Five Plays: The Town-Fop, The False Count, The Lucky Chance, The Forc'd Marriage, and The Emperor of the Moon

by Aphra Behn

According to Wikipedia: "Aphra Behn (10 July 1640 - 16 April 1689) was a prolific dramatist of the Restoration and was one of the first English professional female writers. Her writing participated in the amatory fiction genre of British literature... By 1669 an undisclosed source had paid Behn's debts, and she was released from prison, starting from this point to become one of the first women who wrote for a living. She cultivated the friendship of various playwrights, and starting in 1670 she produced many plays and novels, as well as poems and pamphlets. Her most popular works included The Rover, Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister, and Oroonoko."

Genres: Plays

Nook

First published December 10, 1990

About the author

Aphra Behn, or Ayfara Behn, of the first professional women authors in English on Britain wrote plays, poetry, and her best known work, the prose fiction Oroonoko (1688).

Aphra Behn was a prolific dramatist of the Restoration and was one of the female. Her contributed to the amatory genre of literature. People sometimes refer to Delarivier Manley, Eliza Haywood, and her as part of "the fair triumvirate of wit."

In reckoning of Adeline Virginia Stephen Woolf, more important total career of Behn produced any particular work. Woolf wrote, "All women together, ought to let flowers fall upon the grave of Aphra Behn … for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds." Victoria Mary Sackville-West called Behn "an inhabitant of Grub Street with the best of them, … a phenomenon never seen and … furiously resented." Felix Shelling called her "a very gifted woman, compelled to write for bread in an age in which literature … catered habitually to the lowest and most depraved of human inclinations. Her success depended upon her ability to write like a man." Edmund Gosse remarked that "the George Sand of the Restoration" lived the bohemian life in London in the 17th century as Paris two centuries later.

Reviews

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Abdelazer *** In Abdelazer (what an awkward name -- I even stumbled over it reading!) everyone is in love with someone who can’t stand them. (But for Alonzo and Leonora.) This creates quite a bit of conflict, hard feelings, mayhem and, of course, tragic murder. After a while, the ears become numb to the contant ringing of the love triangles. (Have these people never been married? I kid, I kid.)

Amidst all the pleading for love, and all the rejection of love, the play weaves a complicated story of Abdelazer’s plot to destroy the Spanish royal house and become king. (The father of Abdelazer, a Moor and prince in his own right, was apparently murdered by the King Philip I. Abdelazer is described occasionally as a slave, though he seems more like a mercenary. Perhaps he rose from slavery to become a general? It’s not clear.) Abelazer is aided by the wickedly evil Queen, who helps poison her husband (the King no less) and tries to kill her two sons.

I had the good fortune to see a production of Othello while reading Abdelazer. But it might have been a misfortune for reading Abdelazer. In Othello, Iago’s evil is delicious. He embraces the role of the villain. His intentions are crystal clear. Abdelazer is a rather blurry creation. He mentions his father’s murder, and grumbles about not being treated right, but for all the destruction he unleashes, one never gets to the emotional core of the reason why. It all seems like a pique. Even the Queen’s well of evil is unexplained. (And wanting to kill your sons would seem to need a pretty good explanation other than infatuation.)

The complicated plot is handled deftly. Certainly Behn is better than Dryden. But that’s not really saying much.

Behn is one of the rare women playwrights. But the times were not conducive to great playwrighting. The melodrama and constant moaning about honor locked these works into a particular place and time, and leave the modern reader with a few good speeches, but that’s it.

If you enjoy the history of drama, then Behn is a must read. If you are looking for an highly enjoyable work of literary art, I would look elsewhere.


The Rover *** (11/04)

[Doria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's a nice collection of five of Behn's plays, comprising in a relatively small sample a good variety from all across her writing career, including her one tragic play -Abdelazar - alongside the other four comedies. The settings vary, but the biting, mocking, witty tone is always pure Aphra.