The RoverAphra Behn

today

Aphra Behn

Behn and the Critics

The Masquerade

Discussion questions

Aphra Behn

1640 — 1689

Biographical details unclear

Prolific writer in many genres

Difficult life; worked hard and died in poverty

“The Incomparable Astrea” or “Lewd Harlot”?

Behn and the Critics

“Sappho famous for her gout and guilt,” “debauch’d and vile” [Sappho=Behn]Robert Gould,

“The Playhouse,” Collected Poems, 1689

The stage how loosely does Astrea tread, Who fairly puts all characters to bed!Alexander Pope, “The First Epistle of the Second Book of Horace Imitated,” 1737

Doth that lewd Harlot, that Poetick Quean,Fam’d through White Fryars, you know who I mean,Mend for reproof, others set up in spight,To flux, takes glisters, vomits, purge and write,Long with a sciatica she’s beside lame,Her limbs distortur’d, Nerves shrunk up with pain,And therefore I’ll all sharp reflections shun,Poverty, Poetry, Pox, are plagues enough for one.

Anonymous Lampoon, 1687[possibly by Robert

Gould]

Once, to your Shame, your Parts to all were shown, But now, (tho’ a more Public Woman grown,) You gain more Reputation in the Town; Grow Public, to your Honour, not your Shame, As more Men now you please, gain much more Fame; Who, for your Parts, got much more Praise before, But, as your Pains, in bringing forth, were more; But now, more credit you from all Men gain, As you bring forth, in Public, with less Pain, Your easiest Off-springs of your Wanton Brain...William Wycherley, “To the Sappho of the Age. Suppos’d to Ly-In of a Love-Distemper, or a Play,” Miscellany Poems, 1704

...when their verse did fail To get ’em Brandy, Bread and Chease and Ale,Their wants by Prostitution were supply’d, Shew but a Tester, you might up and ride: For punk* and Poetess agree so pat[punk=prostitute] You cannot well be This, and not be That.Robert Gould, “The Poetess, A Satyr,” The Works of Mr. Robert Gould, 1709

All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn, which is, most scandalously but rather appropriately in Westminster Abbey, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds. It is she—shady and amorous as she was—who makes it not quite fantastic for me to say to you tonight: Earn five hundred a year by your wits.

Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own, 1928

Masquerade•European tradition

of Carnival: festivals of liberating anonymity when the sexes, and social classes, mixed with relative freedom

•Venetian Carnival the most famous

http://www.ellencline.com/theatre.html

17th couple in carnival masks

F.Bertelli: "Magnifico e Cortigiana" - (1642)

http://www.delpiano.com/carnival/html/magnifico.html

Moretta (mask worn by women, secured with a button held between the teeth)

G.Grevembroch: "Mascara" - (18th century)

http://www.delpiano.com/carnival/html/moretta.html

Group of masked men and women, late 18thc

http://www.delpiano.com/carnival/html/games.htmlG.DePian: highlights from C.Goldoni's play "Le Donne Gelose" - (1791)

Contemporary photos of masked women at the Venetian Carnival

http://www.delpiano.com/carnival/html/gallery.html

http://www.delpiano.com/carnival/html/gallery.html

http://www.delpiano.com/carnival/html/gallery.html

http://www.aurumxxl.com/carnival_2.htm

Casanova (2005)

For Discussion

Based on what we have read so far, how did disguises / masks / masquerades function in Restoration theatre?

How might gender have an impact on these functions?

....

the Rake, from a female perspective (vs. perhaps Horner as an example of a “male perspective”?)

the sexual double standard

the main three women: their characters and their fates

http://www.art-connection.de/masken/page/english/venezian.carnival.2.html