Aphra, 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 year is uncertain. Her father's name was Johnson, who through the interest of 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 on 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 Oroonoko, and his beloved Imoinda, whose adventures she hath so pathetically related in her celebrated novel of that name, and which Mr Southerne afterwards made such an admirable use of, in adopting it as the groundwork 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 abroad during the course of the Dutch war. To this purpose 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, by means of the influence 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 sailing 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 carried him off, and left her free from any amorous engagements. 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 muses. 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 Miscellany Poems; two volumes of Histories 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 everywhere 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 to her wit in the most indelicate expressions. To this accusation she has herself made some reply in the Preface to the Lucky Chance; but the retorting the charge of prudery 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.