Aphra Behn Stages the Social Scene in the Restoration Theatre
Powered By Xquantum

Aphra Behn Stages the Social Scene in the Restoration Theatre By ...

Chapter 1:  ‘The Fulsom Gingle of the Times’
Read
image Next

Her description of a young man using his wealth to win favours from the ladies in her short story in the style of Scarron, Memoirs of the Court of The King of Bantam, published in 1698, was probably inspired by the visit of the ambassadors from Bantam in the East Indies in 1682, but it could have been a portrait of some of the hangers-on around the court.7

This Mr Wou’d-be (it seems) had often been told, when he was yet a Stripling, either by one of his Nurses, or his own Grandmother, or by some other Gypsie, that he shou’d infallibly be what his Sirname impli’d, a King, by Providence or chance, e’re he dy’d, or never. This glorious Prophecy had so great an Influence on all his Thoughts and Actions, that he distributed and dispers’d his Wealth sometimes so largely, that one wou’d ha’ thought he had undoubtedly been King of some part of the Indies; to see a Present made, today, of a Diamond-Ring, worth Two or Three hundred Pound, to Madam Flippant; tomorrow, a large Chest of the finest China, to my Lady Fleecewell; and next day (perhaps) a rich Necklace of Large Oriental Pearl…to pretty Miss Ogleme, for an Amorous Glance, for a Smile, and, (it may be, though but rarely) for the Mighty Blessing of one single Kiss…For a Man of his Humour and Estate can no more be Satisfy’d with one Woman, than with one Dish of Meat: And to say truth, ‘tis something unmodish.

Her Love-letters From a Nobleman to His Sister is a fictionalised account of real events—the scandal of Lord Grey of Werke, who absconded with his sister-in-law and was brought to trial—and she clearly expects her readers to understand the allusions. She wrote several other short stories and many poems, but almost all Behn’s early writing was for the theatre. How and why she chose this route to attempt to support herself is merely another teasing question mark among the many that surround that enigmatic woman. The king’s edict that actresses should be used instead of the boys for women characters would have already set a climate that could accept a female writer, and Lady Davenant had, at least nominally, taken over the Duke’s Company upon her husband’s death in 1668, which may have helped the presentation of Behn’s first play by that company.