a b Lizbeth Goodman; W.R. Owens (2013). Shakespeare, Aphra Behn and the Canon. Routledge. p.146. ISBN 978-1135636289. Behn took many lovers throughout her life, but one of her most famous was the feisty lawyer John Hoyle. Sadly, their relationship was full of heartbreak. The hard-living Hoyle had a penchant for getting into violent bar fights, and Behn wrote frequently about and to her bad boy, admonishing him for his “depraved ways.” Hutner, Heidi, ed. (1993). Rereading Aphra Behn: History, Theory, and Criticism. University of Virginia Press. pp.2–3. ISBN 978-0813914435. Had her other career options of spying and writing not worked out, Behn said she would’ve become a nun. Such comments led historians to believe she grew up Catholic. In fact, Behn had many Catholic allies, which would’ve raised a few eyebrows in her very Anglican age.

In 1692, fate caught up to Behn's beloved John Hoyle. He apparently never listened to her advice, and was stabbed to death after getting in yet another bar fight. The history of oracles, and the cheats of the pagan priests in two parts / made English". quod.lib.umich.edu . Retrieved 22 December 2021. 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... Behn proved that money could be made by writing at the sacrifice, perhaps, of certain agreeable qualities; and so by degrees writing became not merely a sign of folly and a distracted mind but was of practical importance. [41] Gosse, Edmund (1885). "Behn, Afra". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol.4. London: Smith, Elder & Co. The Memoirs were published as the preface to a collected edition of Behn's prose works: and in effect, they capitalized on the sexiness of the woman to sell her works. Behn's adult life had conveniently spanned precisely the reigns of Charles II and James II, and in presenting her as sexual libertine, her biographer inevitably linked her to the glittering and heady world of the Restoration court.This prolific English author, poet, and memoirist in the early 20th century lived not so privately. The Roundheads Or, The Good Old Cause, A Comedy As it is Acted at His Royal Highness the Dukes Theatre (London: Printed for D. Brown, T. Benskin & H. Rhodes, 1682). She then presents the loss of Astraea as a triumph for men, who can now reassert their rule over women: Aphra Behn was the second-most productive playwright in 1670s and 1680s England. Who beat her? The Poet Laureate John Dryden.

From 11-13 July, the four shortlisted designs, in the form of maquettes cast in scale (50cm) in bronze (pictured above), can be seen in the courtyard of The Royal Exchange. Visitors can then vote for their favourite. The quartet are Maurice Blik’s Mind Over Matter, Meredith Bergmann’s The Untamed Heart, Christine Charlesworth’s Aphra: Poet, Playwright, Pioneer and Victoria Atkinson’s Astrea. The winning design will then be commissioned as a full-size statue to be erected in the very heart of Canterbury, as a permanent tribute to Aphra Behn’s life and works. Charles II’s actress mistress Nell Gwynne and his illegitimate son Charles Beauclerk posing for a painting as Venus and Cupid in Sir Peter Lely’s painting from Charles II’s licentious Restoration court [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Another theory claims that Aphra Behn’s husband never existed. Some historians theorize he was just a cover story for her spy work. After all, who wouldn’t trust a young widow? Or a bride left at the altar? As one expert wrote, Behn "is not so much a woman to be unmasked as an unending combination of masks." Sounds about right. Convention and ingenuity are further united in the poem "Song: The Invitation," where, witnessing Damon's pursuit of Sylvia, the speaker interposes herself to meet "the Arrows" of love and save Sylvia "from their harms" because Sylvia already has a lover and Damon would more appropriately be paired with the speaker. Marshall, Alan. "Memorialls for Mrs Affora": Aphra Behn and the Restoration Intelligence World." Women's Writing: The Elizabethan to Victorian Period, vol. 22, no. 1, 2015, pp. 13–33.

20. Double Standards

The rhyming couplets nip along in a characteristically lively and unforced manner. Behn has honed her rage against misogyny to an elegant, almost airy point. Although we have only a sketchy sense of the poem's context, there is plenty of vivid detail, and an unmistakable emotional charge. The inscription on Aphra Behn's tombstone in Westminster Abbey reads, "Here lies a proof that Wit can never be/ Defence enough against Mortality." Behn's poetry suggests otherwise. "The Incomparable Astrea", as she was sometimes called, stands as a landmark satirist at the beginning of the Augustan age – and her clear, knowing, distinctive voice rings out directly from that vantage-point to our own. a b "Poems upon several occasions with, A voyage to the island of love / by Mrs. A. Behn". quod.lib.umich.edu . Retrieved 24 January 2022. Bloomsbury Group member Virginia Woolf. By George Charles Beresford [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons This seems to identify the narrator with Aphra Behn, who had produced two stories of nuns in The Fair Jilt and The History of the Nun. But these stories were published after Oroonoko, in 1688 and 1689. So perhaps here the connection between narrator and author works as a sort of advertisement for her next pieces of prose fiction.