Aphra Behn

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.