Aphra Behn, (1640-1689) "The Divine Astrea" Novelist, Playwright, Erstwhile Spy

Aphra Behn, nee Johnson, was the daughter of Bartholemew Johnson, a Kentish barber who emigrated to Surinam with Aphra when she was three years old. she learned of the African prince Oroonoko which she later used as grist for her most famous work, the novel Oroonoko.

When Surinam was ceded to the Dutch in 1658, she returned to England and married a London merchant of Dutch or German extraction. Within a year, her husband was dead and Mrs. Behn was obliged to fend for herself. She brought out Oroonoko, her first novel based on what she had learned of the African prince and his paramour during her stay in Surinam.

Charles II soon learned of her and sent her as a spy to Antwerp, the Netherlands during the Dutch war. Near the end of 1666, she uncovered--or rather wheedled out of a hapless fellow called Van der Aalbert--a plot hatched by De Ruyter and the DeWitts to sail up the Thames and burn the English fleet where it lay at anchor. The English court chose to ignore this bit of all too credible intelligence, so she returned to England in disgust. Within a year of her return, she found herself, however briefly, in Debtor's Prison for debts incurred in service of the crown.

From this period on she appears to have supported herself by her writings. Her first play, The Forced Marriage, or the Jealous Bridegroom (1670) was produced at Lincoln's Inn Fields by the Duke's Company and had a run of six nights. This made it a major success, giving the authoress two nights income (third and sixth). There followed:

Aphra Behn died April 16, 1689, and is buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey.