The Washington times., 1901-09-15
FIRST WOMAN PLAYWRIGHT.
Her Dramas Entitled Her to Grave
In westminster Abbey.

Aphra Rehn seems to have been idenu-
| fed positively as the first of the women
| dramatists and also the first OF what an
| unpaIlaut Australian writer has described
az ..uen hens" She was born in England
| in the darkest days of the Comlhoh-
wealth and was lucky enough to be saVeu
| from growing up in that atmosphere Oh
hypocrisy which required the license Oh
| the restoration to clear ana put me"
once more on natural basis OF HE. her
| father was dead but she lived with a rei-
alive who had adopted her and was SENT
when Aphra was only child, to De Lieu
tenant Governor of Surinam or Du'ch
| Guiana. Here she met the chieftain ori-
| nooko. who was the hero of her hrst noVei
and with whom she is said TO nave peeh
| in love. She saw there the slave trade IN
| its worst horrors. -,
She returned to England when old
enough TO marry, and almost lmmeuiately
| took advantage of that privilege, chans-
| ing for the Dutch name Behn her maiden
name of johnson. She was also taken Dy
this marriage to the Court oi ma. IN. . l.s - -,
and the monarch had such respec. ioi rIni ~
ability that he sent her as spy TO fiol-
land when the Dutch war OF his reign pe-
gan and she lived in Antwerp IN thas
service 1t was on her return TO EngiaHu
that she decided to put herself into riNal-
nv with the dramatists of the day. oni-
en- had begun to act in the theatres III
place OF boys. and she seems 10 have @ ue
termined that one OF them '1,nn1 wOuiu ct of the
to make her way into INC
playwrights. ,.,,,. long
struggle The atmosphere ot Iio,.a liz nen
The license of the Restoration qraitiatists s
was at its worst. DRYDEN Nyi.i,y,,
Conyreye and the rest were trahsiatlhs
from French originals ana oetouiing thth i
hriitia ntIv. they were finding native SUD
iects of drama that could be made Just
&c evil She came into the theatre pc
cause she was competed 10 earn ,. hsi Sa nx-
ing. and for that reason she may pe eA-
rused for persisting for such long time
in the attempt to do something she should
have been asha OF at any , uins' .o-.,
She struggled for a long period be1ore
bar first drama was produced. That was
'.The Forced Marriage. Ii succeeGeu
| well enough for her to get another play
before the public TINS ,t defonu anminn wG1 s,,c.
cess II was thought to be the work OF
n man and that helped her In al She
wrote seventeen plays, OF whlcn III, ne
| Rovers'' THE Roundheads," and Ihe
| City Heiress' were the most successful.
| She was as licentious in all her writings
| as the worst of the other sex and IL Is
| agreeable to see how in that respect the
women who have followed her ditfer from
her But foul speech was hablt OF her
| day.
| mon with the women dramatists of our
| time, in that she borrowed, according 10
| the testimony of contemporary critics,
| from her own countrymen as well as from
| the French She gained the respect of the
| dramatists of the day, however, and they
| even helped her with her work. Ravens
| croft wrote some of her epilogues and
| Southern, who made his tragedy ORR
| nooko" from her novel, was of assist
| ance to her. She was said to be as WHY
as the best OF the men of that witty pc
| riod.
| When she died at the age of forty-ni
| from overwork she was buried at West
| minister Abbey. where not many OF the
| men dramatists of the period in England
| rest.