| Front | aphra behn |
|---|---|
| Back | 1640-89 playwright, novelist, and translator, probably the first English woman to see herself as a professional writer Oroonoko 1688 based on her living in west indies, and her best prose romance the political piece the City Heiress 1682 borrows from Middleton 's A Mad World , My Master the farce the Emperor of the Moon 1687 based on scenario from Italian commedia dell' arte , helped make popular the Harlequinade; forerunner of the English style of pantomime. Aphra Behn (/ˈæfrə bɛn/;[a] bapt. 14 December 1640[1] – 16 April 1689) was an English playwright, poet, translator and fiction writer from the Restoration era. As one of the first English women to earn her living by her writing, she broke cultural barriers and served as a literary role model for later generations of women authors. Rising from obscurity, she came to the notice of Charles II, who employed her as a spy in Antwerp. Upon her return to London and a probable brief stay in debtors' prison, she began writing for the stage. She belonged to a coterie of poets and famous libertines such as John Wilmot, Lord Rochester. She wrote under the pastoral pseudonym Astrea. During the turbulent political times of the Exclusion Crisis, she wrote an epilogue and prologue that brought her into legal trouble; she thereafter devoted most of her writing to prose genres and translations. A staunch supporter of the Stuart line, she declined an invitation from Bishop Burnet to write a welcoming poem to the new king William III. She died shortly after.[2] Aphra Behn  Portrait of Aphra Behn by Sir Peter Lely Born Canterbury, Kingdom of England Baptised14 December 1640Died16 April 1689 (aged 48) London, Kingdom of England Resting placeWestminster AbbeyNationalityEnglishOccupationnovelist, dramatist, poet She is remembered in Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own: "All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn which is, most scandalously but rather appropriately, in Westminster Abbey, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds."[3] Her grave is not included in the Poets' Corner but lies in the East Cloister near the steps to the church.[4] |
Learn with these flashcards. Click next, previous, or up to navigate to more flashcards for this subject.
Next card: Bell art war bloomsbury clive roger fry september
Previous card: Opera beggar's popular ballad music piece work original
Up to card list: Wordsworth companion to literature by Bahman Moradi