APHRA BEHN

[1640–1689]

On Her Loving Two Equally

Although not technically the first English woman playwright or the first woman to earn a living by her pen, Aphra Behn was the first notably successful woman playwright. She wrote fifteen plays, several novels, and a great deal of poetry. She also published translations and edited volumes of poetry. Very little is known of her, and much of that is guesswork based on her writing. She married a man by the name of Behn, possibly a Dutch merchant in England, who died two years later. She seems to have been persuaded by the writer and theater manager Thomas Killigrew to become an English spy in Antwerp. She was residing there when the Great Fire of 1666 destroyed most of London. Her services were so little valued that she was not paid and ended up for a brief time in debtors’ prison when she returned to England. Her first play, The Forced Marriage (1670) ran successfully for six nights. Behn had another dramatic success in 1671, with her second play, The Amorous Prince. These first two plays were wholly original, but she quickly resorted to the Shakespearean device of adapting the work of others. Like Shakespeare, she made considerable changes and constantly improved the material she borrowed.

I

How strong does my passion flow,

Divided equally twixt two?

Damon had ne’er subdued my heart

Had not Alexis took his part;

Nor could Alexis powerful prove,

Without my Damon’s aid, to gain my love.

II

When my Alexis present is,

Then I for Damon sigh and mourn;

But when Alexis I do miss,

Damon gains nothing but my scorn.

But if it chance they both are by,

For both alike I languish, sigh, and die.

III

Cure then, thou mighty wingèd god,

This restless fever in my blood;

One golden-pointed dart take back:

But which, O Cupid, wilt thou take?

If Damon’s, all my hopes are crossed;

Or that of my Alexis, I am lost.