Aphra Behn: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 10:05, 19 December 2018

1640-1689. Famous Restoration dramatist, poet, novelist.

There is no definite information about Aphra Behn’s early life. Born 1640 in Harbledown, Kent. She may have been the child of the Amis family who, together with their child “Ayfara” or “Aphra” went to Suriname in South America in the 1650s. The second possibility is that she was the daughter of the barber Bartholomew Johnson who also went to Suriname in 1663 with his family. She returned to England in the following year and married a merchant named Behn. Mr Behn either died or the two separated soon afterwards and so Aphra Behn had to earn her own money and worked for King Charles II in the secret service in the Netherlands in 1666. After a brief imprisonment due to heavy debts, she started her writing career.

Works

1670 -- The Forced Marriage 1671 -- The Amourous Prince 1672 -- Covent Garden Drollery (probably edited by Behn) 1673 -- The Dutch Lover 1675 -- Possible plays by Behn: The Revenge: Or a Match in Newgate, and The Woman Turned Bully 1676 –- Abdelazer, The Town Fop 1677 -- The Rover (March), The Debauchee (February) and The Counterfeit Bridegroom (September) 1678 -- Sir Patient Fancy (January) 1679 -- The Feigned Courtesans (spring), The Young King (autumn) 1681 -- The Second Part of The Rover, The False Count (November) and The Roundheads (December) 1682 -- The City Heiress (spring), Like Father, Like Son 1683 -- Publication of the first part of Love Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister 1684 -- Publication of Poems on Several Occasions 1685 -- Publication of Miscellany 1686 -- Publication of The Lover's Watch, The Lucky Chance 1687 -- The Emperor of the Moon (March) 1688 -- Publication of prose fiction works: The Fair Jilt, Agnes de Castro and Oroonoko

Drama

As mentioned before, Behn was a professional author writing to earn her living, which means that she was oriented towards the literary market and the taste of the audience. She produced very different kinds of texts. Behn’s first plays were two tragicomedies called The Forced Marriage, produced in 1670 and The Amorous Prince in 1671. Afterwards followed The Dutch Lover and possibly three more plays before she wrote her tragedy, Abdelazer, which was performed in 1676 . Thereafter she preferred writing comedy and farce, like The Rover. Her last play was The Emperor of the Moon, which was performed in 1687. Her comedies are remarkable because they take a popular format and infuse it with discussions of - then - serious problems, such as incompatible marriages or the tensions between love and money. In some of her works love justifies illegal actions (by both men and women).

Novel

Oronooko was published in 1688. It tells the story of an enslaved prince from Africa whom Aphra Behn claims to have met in person. Its contemporary themes like slavery, race, and gender made it Behn’s best known work. Others include the epistolary novels Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister (1684–87), which was the first epistolary novel in English literature.

Poetry

Behn also wrote poetry successfully and published the majority of her poems in a collection called Poems upon Several Occasions in 1684. Some of her poems were thought to have been written by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester - an indication of their high quality and also of their liberal and open treatment of sexual matters.

Sources

"Aphra Behn." Encyclopædia Britannica, 8 Apr. 2009, https://academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Aphra-Behn/14136. Accessed 23 Apr. 2009
Gill, Pat. “Gender, Sexuality, and Marriage” in The Cambridge Companion to English Restoration Theatre. Ed. D. Payne Fiske. Cambridge: CUP, 2003.
Howe, Elizabeth. The First English Actresses. Women and Drama 1660-1700. Cambridge: CUP, 1993.
Korninger, Siegfried. The Restoration Period and the Eighteenth Century. 1660 – 1780. München: Österreichischer Bundesverlag Wien, 1964.
Nestvold, Ruth. The Aphra Behn Page, http://www.lit-arts.net/Behn/chron-ab.htm. Accessed 7 May 2009.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-== '''Behn, Aphra '''   ==
+-1689. Famous Restoration dramatist, poet, novelist.
-born 1640, Harbledown, Kent - died April 16, 1689, London
-English dramatist, fiction writer, and poet who was the first Englishwoman known to earn her living by writing.
-[[Image:aphra.jpg]]
+[[Image:aphra.jpg|thumb]]
-= '''Life''' =
+There is no definite information about Aphra Behn’s early life. Born 1640 in Harbledown, Kent.  She may have been the child of the Amis family who, together with their child “Ayfara” or “Aphra” went to Suriname in South America in the 1650s. The second possibility is that she was the daughter of the barber Bartholomew Johnson who also went to Suriname in 1663 with his family.
+She returned to England in the following year and married a merchant named Behn. Mr Behn either died or the two separated soon afterwards and so Aphra Behn had to earn her own money and worked for King [[Charles II]] in the secret service in the Netherlands in 1666. After a brief imprisonment due to heavy debts, she started her writing career.
-Her origin remains a mystery, in part because Behn may have deliberately obscured her early life. One tradition identifies Behn as the child known only as Ayfara or Aphra who traveled in the 1650s with a couple named Amis to Suriname, which was then an English possession. She was more likely the daughter of a barber, Bartholomew Johnson, who may or may not have sailed with her and the rest of her family to Suriname in 1663. She returned to England in 1664 and married a merchant named Behn; he died (or the couple separated) soon after. Her wit and talent having brought her into high esteem, she was employed by King Charles II in secret service in the Netherlands in 1666. Unrewarded and briefly imprisoned for debt, she began to write to support herself.
+==Works==
+-- ''The Forced Marriage''
+-- ''The Amourous Prince''
+-- ''Covent Garden Drollery'' (probably edited by Behn)
+-- ''The Dutch Lover''
+-- Possible plays by Behn: ''The Revenge: Or a Match in Newgate'', and ''The Woman Turned Bully''
+–- ''Abdelazer'', ''The Town Fop''
+-- ''The Rover'' (March), ''The Debauchee'' (February) and ''The Counterfeit Bridegroom'' (September)
+-- ''Sir Patient Fancy'' (January)
+-- ''The Feigned Courtesans'' (spring), ''The Young King'' (autumn)
+-- The Second Part of ''The Rover'', ''The False Count'' (November) and ''The Roundheads'' (December)
+-- ''The City Heiress'' (spring), ''Like Father, Like Son''
+-- Publication of the first part of ''Love Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister''
+-- Publication of ''Poems on Several Occasions''
+-- Publication of ''Miscellany''
+-- Publication of ''The Lover's Watch'', ''The Lucky Chance''
+-- ''The Emperor of the Moon'' (March)
+-- Publication of prose fiction works: ''The Fair Jilt'', ''Agnes de Castro'' and ''Oroonoko''
+===Drama===
-= '''Works''' =
+As mentioned before, Behn was a professional author writing to earn her living, which means that she was oriented towards the literary market and the taste of the audience. She produced very different kinds of texts. Behn’s first plays were two tragicomedies called ''The Forced Marriage'', produced in 1670 and ''The Amorous Prince'' in 1671.  Afterwards followed ''The Dutch Lover'' and possibly three more plays before she wrote her tragedy, ''Abdelazer'', which was performed in 1676 . Thereafter she preferred writing comedy and farce, like ''The Rover''. Her last play was  ''The Emperor of the Moon'', which was performed in 1687.
+Her comedies are remarkable because they take a popular format and infuse it with discussions of - then - serious problems, such as incompatible marriages or the tensions between love and money. In some of her works love justifies illegal actions (by both men and women).
-=== '''Drama''' ===
+===Novel===
-Behn's early works were tragicomedies in verse. In 1670 her first play, ''The Forc'd Marriage'', was produced, and ''The Amorous Prince'' followed a year later. Her sole tragedy, ''Abdelazer'', was staged in 1676. However, she turned increasingly to light comedy and farce over the course of the 1670s. Many of these witty and vivacious comedies, notably ''The Rover'' (two parts, produced 1677 and 1681), were commercially successful. ''The Rover'' depicts the adventures of a small group of English Cavaliers in Madrid and Naples during the exile of the future Charles II. ''The Emperor of the Moon'', first performed in 1687, presaged the harlequinade, a form of comic theatre that evolved into the English pantomime.
+''[[Oroonoko:_or,_the_Royal_Slave|Oronooko]]'' was published in 1688. It tells the story of an enslaved prince from Africa whom Aphra Behn claims to have met in person. Its contemporary themes like slavery, race, and gender made it Behn’s best known work. Others include the epistolary novels ''Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister'' (1684–87), which was the first epistolary novel in English literature.
+===Poetry ===
-=== '''Fiction''' ===
+Behn also wrote poetry successfully and published the majority of her poems in a collection called ''Poems upon Several Occasions'' in 1684. Some of her poems were thought to have been written by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester - an indication of their high quality and also of their liberal and open treatment of sexual matters.
-Her short novel ''Oroonoko'' (1688) tells the story of an enslaved African prince whom Behn claimed to have known in South America. Its engagement with the themes of slavery, race, and gender, as well as its influence on the development of the English novel, helped to make it, by the turn of the 21st century, her best-known work. Behn's other fiction includes the multipart epistolary novel ''Love-Letters Between a Nobleman'' and ''His Sister'' (1684–87) and ''The Fair Jilt'' (1688).
+==Sources==
+*"Aphra Behn." ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 8 Apr. 2009, https://academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Aphra-Behn/14136. Accessed 23 Apr. 2009
-=== '''Poetry''' ===
+*Gill, Pat. “Gender, Sexuality, and Marriage” in ''The Cambridge Companion to English Restoration Theatre''. Ed. D. Payne Fiske. Cambridge: CUP, 2003.
+*Howe, Elizabeth. ''The First English Actresses. Women and Drama 1660-1700.'' Cambridge: CUP, 1993.
-Behn's versatility, like her output, was immense; she wrote other popular works of fiction, and she often adapted works by older dramatists. She also wrote poetry, the bulk of which was collected in ''Poems upon Several Occasions'', with ''A Voyage to the Island of Love'' (1684) and ''Lycidus''; or, ''The Lover in Fashion'' (1688). Behn's charm and generosity won her a wide circle of friends, and her relative freedom as a professional writer, as well as the subject matter of her works, made her the object of some scandal.
+*Korninger, Siegfried. ''The Restoration Period and the Eighteenth Century. 1660 – 1780''. München: Österreichischer Bundesverlag Wien, 1964.
+*Nestvold, Ruth. ''The Aphra Behn Page'', http://www.lit-arts.net/Behn/chron-ab.htm. Accessed 7 May 2009.
-= '''Sources''' =
-"Behn, Aphra." ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 23 Apr. 2009
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