MRS APHRA BEH N. ΟΝ Na plain black marble slab in the east cloister of Westminister Abbey might once have been read the following epitaph on the earliest of our female novelists, Apa, Aphra, or Aphara Behn : *— "Here lies a proof that wit can never be The epitaph has proved true in a twofold sense, for who now reads the writings, or recognises the wit of the author of "Oroonoko"? Wit, to some extent, she did, indeed, possess; her mental gifts were considerable; she wrote with much liveliness and spirit; but her productions are so invariably tainted with indecency, that they long ago sank into an oblivion which we fervently hope may be perpetual. If any exception be made, we should make it in favour of her romance of " Oroonoko," which is at once the cleverest and purest of her fictions. But, as Miss Kavanagh observes, it can scarcely be called a novel; it should be regarded as a book of travels, and a most picturesque one; a biography, and one both noble and tragic. We may doubt, indeed, the accuracy of some of Mrs Behn's statements; we cannot doubt the general truth of this lamentable history, which is told, moreover, with infinite vigour and spirit. Aphra Johnson, "a gentlewoman by birth, of a good family in the city. of Canterbury," was born in the old cathedral town towards the close of Charles I.'s reign. While still very young, she removed to Surinam, of which her father had been appointed lieutenant-governor. Already her "Astræa Behn," as in According to Dean Stanley, she is called, in the Register, Pope's line:"But look how loose Astræa treads the stage." : 292 THE LIFE OF A FRAIL WOMAN. mind and person gave promise of more than ordinary excellence; she wrote charming verses, and her smiles were not less charming. Her father died at sea, but Mrs Johnson and her family reached Surinam in safety; to return to England, however, immediately after the Restoration. A pretty woman in those days easily obtained an entré to court; Aphra was presented to Charles II., who was pleased with the vivacity of her conversation, and owned the influence of her youthful charms. At his request she threw the tragic story of Prince Oroonoko into the form of a novel, and published it. Apart from the royal patronage, its merits were undeniable, and its success was therefore abundantly justified. About this time she married a Dutch merchant named Behn, but as he died in 1666, her married life must have been of the briefest. Scarcely had she become a widow, before the king sent her on a diplomatic mission to Antwerp. Her personal attractions here proved of value; she obtained a signal influence over one of the most powerful merchants of Utrecht, named Van der Albut, who purchased her smiles by betraying to the beautiful intriguante some important political secrets. Soon afterwards he died of a fever, and Aphra Behn, her mission ended, returned to England, devoting herself thenceforth to the pursuit of pleasure and literature. We know little of her life, but the little we know does not stimulate our curiosity to know more. She had many lovers, but probably few friends; was passionately fond of company and social amusements; talked much, and well, but carelessly, and too often incorrectly; and finally seems to have given herself up, heart and soul, to a man whom she calls "Lycidas," and who appears to have cared little for the gift. She died on the 16th of April 1689, having lived a short and wasted life, and done nothing, with more than ordinary powers, to benefit herself or her sex, or to secure a lasting fame. Miss Kavanagh thus sums up her literary labours :-"She wrote for her bread, and wrote much and carelessly. She borrowed from French, Spanish, and English authors. She published three volumes of miscel laneous poems (1684-85), in which Rochester and Sir George Etherege, among the rest, were her coadjutors. Her poems were bad, though she Enone's Epistle to Paris,' in the English and received the following handsome contributed the paraphrase of translation of Ovid's Epistles,' compliment from Dryden, in the Preface to that work: 'I was desired to HER LITERARY CHARACTER. 293 But if say that the author, who is of the fair sex, understood not Latin. she does not, I am afraid she has given us account to be ashamed who do.' Her plays, some of which had great success, were so coarse as to offend even in that coarse age. The novels were open to the same objection, and were rarely original. Sometimes, but not often, she openly acknowledged her translations, as in the case of La Rochefoucauld's 'Maxims,' and Fontenelle's Plurality of Worlds.' Towards the close of her life, she included mathematics, philosophy, theology even, in her pursuits, but it must be confessed that she excelled in nothing. Like all persons of lively minds, she took interest in many things; she found pleasure in those rare flies, of amazing forms and colours,' which she brought from Surinam, and presented to his Majesty's antiquary,' and, at a later period, she took amusement in the arid details of chronology, but her versatility was productive of no substantial result." We subjoin a list of her plays:-The Forced Marriage, 1671; The Amorous Prince, 1671; The Dutch Lover, 1673; Adelague, 1677; The Town Fop, 1677; The Rover, part i., 1677; The Debauchee, 1677; Sir Patrick Farey, 1678; The Feigned Courtezans, 1679; The Rover, part ii., 1681; The City Heiress, 1682; The False Count, 1682; The Roundheads, 1682; The Young King, 1683; The Lucky Chance, 1687; The Emperor of the Moon, 1687; The Widow Hunter, 1670; The Younger Brother, 1676. A complete edition of her novels was published in 1735, with a memoir by Gildon. OROONOKO AND IMOINDE. [Our extract from "Oroonoko" will be very brief, and is only intended as a specimen of its author's style. Its plot will be familiar to many readers, through Southern's adaptation of it in one of his best tragedies.] PRINCE RINCE OROONOKO, the grandson of the King of Coromantim, is an admirably perfect man, both in mind and person; had a great soul, a fine wit, discoursed eloquently, was brave and gallant. He fell in love with Imoinde, the beautiful daughter of a general who had saved his life in battle, but who was also beloved by the aged King of Coromantim, and inasmuch as she preferred the grandson to the grandfather, was, by the latter, sold as a slave. Oroonoko, soon afterwards, met with the same wretched lot. Landing at Surinam, he became the property of a Cornish gentleman named Trefry, in whose household he met with his beloved Imoinde, then called Clemine. They were married, and for some time lived happily. But Oroonoko's lofty soul could not endure the chains of servitude, and with his wife, and numerous other slaves, he fled to the woods; was pursued by one Byam, at the head of six hundred slaves, overtaken and overpowered. Being promised generous treatment, he surrendered, but was immediately whipped with the utmost ferocity, and thrown into irons. The indignity was intolerable, and he resolved upon revenge, but before he attempted it, resolved to secure his wife and unborn child from all hazard of dishonour or ill-treatment. "Being able to walk, and, as he believed, fit for the execution of his great design, he begged Trefry to trust him into the air, believing a walk. would do him good, which was granted him; and taking Imoinde with him, as he used to do in his more happy and calmer days, he led her up into a wood, where (after a thousand sighs and long gazing silently on her face, while tears gushed in spite of him from his eyes) he told her his design; first of killing her, and then his enemies, and next himself, and the impossibility of escaping, and therefore he told her the necessity of dying. He found the heroic wife faster pleading for death than he was to |