The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. I | Page 8

the hero, however vicious (even such a mad
scrapegrace as Dryden's Woodall), is decently noosed up in wedlock
when the curtain is about to fall, Mrs. Behn's Willmore (Rover II),
Gayman (The Lucky Chance), Wittmore (Sir Patient Fancy) end up
without a thought of, save it be jest at, the wedding ring. But even this
freedom can be amply paralleled. In the Duke of Buckingham's clever
alteration of The Chances (1682), we have Don John pairing off with
the second Constantia without a hint of matrimony; we have the
intrigue of Bellmour and Laetitia in Congreve's The Old Bachelor
(1693), the amours of Horner in The Country Wife (1675), of Florio and
Artall in Crowne's City Politics (1683), and many another beside. As
for the cavilling crew who carped at her during her life Mrs. Behn has
answered them and she was thoroughly competent so to do. Indeed, as
she somewhat tartly remarked to Otway on the occasion of certain
prudish dames pleasing to take offence at The Soldier's Fortune, she
wondered at the impudence of any of her sex that would pretend to
understand the thing called bawdy. A clique were shocked at her; it was

not her salaciousness they objected to but her success.
In December, 1670, Mrs. Behn's first play,[19] The Forc'd Marriage;
or, the Jealous Bridegroom, was produced at the Duke's Theatre,
Lincoln's Inn Field's, with a strong cast. It is a good tragi-comedy of the
bastard Fletcherian Davenant type, but she had not hit upon her
happiest vein of comedy, which, however, she approached in a much
better piece, The Amorous Prince, played in the autumn of 1671 by the
same company. Both these had excellent runs for their day, and she
obtained a firm footing in the theatrical world. In 1673[20] The Dutch
Lover[21] was ready, a comedy which has earned praise for its skilful
technique. She here began to draw on her own experiences for material,
and Haunce van Ezel owes not a little to her intimate knowledge of the
Hollanders.
[Footnote 19: Mr. Gosse in the Dictionary of National Biography
basing upon the preface to The Young King, says that after knocking in
vain for some time at the doors of the theatres with this tragi-comedy
that could find neither manager nor publisher, she put it away and
wrote The Forc'd Marriage, which proved more successful. Dr. Baker
follows this, but I confess I cannot see due grounds for any such
hypothesis.]
[Footnote 20: The Duke's Company opened at their new theatre, Dorset
Garden, 9 November, 1671.]
[Footnote 21: 4to, 1673. Mrs. Behn's accurate knowledge of the theatre
and technicalties theatrical as shown in the preface to this early play is
certainly remarkable. It is perhaps worth noting that her allusion to the
popularity of 1 Henry IV was not included in Shakspere Allusion-Book
(ed. Furnivall and Munro, 1909), where it should have found a place.]
These three plays brought her money, friends, and reputation. She was
already beginning to be a considerable figure in literary circles, and the
first writers of the day were glad of the acquaintance of a woman who
was both a wit and a writer. There is still retailed a vague, persistent,
and entirely baseless tradition that Aphra Behn was assisted in writing
her plays by Edward Ravenscroft,[22] the well known dramatist. Mrs.

Behn often alludes in her prefaces to the prejudice a carping clique
entertained against her and the strenuous efforts that were made to
damn her comedies merely because they were 'writ by a woman'.
Accordingly, when her plays succeeded, this same party, unable to
deny such approved and patent merit, found their excuse in spreading a
report that she was not inconsiderably aided in her scenes by another
hand. Edward Ravenscroft's name stands to the epilogue of Sir Timothy
Tawdrey, and he was undoubtedly well acquainted with Mrs. Behn.
Tom Brown (I suggest) hints at a known intrigue,[23] but, even if my
surmise be correct, there is nothing in this to warrant the oft repeated
statement that many of her scenes are actually due to his pen. On the
other hand, amongst Aphra's intimates was a certain John Hoyle, a
lawyer, well known about the town as a wit. John Hoyle was the son of
Thomas Hoyle, Alderman and Lord Mayor of, and M.P. for York, who
hanged himself[24] at the same hour as Charles I was beheaded. In the
Gray's Inn Admission Register we have: '1659/60 Feb. 27. John Hoyle
son and heir of Thomas H. late of the city of York, Esq. deceased.'
Some eighteen years after he was admitted to the Inner Temple: '1678/9
Jan. 26. Order that John Hoyle formerly of Gray's Inn be admitted to
this society ad eundem statum. (Inner Temple Records, iii, 131.) There
are allusions not a few