Aphra Behn

Writer and Poet

The poet, writer and dramatist Aphra (Astrea or Aphara) Behn (1640-1689) was buried in the east cloister of Westminster Abbey, near the steps up into the church. Thomas Sprat was Dean of Westminster at the time and allowed the burial and cutting of the inscription.

Her life

She was the daughter of a barber called Bartholomew Johnson and his wife Elizabeth and was baptised as Eafry Johnson on 14th December 1640 at Harbledown in Kent. Her foster brother was Thomas Colepeper. Little is known of her early life but she did spend some time in Surinam in South America. Her husband, merchant Johann Behn, apparently died a few years after their marriage, possibly of the plague.

She wrote many plays, including The Rover, and poems, and became associated with the circle of the Earl of Rochester. Charles II employed her as a spy or agent during the Dutch war. However her reputation was so bad that no one believed her when she warned of a Dutch raid along the Medway river but the raid actually did take place. Her most famous novel is Oroonoko, or the History of the Royal Slave.

Her gravestone reads:

MRS APHRA BEHN DYED APRIL 16 A.D. 1689. Here lies a Proof that Wit can never be Defence enough against Mortality.

The lines may have been written by Aphra herself or possibly by John Hoyle.

The gravestone inscription was re-cut in 1989. A wreath laying ceremony was held at the grave in March of her tercentenary year. Professor Missenheimer, American Behn specialist, laid a wreath of blue iris and yellow daffodils and gave a short speech. Maureen Duffy, one of her biographers, added a bunch of white daffodils.