BEHN, APHRA

born July 1640, Harbledown?, Kent, Eng. died April 16, 1689, London Aphra Behn. English dramatist, novelist, and poet who was the first Englishwoman known to earn her living by writing. Her origin remains a mystery; an unidentified child named Aphra traveled with a couple named Amis to Surinam (Dutch Guiana), which was then an English possession. Back in England by 1658, she married a merchant named Behn, who died in the mid-1660s. Her wit and talent having brought her into high esteem, she was employed by King Charles II in secret service in the Netherlands. Unrewarded and briefly imprisoned for debt, she began to write to support herself. In 1671 Behn's first play, The Forc'd Marriage, was produced. Her witty and vivacious comedies, notably The Rover (two parts, produced 1677 and 1681), were highly 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. Though Behn wrote many plays, her fiction is now considered more interesting. Her novel Oroonoko (1688; reprinted 1933), a story of an enslaved African prince whom Aphra knew in South America, influenced the development of the English novel. Behn's versatility, like her output, was immense; she wrote many other popular novels, and she often adapted works by older dramatists. Her poems, though unequal in merit, have perhaps been underestimated. Behn's charm and generosity won her a wide circle of friends, and her relative freedom as a professional writer made her the object of some scandal.