catching.
The Rover, Part II, Act I
Money speaks sense in a language all nations understand.
The Rover, Part II, Act III, sc. i
One hour of right-down love is worth an age of dully living on.
The Rover, Part II, Act V
A brave world, sir, full of religion, knavery, and change: we shall shortly see better days.
The Roundheads (1682)
Faith, sir, we are here today, and gone tomorrow.
The Lucky Chance, Act IV (1686)
Love ceases to be a pleasure when it ceases to be a secret.
The Lover's Watch, "Four o'Clock General Conversation" (1686)
Oh what a dear ravishing thing is the beginning of an Amour!
The Emperor of the Moon, Act I, sc. i (1687)
Aphra Behn was a prolific dramatist of the
English RestorationThe Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
and was one of the first
EnglishThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
professional female writers. Her writing contributed to the
amatory fictionAmatory fiction is a genre of British literature popular during the late 17th century and 18th century. Amatory fiction predates, and in some ways predicts, the invention of the novel. Amatory fiction was written by women and for women. As its name implies, amatory fiction is preoccupied with...
genre of British literature.
Early life
One of the first English women to earn her livelihood by authorship, Behn's life is difficult to unravel and relate. Information regarding her, especially her early life, is scant, but she was almost certainly born in Wye, near
CanterburyCanterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
, on 10 July 1640 to Bartholomew Johnson, a barber, and Elizabeth Denham. The two were married in 1638 and Aphra, or
Eaffry, was baptized on 14 December 1640. Elizabeth Denham was employed as a nurse to the wealthy
ColepeperJohn Colepeper of Bedgebery, 1st Baron Culpeper of Thoresway was an English politician.-Life:He was the only son of Thomas Culpeper of Wigsell and Anne Slaney , daughter of Sir Stephan Slaney, Lord Mayor of London...
family, who lived locally, which means that it is likely that Aphra grew up with and spent time with the family's children. The younger child,
Thomas ColepeperThomas Colpeper, 2nd Baron Culpeper of Thoresway was the colonial governor of Virginia from 1677 to 1683.-Biography:...
, later described Aphra as his foster sister.
In 1663 she visited an English sugar colony on the
Suriname RiverThe Suriname River is 480 km long and flows through the country Suriname. Its sources are located in the Guiana Highlands on the border between the Wilhelmina Mountains and the Eilerts de Haan Mountains...
, on the coast east of
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
(a region later known as
SurinameSuriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...
). During this trip she is supposed to have met an African slave leader, whose story formed the basis for one of her most famous works,
OroonokoOroonoko is a short work of prose fiction by Aphra Behn , published in 1688, concerning the love of its hero, an enslaved African in Surinam in the 1660s, and the author's own experiences in the new South American colony....
, widely credited as the book which first brought home to England a sense of the horrors of slavery. The veracity of her journey to Suriname has often been called into question; however, enough evidence has been found to convince most Behn scholars today that the trip did indeed take place.
Though little is really known about Behn’s early years, evidence suggests that she may have had a
CatholicThe word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
upbringing. She once admitted that she was "designed for a nun" and the fact that she had so many Catholic connections, such as Henry Neville who was later arrested, would certainly have aroused suspicions during the anti-Catholic fervor of the 1680s (Goreau 243). Her sympathy to the Catholics is further demonstrated by her dedication of her play "The Rover II" to the Catholic
Duke of YorkThe Duke of York is a title of nobility in the British peerage. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of the British monarch. The title has been created a remarkable eleven times, eight as "Duke of York" and three as the double-barreled "Duke of York and...
who had been exiled for the second time (247).
Behn was firmly dedicated to the restored King
Charles IICharles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
. As political parties first emerged during this time, Behn was a
ToryToryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...
supporter. Tories believed in absolute allegiance to the king, who governed by
divine rightDivine Right may refer to:* The Divine right of kings, the doctrine that a monarch derives his or her power directly from God* Episcopal polity, the doctrine that is required in the church jure divino, i.e...
(246). Behn often used her writings to attack the parliamentary Whigs claiming "In public spirits call’d, good o’ th’ Commonwealth…So tho’ by different ways the fever seize…in all ’tis one and the same mad disease." This was Behn’s reproach to parliament which had denied the king funds. Like most Tories, Behn was distrustful of Parliament and Whigs since the Revolution and wrote propaganda in support of the restored monarchy (248).
Life in England, writing career, work as a spy
Shortly after her return to England in 1664 Aphra Johnson married Johan Behn, who was a merchant of German or
DutchThe Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
extraction. Little conclusive information is known about their marriage, but it did not last for more than a few years since her husband died soon.
By 1666 Behn had become attached to the Court, possibly through the influence of Thomas Culpepper and other associates of influence, where she was recruited as a political
spySPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
to Antwerp by
Charles IICharles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
. Her code name for her exploits is said to have been
Astrea, a name under which she subsequently published much of her writings. The
Second Anglo-Dutch WarThe Second Anglo–Dutch War was part of a series of four Anglo–Dutch Wars fought between the English and the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries for control over the seas and trade routes....
had broken out between England and the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
in 1665. Her chief business was to establish an intimacy with William
Scott, son of
Thomas ScottThomas Scott may refer to:Australia:*Thomas Hobbes Scott , Anglican clergyman and first Archdeacon of New South WalesCanada:*Thomas Scott , judge and political figure in Upper Canada...
, the regicide who had been executed 17
October, 1660, since William was ready to become a spy in the English service
and to report on the doings of the English exiles who were plotting against the King.
Behn's exploits were not profitable, however, as Charles was slow in paying (if he paid at all) for either her services or her expenses whilst abroad. Money had to be borrowed for Behn to return to
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where a year's petitioning of Charles for payment went unheard, and she ended up in a
debtor's prisonA debtors' prison is a prison for those who are unable to pay a debt.Prior to the mid 19th century debtors' prisons were a common way to deal with unpaid debt.-Debt bondage in ancient Greece and Rome:...
. By 1669 an undisclosed source had paid Behn's debts, and she was released from prison, starting from this point to become one of the first women who wrote for a living. She cultivated the friendship of various playwrights, and starting in 1670 she produced many plays and novels, as well as poems and pamphlets. Her most popular works included
The RoverThe Rover or The Banish'd Cavaliers is a play in two parts written by the English author Aphra Behn.Having famously worked as a spy for Charles II against the Dutch, Behn's meager incomes was lost when the king refused to pay her expenses. She turned to writing for an income.The Rover premiered...
,
Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His SisterLove-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister by Aphra Behn is a three volume roman à clef playing with events of the Monmouth Rebellion and exploring the genre of the epistolary novel...
, and
OroonokoOroonoko is a short work of prose fiction by Aphra Behn , published in 1688, concerning the love of its hero, an enslaved African in Surinam in the 1660s, and the author's own experiences in the new South American colony....
.
Aphra Behn died on 16 April 1689, and was buried in
Westminster AbbeyThe Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
. Below the inscription on her tombstone read the words: "
Here lies a Proof that Wit can never be / Defence enough against Mortality." She was quoted as once stating that she had led a "life dedicated to pleasure and poetry."
Status among other writers
In author
Virginia WoolfAdeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
's reckoning, Behn's total career is more important than any particular work it produced. Woolf wrote,
"All women together, ought to let flowers fall upon the grave of Aphra Behn... for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds." V. Sackville-West called Behn "'an inhabitant of
Grub StreetUntil the early 19th century, Grub Street was a street close to London's impoverished Moorfields district that ran from Fore Street east of St Giles-without-Cripplegate north to Chiswell Street...
with the best of them, . . . a phenomenon never seen and . . . furiously resented.' She was, as Felix Shelling said, 'a very gifted woman, compelled to write for bread in an age in which literature . . . catered habitually to the lowest and most depraved of human inclinations. Her success depended upon her ability to write like a man.' . . . She was, as Edmund Gosse remarked, 'the
George SandAmantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...
of the
RestorationRestoration literature is the English literature written during the historical period commonly referred to as the English Restoration , which corresponds to the last years of the direct Stuart reign in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland...
,' and she lived the Bohemian life in London in the seventeenth century as George Sand lived it in Paris in the nineteenth." (Entry on Behn in
British Authors Before 1800: A Biographical Dictionary Ed. Stanley Kunitz and Howard Haycraft. New York: H.W. Wilson, 1952. pg. 36.)
Ironically then, it was after a hiatus in the 19th century (when both the writer and the work were dismissed as indecent) that Behn's fame underwent an extraordinary revival. She dominates cultural-studies discourse as both a topic and a set of texts . Much early criticism emphasized her unusual status as a female writer in a male-dominated literary world; more recent criticism has offered more thorough discussions of her works.
In an age of libertines, Behn undertook a rebellious approach to proclaim and to analyze women's sexual desire, as manifested in her characters and in herself. She has since become a favorite among sexually liberated women, many of bisexual or
lesbianLesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
orientation, who proclaim her as one of their most positive influences.
Today, the affinities between Behn's work and that of Romantic writers seem more pronounced than the different level of publicly acceptable discussion of sexuality. According to scholars,
One source of speculation has been the identification of Behn with some of her characters. For instance in
The RoverThe Rover may refer to:*The Rover by Joseph Conrad*The Rover by Aphra Behn*The Rover by Terence Young*"The Rover" by Led Zeppelin*"The Irish Rover", a traditional Irish song...
, the similarity in names between Behn and the prostitute Angellica Bianca is interesting.
In several volumes of writings by author
Janet ToddJanet Margaret Todd is a Welsh-born academic and a well-respected author of many books on women in literature. Todd was educated at Cambridge University and the University of Florida, where she undertook a doctorate on the poet John Clare...
, Behn's explorations of some of the key issues in Romantic studies, such as the role of
incestIncest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
uous and homosocial bonding in romance, the correlations between racial and
genderGender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
oppression, female subjectivity, and, more specifically, female political and sexual agency are detailed.
The noted critic
Harold BloomHarold Bloom is an American writer and literary critic, and is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. He is known for his defense of 19th-century Romantic poets, his unique and controversial theories of poetic influence, and his prodigious literary output, particularly for a literary...
calls Behn a "fourth-rate playwright" (in comparison, however, to Shakespeare) and notes her resurgent popularity as a case of "
dumbing downDumbing down is a pejorative term for a perceived trend to lower the intellectual content of literature, education, news, and other aspects of culture...
".
Another of critics was
Alexander PopeAlexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
, against whom she has been defended.
She appears as a fictional character in Daniel O'Mahoney's
Faction ParadoxFaction Paradox is a fictional time travelling cult/rebel group/organized crime syndicate, originally created by the author Lawrence Miles. The Faction's belief-system as portrayed has some similarities to voodoo, and is sometimes described as such...
novel
Newtons SleepNewtons Sleep is an original novel by Daniel O'Mahony set in the Faction Paradox universe. .It is the first Faction Paradox novel to be published by Random Static, and was launched on the 12th of January 2008. Although taking place in a shared universe, it is a stand-alone work that does not...
.
Her exploits as a spy, and the misuse of the intelligence she gathered is alluded to in
Patrick O'BrianPatrick O'Brian, CBE , born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series of novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and centred on the friendship of English Naval Captain Jack Aubrey and the Irish–Catalan physician Stephen...
's novel
Desolation IslandDesolation Island is an historical novel by Patrick O'Brian. It is the fifth book in the Aubrey-Maturin series, and is set prior to the War of 1812.-Plot summary:...
.
She also appears as a fictional character in volume 4
The Magic LabyrinthThe Magic Labyrinth is a science fiction novel, the fourth in the series of Riverworld books by Philip José Farmer. The title is derived from lines in Sir Richard Francis Burton's poem The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî:...
and volume 5
Gods of RiverworldGods of Riverworld is a science fiction novel, the fifth and last in the series of Riverworld books by Philip José Farmer. It was reprinted in 1998 by Del Rey under the title The Gods of Riverworld....
of the series
RiverworldRiverworld is a fictional planet and the setting for a series of science fiction books written by Philip José Farmer . Riverworld is an artificial environment where all humans are reconstructed. The books explore interactions of individuals from many different cultures and time periods...
by the noted science fiction writer Phillip Jose Farmer.
Plays
- The Forced Marriage (1670)
- The Amorous Prince (1671)
- The Dutch Lover (1673)
- Abdelazer (1676)
- The Town Fop (1676)
- The Rover
The Rover or The Banish'd Cavaliers is a play in two parts written by the English author Aphra Behn.Having famously worked as a spy for Charles II against the Dutch, Behn's meager incomes was lost when the king refused to pay her expenses. She turned to writing for an income.The Rover premiered...
, Part 1 (1677) and Part 2 (1681)
- Sir Patient Fancy (1678)
- The Feigned Courtesans
The Feign'd Curtizans is a 1679 comedic stage play by the English author Aphra Behn. Behn dedicated the play, originally performed at the Duke's Company in London, to the well-known actress and mistress of King Charles II, Nell Gwyn....
(1679)
- The Young King (1679)
- The False Count (1681)
- The Roundheads (1681)
- The City Heiress
The City Heiress is a play by Aphra Behn produced in 1682. The play conforms to the general rules of Restoration comedy, but it also keeps Behn's own highly Royalist political point of view....
(1682)
- Like Father, Like Son (1682)
- The Lucky Chance (1686) with composer John Blow
John Blow was an English Baroque composer and organist, appointed to Westminster Abbey in 1669. His pupils included William Croft, Jeremiah Clarke and Henry Purcell. In 1685 he was named a private musician to James II. His only stage composition, Venus and Adonis John Blow (baptised 23 February...
- The Emperor of the Moon
The Emperor of the Moon is a comical farce written by Aphra Behn in 1687. The Emperor of the Moon was, after The Rover, her second most successful play, probably due to the lightness of the plot and its accompanying musical and spectacular entertainment. The music is largely lost today...
(1687)
Posthumously performed
- The Widdow Ranter (1689)
- The Younger Brother (1696)
Novels
- The Fair Jilt
- Agnes de Castro
- Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister
Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister by Aphra Behn is a three volume roman à clef playing with events of the Monmouth Rebellion and exploring the genre of the epistolary novel...
(1684)
- Oroonoko
Oroonoko is a short work of prose fiction by Aphra Behn , published in 1688, concerning the love of its hero, an enslaved African in Surinam in the 1660s, and the author's own experiences in the new South American colony....
(1688)
Short stories
- The History of the Nun: or, the Fair Vow-Breaker
The History of the Nun, Or The Fair Vow Breaker is a short story by Aphra Behn written in 1688.It contains an introduction which may suggest a romantic affair between the author and Hortense Mancini, niece of Cardinal Mazarin, one of the mistresses of Charles II and "adventuresses" of the 17th...
(1688)
- The Dumb Virgin: Or, The Force of Imagination (1700)
Poems
- The Disappointment (Aphra Behn)
"The Disappointment" is a poem written by Aphra Behn. It was first published in 1680 in Rochestor's Poems on Several Occasions and originally was believed to be the Earl of Rochester’s own work...
(1680)
- On Her Loving Two Equally (1682)
- Poems upon Several Occasions (1684)
- The Lover's Watch or The Art of Making Love (1686)
- To The Fair Clarinda, Who Made Love to Me, Imagined More Than Woman (1688)
Biographies and writings based on her life
The first wholly scholarly new biography of Behn; the first to identify Behn's birth name.
- Angeline Goreau, Reconstructing Aphra: a social biography of Aphra Behn (New York: Dial Press, 1980). ISBN 0-8037-7478-8
- Angeline Goreau. Aphra Behn: A scandal to modesty (c. 1640-1689) in Spender, Dale (ed.) Feminist theorists: Three centuries of key women thinkers, Pantheon 1983, pp. 8–27 ISBN 0-394-53438-7. a biography concentrating on the political activism of Behn, with new material on her life as a spy. A view of Behn more sympathetic and laudatory than Woolf's. One section deals with Behn, but it is a starting point for the feminist rediscovery of Behn's role.
- Huntting, Nancy. What Is Triumph in Love? with a consideration of Aphra Behn.
Other sources
- Hobby, Elaine. Virtue of necessity: English women's writing 1649-88. University of Michigan 1989
- Summers, Montague (ed.). Aphra Behn: Works. London 1913
- Lewcock, Dawn. Aphra Behn studies: More for seeing than hearing: Behn and the use of theatre. Ed. Todd, Janet. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996.
- Steen, Francis F. The Politics of Love: Propaganda and Structural Learning in Aphra Behn's Love-Letters between a Nobleman and His Sister. Poetics Today 23.1 (2002) 91-122. Project Muse. 19 Nov. 2007.
- Todd, Janet. The Critical Fortunes of Aphra Behn. Columbia: Camden House, 1998. 69-72.
External links