SOURCE: "Aphra Behn," in Women Playwrights in England c. 1363-1750, Bucknell University Press, 1980, pp. 55-80.

Below, Cotton studies the development of Behn's career and the course of critical reaction to her work.

Aphra Behn (c. 1640-89) was a hard-driving professional playwright, independent, bawdy, witty, and tough. She differed from all her feminine predecessors because she was "forced to write for Bread and not ashamed to owne it" (To the Reader, Sir Patient Fancy). Nothing is known of her background or education but myths and guesses. She was born in Wye; she was born in Canterbury. Her maiden name was Amis; or Johnson. She was the daughter of a barber; or of the lieutenant-general of Surinam. She was married to a London merchant named Behn, of Dutch extraction; or Mr. Behn was a fiction. She had lovers innumerable; she suffered faithfully a long unhappy passion for a bisexual lawyer...