BEHN (Aphara), a celebrated authoress, descended
from a good family in the city of Canterbury, was
born some time in Charles I.'s reign, but in what
year is uncertain. Her father's name was Johnson, who
through the interest of the Lord Willoughby, to whom
he was related, being appointed lieutenant-general of
Surinam and 36 islands, undertook a journey to the
West-Indies, taking with him his whole family, among
whom was our poetess, at that time very young. Mr
Johnson died in the voyage; but his family reaching
Surinam, settled there for some years. Here it was
that she learned the history of, and acquired a personal
intimacy with, the American prince Oronoko and his
beloved Imoinda, whose adventures she hath so patheti-
cally related in her celebrated novel of that name, and
which Mr Southerne afterwards made such an admirable
use of in adopting it as the ground-work of one of the
best tragedies in the English language.
On her return to London, she became the wife of
one Mr Behn, a merchant, residing in that city, but
of Dutch extraction. How long he lived after their
marriage, is not very apparent, probably not very long;
for her wit and abilities having brought her into high
estimation at court, King Charles II. fixed on her as a
proper person to transact some affairs of importance a-
broad during the course of the Dutch war. To this pur-
pose she went over to Antwerp, where, by her intrigues
and gallantries, she so far crept into the secrets of state,
as to answer the ends proposed by sending her over. Nay,
in the latter end of 1666, she, by means of the influ-
ence she had over one Vander Albert, a Dutchman of
eminence, whose heart was warmly attached to her, she
wormed out of him the design formed by De Ruyter,
in conjunction with the family of the De Wits, of tail-
ing up the Thames and burning the English ships in
their harbours, which they afterwards put in execution
at Rochester. This she immediately communicated to
the English court: but though the event proved her
intelligence to be well grounded, yet it was at that time
only laughed at; which, together probably with no
great inclination shown to reward her for the pains she
had been at, determined her to drop all further thoughts
of political affairs, and during the remainder of her stay
at Antwerp to give herself up entirely to the gaiety
and gallantries of the place. Vander Albert continued
his addresses, and after having made some unsuccessful
attempts to obtain the possession of her person on easier
terms than matrimony, at length consented to make her
his wife; but while he was preparing at Amsterdam
for a journey to England with that intent, a fever car-
ried him off, and left her free from any amorous en-
gagements. In her voyage back to England, she was
very near being lost, the vessel she was in being driven
on the coast by a storm; but happening to founder within sight of land, the passengers were, by the timely assistance of boats from the shore, all fortunately preserved.
From this period she devoted her life entirely to pleasure and the mutes. Her works are extremely numerous, and all of them have a lively and amorous turn. It is no wonder then that her wit should have gained her the esteem of Mr Dryden, Southerne, and other men of genius, as her beauty, of which in her younger part of life she possessed a great share, did the love of those of gallantry. Nor does she appear to have been any stranger to the delicate sensations of that passion, as appears from some of her letters to a gentleman, with whom she corresponded under the name of Lycida, and who seems not to have returned her flame with equal ardour, or received it with that rapture her charms might well have been expected to command.
She published three volumes of Miscellaneous Poems; two volumes of Historics and Novels; translated Fontenelle's Plurality of Worlds, and annexed a Criticism on it; and her Plays make four volumes. In the dramatic line, the turn of her genius was chiefly to comedy. As to the character her plays should maintain in the records of dramatic history, it will be difficult to determine, since their faults and perfections stand in strong opposition to each other. In all, even the most indifferent of her pieces, there are strong marks of genius and understanding. Her plots are full of business and ingenuity, and her dialogue sparkles with the dazzling lustre of genuine wit, which every where glitters among it. But then she has been accused, and that not without great justice, of interlarding her comedies with the most indecent scenes, and giving an indulgence in her wit to the most indecent expressions. To this accusation she has herself made some reply in the Preface to the Lucky Chance; but the retorting the charge of prudence and preciseness on her accusers, is far from being a sufficient exculpation of herself. The best and perhaps the only true excuse that can be made for it is, that, as she wrote for a livelihood, she was obliged to comply with the corrupt taste of the times.
After a life intermingled with numerous disappointments, she departed from this world on the 16th of April 1689, and lies interred in the cloisters of Westminster-Abbey.