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Aphra Behn
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Aphra Behn I'm re-posting this too. I love Aphra, and I want you to love her too. Note: Say Ay (rhymes with hay) ferah Bean. Her name at christening may have been Eafera Johnson. Aphra Behn, The Willing Mistress I think I must have first heard of Aphra Behn while reading one of the books of Christopher Hill, a fine historian of seventeenth century England. I have a habit of crediting the professor when I recall people and events from that time. I reckon it to be a bad habit and it is probably not always accurate, but it's mine and I've grown fond of it. Professor Hill is the one writer who is mainly responsible for my continuing fascination with the time the place and it's denizens. Aphra Behn was a woman who made her living as a writer in Restoration England. Writing was not an occupation common to or indeed even a skill associated with women of the time. She was a poet playwright and novelist. She lived from 1640 to 1689. The life of the writer Aphra Behn is a tough nut to crack. Germaine Greer called her a palimpsest. I had to look it up. "palimpsest |ˈpalimpˌsest| noun a manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain. • figurative something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form" As to Aphra Behn's palimpsistic character, Ms. Greer ought to know. Aphra Behn has been exhaustively researched by scholars of literature, particularly those of feminist inclination. Both the beautiful Virginia Woolf and her elegant lover Vita Sackville-West, writers of the Bloomsbury Group, paid their respects to Mrs. Behn. Sackville_West, in her biography "Astrea", called her " the first woman in England to earn her living by her pen." She also pointed out that Mrs. Behn was not Shakespeare- she is studied and scrutinized because she was the first woman in England to earn her living by her pen. This fact carried little weight with Harold Bloom. In bemoaning the "dumbing down of American readers" he called her a fouth rate playwright, deriding her study in American classrooms in place of the Immortal Bard. Bloom is right. Aphra Behn does not replace Shakespeare. And neither does Harold Bloom. In spite of the probing into the details of Mrs. Behn's life, not much is known for certain. It has been speculated that her novel "Oroonoko" is autobiography and has been posited with seemingly equal conviction that it can't be. She may have been born to a barber named Johnson, in Canterbury, in 1640. Johnson was named Lieutenant General of Surinam, a British possesion, in 1663. Aphra and her brother traveled there with Johnson and his wife but Johnson died en route. Her experience in Surinam led her to write "Oroonoko". After returning to England from Surinam in 1664, she married a man named Johan, or John, or Hans Behn but the marriage was short- Mr. Behn died in 1665. Aphra may have been a Catholic. She made allusions to a Catholic upbringing in her career, so perhaps it was this which led to her attachment to the court of Charles. She did service as a spy for King Charles the Second during the Second Anglo Dutch War, using the code name Astrea. Three sources in the Wikipedia entry on Aphra claim that our old friend Thomas Killigrew, Nell Gwynn's benefactor, may have orchestrated her spying activities. King Charles was as prompt to pay as any other king or nobleman and she had to pawn her jewelry to survive. In spite of having been stiffed by the king (and I found no reference to suggest that she had been stiffed by Charles in another way) she was a staunch royalist, believing that the nobility and gentry were the natural rulers of men. She was not the first to have risen from the ranks to hold that opinion, and will surely not be the last, but it is not that quality that interested me. I love her poems "The Willing Mistress" and "The Disappointment", and I respect her position as the first female professional writer. A self made man is almost always of interest, and a self made woman, especially in the late seventeenth century, is extraordinary. At any rate her sojourn as a spy upon the Dutch began about 1666 and due to Charles' fiduciary delinquency was ended by December of the same year. By 1668 she was put in debtors prison, as Charles continued to ignore her entreaties for recompense. How she contrived her release is not known. What is known is that in 1670 she produced her first play, "The Forc'd Marriage". In 1671 she wrote "The Amorous Prince", but her third play, "The Dutch Lover" was a failure. Aphra had long been writing poetry and continued doing so through this period. Soon she was hailed as The English Sappho, and the Incomparable Astrea. She kept writing poetry while supporting herself as a playwright. Her plays quite boldy addressed current events cloaked in allegory, but it was not an obscure allegory- her sophisticated audience was in the know, and recognized her subjects and characters. In trying to learn more about Aphra Behn I discovered a wealth of resources online. I haven't even begun to search libraries. I did read portions of "The Roundheads". Let the reader be forewarned- to understand the lay of the land in "The Roundheads" further research is mandatory. It's a seventeenth century political play- the names and references will be obscure to a modern reader who is not well studied in the Civil War. I'm a student of that Revolution with several books under my belt and I was googling names frequently. Her poems are more accessible. Her poem "The Disappointment" deals with an attempted sexual assault, resignation, and utimately,<b> impotence. </font></b>Aphra's lover at one time was the openly homosexual John Hoyle and she wrote of homoerotic affairs of her own. I led my Silvia to a Grove, Where all the Boughs did shade us, The Sun it self, though it had strove, It could not have betray’d us. The place secur’d from humane eyes, No other fear allows, But when the Winds do gently rise, And kiss the yiedling Boughs. Down there we sate upon the Moss, And did begin to play A Thousand Amorous Tricks, to pass The heat of all the day. A many Kisses I did give: And she return’d the same Which made her willing to receive That which I dare not name. My greedy eyes no ayds requir’d To tell their amorous Tale; On her that was already fir’d, ‘Twas easie to prevaile. I did but kiss and claspe her round, Whilst they my thoughts exprest, And laid her gently on the ground; Oh! who can guess the rest? Not exclusively lesbian, she really is the English Sappho, and had affairs with women and men and her writing refects that. The first of her poems that I read was "The Willing Mistress". Amyntas led me to a Grove, Where all the Trees did shade us ; The Sun itself, though it had Strove, It could not have betray'd us: The place secur'd from humane Eyes, No other fear allows, But when the Winds that gently rise, Doe Kiss the yielding Boughs. Down there we satt upon the Moss, And did begin to play A Thousand Amorous Tricks, to pass The heat of all the day. A many Kisses he did give: And I return'd the same Which made me willing to receive That which I dare not name. His Charming Eyes no Aid requir'd To tell their softning Tale; On her that was already fir'd, 'Twas Easy to prevaile. He did but Kiss and Clasp me round, Whilst those his thoughts Exprest : And lay'd me gently on the Ground; Ah who can guess the rest ? Aphra Behn died 16 April 1689, three hundred twenty five years ago. Fortunately for us, her writing is much better preserved than her predecessor Sappho, from whom we have only fragments. The epitaph on her tombstone reads: Here lies a Proof that Wit can never be Defence enough against Mortality. I think a better epitaph was that of Virginia Woolf in "A Room of One's Own": 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. Become a member now and get a free tote bag. |
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A very fascinating read... Do you think though that since Aphra and Hoyle were sexually involved that he could not have been purely homosexual but bisexual as she was? Surely! Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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She can write poetry indeed!  Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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I'm very, very glad you reposted these from your blog's earlier iteration. They were among the features which drew me in and made me a fan. May we expect more, occasionally? Stop in, read, and offer comments at my "swinging as seen in the media" blog, "Confessions of a Lifestyle Man" humorlife, which is also the home of the monthly virtual symposium. New post: The Virtual Symposium Returns Lets Pick A Topic
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I'm very, very glad you reposted these from your blog's earlier iteration. They were among the features which drew me in and made me a fan. May we expect more, occasionally? Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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People that know things, like you know things, intrigue me. But, then it makes me wonder if I really am that fucking ignorant to not to know these things?! Life is a conundrum...Thanks for educating the uninformed.
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People that know things, like you know things, intrigue me. But, then it makes me wonder if I really am that fucking ignorant to not to know these things?! Life is a conundrum...Thanks for educating the uninformed. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Thank you, GoodYear! I think she's a captivating woman. She did a pretty good job of being independent in a time when it was hard to accomplish that- male or female. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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