Aphra Behn

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Standard Name: Behn, Aphra
Birth Name: Aphra Johnson
Married Name: Aphra Behn
Pseudonym: Astrea
Used Form: A. B.
Used Form: Mrs A. Behn
Used Form: Mrs Behn
Used Form: Mrs A. Behn, the author of the Rover
Used Form: author of the Voyage to the Isle of Love
Used Form: by the Same Hand
It is difficult to summarise AB 's immense and complex importance for the history of women's writing. Virginia Woolf said she deserved from all women a tribute of flowers because she was the first to bring together writing and earning. In fact only two professional (as opposed to amateur) dramatists of either sex (Dryden and Shadwell ) emerged before her on the Restoration stage. Theatrical writing (mostly comedy) supported her for the major part of her career as one of the period's most prolific and popular dramatists. Her poems and translations are also significant in the story of those genres. Later she pioneered the important new forms of novella and full-length epistolary novel. She exploited to the full a raunchy period during which social criticism clothed itself naturally in sex comedy; her gender made her a belated partaker in the academic rediscovery and rehabilitation of the Restoration age.
Engraving of Aphra Behn circa 1675, after a portrait by Mary Beale. Seated, she is wearing a pearl necklace and a voluminous gown.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Anthologization Jane Wiseman
Also in 1701, before JW 's the play appeared, Abel Boyer included in his Letters of Wit, Politicks and Morality several writings by her: letters (under the name of Daphne) to George Farquhar and...
Anthologization Catharine Trotter
The ascription has been subject to some question, since the formerly accepted birthdate for CT made her only fourteen at the time; the date established by more recent scholarship makes her approaching twenty.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
The volume,...
Education Elizabeth Boyd
EB says nothing about how she learned the things she knew—an acquaintance with English literature, some history, and at least a smattering of French and Latin—but she may well have been largely self-taught. She often...
Family and Intimate relationships Elizabeth Singer Rowe
Thomas Rowe's writing expresses political attitudes which were not uncommon amongst the dissenting community. He wrote against tyrants, and against servility towards tyrants. He also wrote poetry.
Stecher, Henry F. Elizabeth Singer Rowe, the Poetess of Frome: A Study in Eighteenth-Century English Pietism. Herbert Lang, 1973.
110, 113ff
It may have been the poet...
Family and Intimate relationships Lady Mary Wroth
LMW seems to have borne this lover two children, William and Katherine Herbert, both of whom survived to adulthood. William may be the origin of the mysterious young knight, Fair Designe, in the second part...
Friends, Associates Jane Wiseman
She was a friend and correspondent of George Farquhar and the future Susanna Centlivre ; the fact that she addressed a poem to Aphra Behn and that Abel Boyer published letters by her may indicate...
Friends, Associates Ephelia
If Ephelia's poems of compliment are taken to imply personal friendship, she may have been a friend of Aphra Behn , whom she praises warmly and with polite humility about her own abilities in her...
Intertextuality and Influence Susan Smythies
The novel offers in passing an amusing catalogue of an old-fashioned library, whose first items are heroic romances like Ibraham; Cassandra; Cleopatra [by Madeleine de Scudéry and Gauthier de La Calprenède ]. Several...
Intertextuality and Influence Jane Wiseman
Her poems, full of character and ingenuity, spring from social interchange. The title piece is a longish, narrative, occasional poem, Sent with a Pair of China Basons
Wiseman, Jane. “A Fairy Tale, Inscrib’d, to the Honourable Mrs. W— With Other Poems (1917)”. Eighteenth-Century English Labouring-Class Poets, 1700-1740, edited by William Christmas, Pickering and Chatto, 2003, pp. 34-46.
34
to JW 's dedicatee (who may probably...
Intertextuality and Influence Elizabeth Inchbald
The plot of intrigue here, set in Madrid, suggests Aphra Behn without the cross-dressing. A scholar has kept the existence of his young wife a secret: there follow a hue and cry, a threatened...
Intertextuality and Influence Catherine Gore
Like CG 's Cecil he is a dandy in love with his own looks, which in his case include his exceptionally small size (said to be about that of a full-grown mouse). Of concomitant beauty...
Intertextuality and Influence Madeleine de Scudéry
Aphra Behn took from the Carte de tendre some of the topographical imagery of her verse-and-prose romance A Voyage to the Island of Love (which in turn was the model behind The Adventurer, written...
Intertextuality and Influence Maureen Duffy
The play takes a biographical approach, as Woolf , from the vantage point of imminent death, looks back over her past life. The only two other characters are Vita Sackville-West and Sigmund Freud ; Duffy...
Intertextuality and Influence Sappho
Sappho 's name was an honorific for women writers for generations. George Puttenham may have been the first to use it to compliment a writing woman: in Parthienades, 1579, he said that Queen Elizabeth
Intertextuality and Influence Maureen Duffy
Living her afterlife on Mount Parnassus, Duffy's Sappho is familiar with women poets who have written in English: her favourite is Aphra Behn .
Duffy, Maureen. “My Life with Aphra Behn”. Women’s Writing, Vol.
19
, No. 2, 13 Feb. 2012.
244

Timeline

30 March 1638: John Wilkins entered in the Stationers' Register...

Building item

30 March 1638

John Wilkins entered in the Stationers' RegisterDiscovery of a World in the Moone, an early fictional response to features of the moon's surface newly made visible by telescopes; it was printed this year.
Cavendish, Margaret. “Introduction”. Paper Bodies: A Margaret Cavendish Reader, edited by Sylvia Bowerbank and Sara Heller Mendelson, Broadview, 2000, pp. 9-37.
29
Cox, Michael, editor. The Oxford Chronology of English Literature. Oxford University Press, 2002, 2 vols.

1656: Abraham Cowley published Poems; this volume,...

Writing climate item

1656

Abraham Cowley published Poems; this volume, which included his Pindaric Odes and Miscellanies, confirmed his stature as the leading poet of the day.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.

1658: Sarah Jinner, Student in Astrology, published...

Women writers item

1658

Sarah Jinner , Student in Astrology, published An Almanack or Prognostication for the Year of our Lord 1658 being the second after bissextile or leap year: calculated for the meridian of London, and may...

1665: François de La Rochefoucauld published Réflexions,...

Writing climate item

1665

François de La Rochefoucauld published Réflexions, Sentences, et Maximes Morales.
“François de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680)”. Pegasos: A Literature Resource Site: Authors’ Calendar: Books and Writers: Alphabetical listing of authors in this calendar.

After 7 April 1668: On the death of Sir William Davenant, his...

Building item

After 7 April 1668

On the death of Sir William Davenant , his widow took over the running of Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre; she managed it until the 1670s, and therefore presided over the debut of Aphra Behn .
The London Stage 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press, 1960–1968, 5 vols.
1: 143

1680: John Dryden, with others, published a collaborative...

Writing climate item

1680

John Dryden , with others, published a collaborative verse translation of Ovid 's Epistles (or Heroides).
Watson, George, and Ian Roy Wilson, editors. The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. Cambridge University Press, 1969, 5 vols., http://U of A, HSS Ruth N Flr 1 Ref.

6 February 1685: King Charles II died and his brother James...

National or international item

6 February 1685

King Charles II died and his brother James II (who was also James VII of Scotland) assumed the throne.
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.
426
Fryde, Edmund Boleslaw. Handbook of British Chronology. Editors Greenway, D. E. et al., 3rd ed., Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1986.
44
Messenger, Ann. Pastoral Tradition and the Female Talent: Studies in Augustan Poetry. AMS Press, 2001.
99

8 January 1689: Robert Gould licensed his Poems, Chiefly...

Writing climate item

8 January 1689

Robert Gould licensed his Poems, Chiefly Consisting of Satyrs and Satyrical Epistles: it included The Poetess, aimed primarily at Aphra Behn .
Buchanan, Dave. Augustan Women’s Verse Satire. University of Alberta, 1998.
13
English Short Title Catalogue. http://estc.bl.uk/.

27 July 1689: John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee,...

National or international item

27 July 1689

John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee , led a force of Scottish Highlanders loyal to James II against William ite English soldiers in the pass of Killiecrankie.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2024, 22 vols. plus supplements.

1693: John Dryden published his edition of Juvenal's...

Writing climate item

1693

John Dryden published his edition of Juvenal 's Satires, translated into English poetry by various hands, including that of Aphra Behn .
Watson, George, and Ian Roy Wilson, editors. The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. Cambridge University Press, 1969, 5 vols., http://U of A, HSS Ruth N Flr 1 Ref.

October 1693: The Gentleman's Diary; or, The Monthly Miscellany...

Women writers item

October 1693

The Gentleman's Diary; or, The Monthly Miscellany (edited by Motteux ) put out an issue devoted to women, entitled The Lady's Journal.
Miegon, Anna E. The Ladies Diary and the Emergence of the Almanac for Women, 1704-1753. Simon Fraser University, Sept. 2008.
104

February 1694: The Fatal Marriage: or The Innocent Adultery...

Writing climate item

February 1694

The Fatal Marriage: or The Innocent Adultery by Thomas Southerne (or Southern), a tragedy based on Aphra Behn 's novel The History of the Nun: or, the Fair Vow-Breaker, probably had its first performance this month.
Watson, George, and Ian Roy Wilson, editors. The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. Cambridge University Press, 1969, 5 vols., http://U of A, HSS Ruth N Flr 1 Ref.

By November 1695: Thomas Southerne (or Southern)'s Oroonoko,...

Writing climate item

By November 1695

Thomas Southerne (or Southern)'s Oroonoko, a tragedy adapted for the stage from Aphra Behn 's novel of the same title (his second recent stage adaptation of Behn), had its first performance.
Watson, George, and Ian Roy Wilson, editors. The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. Cambridge University Press, 1969, 5 vols., http://U of A, HSS Ruth N Flr 1 Ref.

1697: John Evelyn included in his Numismata. A...

Women writers item

1697

John Evelyn included in his Numismata. A Discourse of Medals, Ancient and Modern a list of women famed for writing: Margaret Cavendish , Katherine Philips , Aphra Behn , Bathsua Makin , and Mary Astell .
Evelyn, John. Numismata. Benjamin Tooke, 1697.
265

1717: The worthy authors chosen for a miscellany...

Women writers item

1717

The worthy authors chosen for a miscellany entitled The Agreeable Variety by its female editor included Behn , Philips , Chudleigh , and Finch .
Lavoie, Chantel Michelle. Poems by Eminent Ladies: A Study of an Eighteenth-Century Anthology. University of Toronto, 1999.
120
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.

Texts

Behn, Aphra. A Congratulatory Poem To Her Most Sacred Majesty. W. Canning, 1688.
Behn, Aphra. A Congratulatory Poem to her Sacred Majesty Queen Mary. R. Bentley, 1689.
Behn, Aphra. A Congratulatory Poem to the King’s Most Sacred Majesty. Randall Taylor, 1688.
Fontenelle, Bernard le Bovier de. A Discovery of New Worlds. Translator Behn, Aphra, W. Canning, 1688.
Behn, Aphra. A Pindaric Poem to the Reverend Doctor Burnet. R. Bentley, 1689.
Behn, Aphra. A Pindarick on the Death of Our Late Sovereign. Henry Playford, 1685.
Behn, Aphra. A Pindarick Poem on the Happy Coronation of His Most Sacred Majesty James II. Henry Playford, 1685.
Behn, Aphra. A Poem Humbly Dedicated to the Great Patern of Piety and Virtue Catherine Queen Dowager. Henry Playford, 1685.
Behn, Aphra. Abdelazer. J. Magnes and R. Bentley, 1677.
Aesop,. Aesop’s Fables. Translator Behn, Aphra, Francis Barlow, 1687.
Behn, Aphra, editor. Covent Garden Drolery. James Magnes, 1672.
Behn, Aphra. “Editorial Materials”. Oroonoko, edited by Joanna Lipking, W. W. Norton, 1997, p. Various pages.
Behn, Aphra. “Epilogue”. Romulus and Hersilia, D. Brown and T. Benskin, 1683, p. I4r.
Behn, Aphra. Five Plays. Editor Duffy, Maureen, Methuen, 1990.
Bonnecorse, Balthazar de. La Montre. Translator Behn, Aphra, W. Canning, 1686.
Behn, Aphra, and Maureen Duffy. Love Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister. Virago, 1987.
Behn, Aphra. Love-Letters Part I. Randal Taylor, 1684.
Behn, Aphra. Love-Letters Part II. Printed for the author, 1685.
Behn, Aphra. Love-Letters Part III. 1687.
Tallemant, Paul. Lycidus. Translator Behn, Aphra, Joseph Knight and Francis Saunders, 1688.
Behn, Aphra, editor. Miscellany. John Hindmarsh, 1685.
Behn, Aphra. Oroonoko. William Canning, 1688.
Behn, Aphra, and Maureen Duffy. Oroonoko and Other Stories. Methuen, 1986.
“Paraphrase on Oenone to Paris”. Ovid’s Epistles, Translated by Several Hands, translated by. Aphra Behn, Jacob Tonson, 1680, p. H1r - 12v.
Behn, Aphra. Poems upon Several Occasions. R. Tonson and J. Tonson, 1684.