THE FIRST LADY NOVELIST.

The first woman who lived by her pen in England was the notorious Aphra Behn. She was at once a power and a portent during the latter end of the seventeenth century.

Before her, the only two callings open to women were housewifery and witchcraft. She, after some experience of foreign countries and intercourse with all sorts and conditions of people, dared to enter the literary arena, and set at naught the usually accepted doctrine that only men had a right of monopoly there. She struck out no original ideas; her great ambition was to write as like a man as possible. In this she succeeded, for some of her plays equal in coarseness anything that Wycherley or Farquhar produced. In the epilogue to her comedy of Sir Patient Fancy' she gives vent to the following outburst, which seems to belong rather to the nineteenth than to the seventeenth century:

We'll let you see, whate'er besides we do,
How artfully we copy some of you;
And if you're drawn to th' Life, pray, tell me, then,

Why Women should not write as well as Men ?
The public applauded her daring, and laughed at her wit, and
in spite of her immorality she was granted the supreme honour
of a grave in Westminster Abbey, an honour not given to George
Eliot or Jane Austen. She wrote down to her audiences, and in
reading her plays some allowances must be made for the corrupt
age in which she lived. She was continually in contact with the
licentious Cavaliers and wild-bloods of Charles II.'s infamous
court. She copied what she saw and heard ; she never rose
above her surroundings; she had no ideals.

One advantage she certainly has—she is always outspoken, never suggestive, as some of our lady novelists are.

With her, a spade is always a spade. Along with her frankness, she is deeply sentimental. Love is the be-all and the end-all of her aspirations and her thoughts. Sir Walter Scott tells us that a grand-aunt of his, Mrs. Keith of Ravelstone, who lived to a very advanced age, asked him if he had ever seen Mrs. Behn's novels. He confessed the charge, but hinted that she would like neither the manners

nor the language, which approached too near that of Charles II.'s time to be quite proper reading.

'Nevertheless,' said the good old lady, 'I remember them being so much admired, and being so much interested in them. myself, that I wish to look at them again.'

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To hear was to obey; so Mrs. Aphra Behn, curiously sealed up, with 'private and confidential' on the packet, was sent to the gay old grand-aunt. The next time,' says Sir Walter, 'I saw her afterwards, she gave me back Aphra, properly wrapped up, with nearly these words: "Take back your bonny Mrs. Behn; and if you will take my advice, put her in the fire, for I found it impossible to get through the very first novel. But is it not," she said, "a very odd thing that I, an old woman of eighty and upwards, sitting alone, feel myself ashamed to read a book which, sixty years ago, I have heard read aloud for the amusement of large circles consisting of the first and most creditable society in London? ""

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Sir Walter Scott puts this change down to the gradual improvement of the national taste and delicacy. Alas! what would he say now? In comparison with 'Keynotes,' 'Oroonoko' seems very mild reading indeed. About Aphra or Aphara Behn's early history, there is some uncertainty. Canterbury was the town usually given as her birthplace; but quite recently her baptismal register was discovered at Wye, which gives the date of her baptism as July 10, 1640, and the names of her parents, Amy and John Johnson. John Johnson's calling is said to have been that of a barber. This humble origin is quite at variance with the account given in the memoir by one of her own sex,' which is prefixed to Aphra Behn's works. Here we are told that her father was a man of property. One thing is certain, that a relation whom Aphra, or Ayfara, called her father, was nominated Lieutenant-General of thirty-six islands, besides the province of Surinam, then in the possession of the English. He set off for the West Indies with all his family when sprightly little Aphra was a child. During the voyage he died, and the family settled on their arrival at the best house in Surinam, a place called St. John's Hill. In Aphra Behn's novel of Oroonoko,' she gives a description of it, which is worth quoting as a specimen of her style, not remarkable for elegance or ease. 'It stood on a vast rock of white marble, at the foot of which the river ran a vast depth down; the little waves still dashing and washing the foot

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as this

of this rock, made the softest murmurs and purlings in the world. The opposite bank was adorned with such vast quantities of different flowers, eternally blowing, and every day and hour, new, fenced behind with lofty trees of a thousand rare forms and colours, that the prospect was the most ravishing that fancy can create. On the edge of this white rock, towards the river, was a walk or grove of orange and lemon trees, about half the length of the Mall, whose flowery and fruit-bearing branches met at the top, and hindered the sun, whose rays are very fierce there, from entering into the grove, and the cool air that came from the river made it not only fit to entertain people in, but refreshed the sweet blossoms, and made it always sweet and charming, and sure the whole globe of the world cannot show so delightful a place

grove was ; and 'tis a marvel to see how such vast trees, as big as English oaks, could take footing on so solid a rock; but all things there are rare, delightful, and wonderful. The candles were made of such aromatic substances that as they burned they cast perfumes around. The very meat, especially that of a little beast called an armadillo,' perfumed the whole room.

During her stay at Surinam, the sprightly Aphra made the acquaintance of two Indians of royal birth-Oroonoko and Imoinda. Their devotion to each other, their captivity as slaves, Oroonoko's attempt to escape with his bride, which led to a severe flogging, after which his wounds were rubbed with red pepper to aggravate the pain, all made a deep impression on the young English girl, and when Oroonoko killed his beloved Imoinda in order to save her from falling into the hands of his persecutors, this seemed a love-story ready made.

When Surinam was ceded to the Dutch, Aphra Johnson returned to England. It was about the year 1658. The reign of the Merry Monarch had not yet begun, but the revolt from extreme Puritanism had already set in, and Roundheads were at a discount. In two years the eventful May 29th dawned, and the second Charles inaugurated an era of corruption and misrule, in which this girl of twenty played her part only too well. Soon after her return to England she was married to Mr. Behn, a rich merchant of Dutch extraction, and by her marriage she gained an entrance to the court of Charles II., when it was in the first exuberance of

and gaiety.

is interesting to call up a picture of the meeting between les II. and Aphra Behn at Whitehall. He stood the centre

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of a group of wigged and jewelled Cavaliers, his plain, harsh features lit up by his brilliant eyes, and set off by the gloss of satin, the glamour of pearls, the radiance of rich-hued velvets, and the softness of falling lace. He was all animation, for the King was enjoying his own again. He saw that the graceful, comely woman before him was quite different from the pretty, simpering simpletons who had no ideas beyond lap-dogs and cards. Aphra Behn's worst feature was her thick broad nose, a cogitative nose, which, though it denoted talent, also showed a want of refinement, a want which her writings abundantly proved. Her eyes were bright, and she had an abundance of brown curling hair, which was parted on her temples, and fell in long ringlets on her neck. There was audacity, sarcasm, scorn in her face. As Hero said of Beatrice

Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes,

Misprising what they look on. One of her greatest attractions was her power of conversation : she could be witty and versatile, lively and amusing. When Charles asked her about Surinam, she described the magnificent trees, the many-coloured stones, and the brilliant hues of the flowers so agreeably that he listened with the deepest attention. When she went on to relate the story of Oroonoko—the black Apolloand his love for the ill-fated Imoinda, she told it with such force and pathos that Charles advised her to write it down, which she did.

• Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave,' on its publication many years afterwards, became widely read, and was converted into a tragedy by Southerne. It can scarcely be called a novel. It is a book of travels; a biography. Aphra Behn was an eye-witness of a great part of it, and what she did not see she heard from the mouth of the chief actor in the history, the hero himself.

Though there is coarseness in some of the descriptions, the drift of the book is good-it illustrates the devotion of an Indian prince to the one woman who has gained possession of his heart. He is faithful to her even to death, and she to him.

Very little is known of Aphra Behn's married life. Her ausband, who did not leave her much of his riches, died about 1666. Charles II., who was gifted with a keen insight into character, had perceived her ability and zeal, and resolved to send her as a female spy to Holland. Well pleased with the commission, she settled herself at Antwerp. She owns that she was of a

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passionate and susceptible temperament, and she soon attracted the attention of two admirers : one a man of thirty-two, Albert or Van der Aalbert of Utrecht, the other a stout, elephantine elderly Dutchman called Van Bruin. Albert, in a moment of indiscretion, confided to Aphra Behn an important State secret—that Cornelius de Witt was intending to send a Dutch fleet up the Thames, under the command of De Ruyter. This secret was immediately communicated by Aphra Behn to the authorities in England, who treated it with scorn and ridicule. Her satisfaction was great when the information she had given turned out to be absolutely correct. She seems to have been badly rewarded for her services to the King, and amused herself by the society which surrounded her. Her rich and elderly admirer, Van Bruin, wrote to her as his most transcendent charmer,' and she answered him in a railing epistle, which begins : 'Extraordinary Sir, I received your extraordinary epistle, which has had extraordinary effects.

. . Have you reflected on the sad consequences of declaring yourself a lover?'

Albert of Utrecht she promised to marry on her return to England. He was preparing for his journey, when he died of fever at Amsterdam. "Astrea,' as she is often called by her biographer, proceeded on her journey to Ostend and Dunkirk, and took ship for England. On the voyage a singular apparition appeared to the crew and passengers. First seen through glasses, the vision came nearer and nearer. It is described as a foursquare floor of various coloured marbles, from which ascended rows of fluted and twisted pillars, embossed round with climbing vines and waving streamers. Upon the pillars, a hundred little Cupids clambered with fluttering wings. This strange apparition came almost near enough for the passengers in the ship to step on to it, then it suddenly vanished. A violent storm followed, the ship was driven on the rocks, and was split to pieces in sight of land. The passengers were landed by the help of boats, and Aphra Behn arrived safe and sound in London. The rest of her life, says her anonymous biographer, was devoted to pleasure and poetry, but certainly there was a great deal of hard work as well. French she knew thoroughly. Her first attempt at a tragedy in verse, 'The Young King,' was taken from the French novel of La Calprenède, but she could not get either a manager or a publisher to bring it out. Among her friends was a barrister, of an old Flintshire family, Edward Ravenscroft, who had given up the