Volume I Part 3 (1/2)
[Footnote 46: '_Sappho_ famous for her Gout and Guilt,' writes Gould in _The Poetess, a Satyr_.]
This she sent to his daughter-in-law with the following letter[47]:--
Madam,
At such losses as you have sustain'd in that of yo{r} Glorious ffather in Law M{r}. Waller, the whole world must wait on your sighs & mournings, tho' we must allow yours to be the more sensible by how much more (above your s.e.x) you are Mistriss of that Generous Tallent that made him so great & so admird (besids what we will allow as a Relation) tis therfore at your ffeet Madam we ought to lay all those Tributary Garlands, we humbler pretenders to the Muses believe it our Duty to offer at his Tombe-- in excuse for mine Madam I can only say I am very ill & have been dying this twelve month, that they want those Graces & that spiritt w{ch} possible I might have drest em in had my health & dulling vapors permitted me, howeuer Madam they are left to your finer judgment to determin whether they are worthy the Honour of the Press among those that cellibrat M{r}. Wallers great fame, or of being doomed to the fire & whateuer you decree will extreamly sattisfy
Madam yo{r} most Devoted & most Obeadient Seruant A. BEHN.
I humbly beg pardon for my yll writing Madam for tis with a Lame hand scarce able to hold a pen.
[Footnote 47: Now published for the first time by the courtesy of G. Thorn Drury, Esq., K.C., who generously obliged me with a transcript of the original.]
Her weakness, la.s.situde, and despondency are more than apparent; yet bravely buckling to her work, and encouraged by her success with Fontenelle, she Englished with rare skill his _Theory of the System of Several New Inhabited Worlds_, prefixing thereto a first-rate 'Essay on Translated Prose.' She shows herself an admirable critic, broad-minded, with a keen eye for niceties of style. _The Fair Jilt_ (licensed 17 April, 1688),[48] _Oroonoko_, and _Agnes de Castro_, followed in swift succession. She also published _Lycidus, a Voyage from the Island of Love_, returning to the Abbe Tallemant's dainty preciosities. On 10 June, James Francis Edward, Prince of Wales, was born at St. James's Palace, and Mrs. Behn having already written a _Congratulatory Poem_[49]
to Queen Mary of Modena on her expectation of the Prince, was ready with a Poem on his Happy Birth.
[Footnote 48: In the original edition of _The Fair Jilt_ (1688), we have advertised: 'There is now in the Press, _Oroonoko; or, The History of the Royal Slave_. Written by Madam _Behn_.']
[Footnote 49: In the second edition (1688), of this _Congratulatory Poem_ to Queen Mary of Modena we have the following advertis.e.m.e.nt:-- 'On Wednesday next will be Published the most Ingenious and long Expected History of _Oroonoko; or, the Royal Slave_. By Mrs. _Behn_.']
One of the most social and convivial of women, a thorough Tory, well known to Dryden, Creech, Otway and all the leading men of her day, warm helper and ally of every struggling writer, Astrea began to be completely overpowered by the continual strain, the unremittent tax upon both health and time. Overworked and overwrought, in the early months of 1689 she put into English verse the sixth book (_of Trees_) from Cowley's _s.e.x Libri Plantarum_ (1668). Nahum Tate undertook Books IV and V and prefaced the translation when printed. As Mrs. Behn knew no Latin no doubt some friend, perhaps Tate himself, must have paraphrased the original for her. She further published _The Lucky Mistake_ and _The History of the Nun; or, The Fair Vow Breaker_,[50] licensed 22 October, 1688. On the afternoon of 12 February, Mary, wife of William of Orange, had with great diffidence landed at Whitehall Stairs, and Mrs. Behn congratulated the lady in her Poem _To Her Sacred Majesty Queen Mary on her Arrival in England_. One regrets to find her writing on such an occasion, and that she realized the impropriety of her conduct is clear from the reference to the banished monarch. But she was weary, depressed, and ill, and had indeed for months past been racked with incessant pain. An agonizing complication of disorders now gave scant hope of recovery. It is in the highest degree interesting to note that during her last sickness Dr. Burnet, a figure of no little importance at that moment, kindly enquired after the dying woman. The Pindaric in which she thanks him, and which was printed March, 1689, proved the last poem she herself saw through the press. At length exhausted nature failed altogether, and she expired 16 April, 1689, the end hastened by a sad lack of skill in her physician. She is buried in the east cloisters of Westminster Abbey. A black marble slab marks the spot. On it are graven 'Mrs. Aphra Behn Dyed April, 16, A.D. 1689,' and two lines, 'made by a very ingenious Gentleman tho' no Poet':--[51]
Here lies a Proof that Wit can never be Defence enough against Mortality.[52]
[Footnote 50: The t.i.tle page has 1689, but it was possibly published late in 1688.]
[Footnote 51: Traditionally said to be John Hoyle.]
[Footnote 52: Sam Briscoe, the publisher, in his Dedicatory Epistle to _Familiar Letters of Love, Gallantry, etc._ (2 vols., 1718), says: 'Had the rough Days of K. _Charles_ II _newly recover'd from the Confusion of a Civil War_, or the tempestuous Time of _James_ the Second, had the same _Sence of Wit_ as our _Gentlemen_ now appear to have, the first Impressions of _Milton's Paradise Lost_ had never been sold for _Waste Paper_; the Inimitable _Hudibras_ had never suffered the Miseries of a Neglected Cavalier; _Tom Brown_ the merriest and most diverting'st man, had never expir'd so neglected; Mr. _Dryden_'s Religion would never have lost him his _Pension_; or Mrs. _Behn_ ever had but _two Lines_ upon her _Grave-stone_.']
'She was of a generous and open Temper, something pa.s.sionate, very serviceable to her Friends in all that was in her Power; and could sooner forgive an Injury, than do one. She had Wit, Honour, Good-Humour, and Judgment. She was Mistress of all the pleasing Arts of Conversation, but us'd 'em not to any but those who love Plain-dealing.' So she comes before us. A graceful, comely woman,[53] merry and buxom, with brown hair and bright eyes, candid, sincere, a brilliant conversationalist in days when conversation was no mere slipshod gabble of slang but cut and thrust of poignant epigram and repartee; warm-hearted, perhaps too warm-hearted, and ready to lend a helping hand even to the most undeserving, a quality which gathered all Grub Street round her door. At a period when any and every writer, mean or great, of whatsoever merit or party, was continually a.s.sailed with vehement satire and acrid lampoons, lacking both truth and decency, Aphra Behn does not come off scot-free, n.o.body did; and upon occasion her name is amply vilified by her foes. There are some eight ungenerous lines with a side reference to the 'Conquests she had won' in Buckingham's _A Trial of the Poets for the Bays_, and a page or two of insipid spiritless rhymes, _The Female Laureat_, find a place in _State Poems_. The same collection contains _A Satyr on the Modern Translators_. 'Odi Imitatores servum pecus,' &c.
By Mr. P----r,[54] 1684. It begins rather smartly:--
Since the united Cunning of the Stage, Has balk'd the hireling Drudges of the Age; Since _Betterton_ of late so thrifty 's grown, Revives Old Plays, or wisely acts his own;
the modern poets
Have left Stage-practice, chang'd their old Vocations, Atoning for bad Plays with worse Translations.
In some instances this was true enough, but when the writer attacks Dryden he becomes ridiculous and imprecates
May he still split on some unlucky Coast, And have his Works or Dictionary lost: That he may know what _Roman Authors_ mean, No more than does our blind Translatress _Behn_,[55]
The Female Wit, who next convicted stands, Not for abusing _Ovid's_ verse but _Sand's_: She might have learn'd from the ill-borrow'd Grace, (Which little helps the Ruin of her Face) That Wit, like Beauty, triumphs o'er the Heart When more of Nature's seen, and less of Art: Nor strive in _Ovid's_ Letters to have shown As much of Skill, as Lewdness in her own.
Then let her from the next inconstant Lover, Take a new Copy for a second Rover.
Describe the Cunning of a jilting Wh.o.r.e, From the ill Arts herself has us'd before; Thus let her write, but _Paraphrase_ no more.
These verses are verjuiced, unwarranted, unfair. Tom Brown too in his _Letters from the Dead to the Living_ has a long epistle 'From worthy Mrs. Behn the Poetess, to the famous Virgin Actress,' (Mrs.