Aphra Behn - The Debauchee: Or, The Credulous Cuckold
- ISBN-10
- 1787802884
- ISBN-13
- 9781787802889
- Category
- Adultery
- Pages
- 90
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2019-06-24
- Publisher
- Stage Door
- Author
- Aphra Behn
Description
Aphra Behn was a prolific and well established writer but facts about her remain scant and difficult to confirm. What can safely be said though is that Aphra Behn is now regarded as a key English playwright and a major figure in Restoration theatre. Aphra was born into the rising tensions to the English Civil War. Obviously a time of much division and difficulty as the King and Parliament, and their respective forces, came ever closer to conflict. There are claims she was a spy, that she travelled abroad, possibly as far as Surinam. By 1664 her marriage was over (though by death or separation is not known but presumably the former as it occurred in the year of their marriage) and she now used Mrs Behn as her professional name. Aphra now moved towards pursuing a more sustainable and substantial career and began work for the King's Company and the Duke's Company players as a scribe. Previously her only writing had been poetry but now she would become a playwright. Her first, "The Forc'd Marriage", was staged in 1670, followed by "The Amorous Prince" (1671). After her third play, "The Dutch Lover", Aphra had a three year lull in her writing career. Again it is speculated that she went travelling again, possibly once again as a spy. After this sojourn her writing moves towards comic works, which prove commercially more successful. Her most popular works included "The Rover" and "Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister" (1684-87). With her growing reputation Aphra became friends with many of the most notable writers of the day. This is The Age of Dryden and his literary dominance. From the mid 1680's Aphra's health began to decline. This was exacerbated by her continual state of debt and descent into poverty. Aphra Behn died on April 16th 1689, and is buried in the East Cloister of Westminster Abbey. The inscription on her tombstone reads: "Here lies a Proof that Wit can never be Defence enough against Mortality." She was quoted as stating that she had led a "life dedicated to pleasure and poetry."
Get the book
Similar books
-
The Works of Aphra Behn: v. 5
By Janet ToddADVERTISEMENTS FROM THE 1677 EDITION Playes Printed for J. Magnes and R. Bentley. Forced Marriage: Or the Jealous Bridegroom. Tartuff: Or the French Puritan. All Mistaken: Or the Mad Couple. English Monsieur.
-
Aphra Behn
By Susan WisemanMacDonald, Joyce Green, `The Disappearing African Woman: Imoinda in Oroonoko After Behn', English Literary History 66 (1999), 71±86. Spencer, Jane, Aphra Behn's Afterlife (Oxford, 2000). Todd, Janet, The Critical Fortunes of Aphra Behn ...
-
Aphra Behn
By S. J. WisemanMacDonald, Joyce Green, `The Disappearing African Woman: Imoinda in Oroonoko After Behn', English Literary History 66 (1999), 71±86. Spencer, Jane, Aphra Behn's Afterlife (Oxford, 2000). Todd, Janet, The Critical Fortunes of Aphra Behn ...
-
Aphra Behn: An Annotated Bibliography of Primary and Secondary Sources
By Mary Ann O'Donnell... 120a, 802 Rowe, Nicholas, 575 Rowe, Thomas, 097b Rowlandson, Mary, 1407 Rowton, Frederic, 132 Royal Shakespeare Company, 665, 740, 767, 790, 900, 1374 Royal Society, 1165, 1307 Rozbicki, Michal J., 849a Rubenstein, John, 1136 Rubik, ...
-
Aphra Behn: A Secret Life
By Janet ToddIn this revised biography, Janet Todd draws on documents she has rediscovered in the Dutch archives, and on Behn's own writings, to tell a story of court, diplomatic and sexual intrigue, and of the rise from humble origins of the first ...
-
The Works of Aphra Behn: The plays, 1671-1677
By Aphra BehnThe Works of Aphra Behn: The plays, 1671-1677
-
The First English Actresses: Women and Drama, 1660-1700
By Elizabeth HoweAphra Behn , The Debauchee : or , the Credulous Cockold ( 1677 ) , p . 47 . 32 The Counterfeit Bridegroom ( 1677 ) , p . 52. For a discussion of the play's authorship see Hargreaves , “ The Life and Plays of Mrs. Aphra Behn ' , pp .
-
The Secret Life of Aphra Behn
By Janet ToddSamuel had been in Sir Tobias Bridge's company and had been promised preferment in Flanders. 3. Nipho had spent some £750 in two years, including a payment of £240 to one spy for expenses—it was such a large sum that he was now trying ...
-
The Works of Aphra Behn: v. 6
By Janet ToddFor some time before and after this, the compositor seems to have become enamoured of exclamation marks, which occur not only where question marks were more appropriate but also where commas and semi-colons are needed.
-
Thomas Shadwell's Bury-Fair: A Critical Edition
By John C. RossOther examples include 'Bellamy' in Aphra Behn's The Debauchee (1677), an adaptation of Richard Brome's A Mad Couple Well Match't. Also, see S, IV, 288-90; and Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, ed. Arthur Quiller Couch (Cambridge: Cambridge ...