Item: Aphra Behn The Forc’d Marriage or Jealous Bridegroom 1671 4to 1ST ED
Sold For: $3,735.85
Bids: 23
Date: Aug 26, 2012
Auction: Ebay
Description and Image By: csborgal2
All women together, ought to let flowers fall upon the grave of aphra behn… For it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds. – virginia woolf Offered with no reserve The extremely rare and desirable first edition of aphra behn’s first publication, ‘the forc’d marriage, or the jealous bridegroom, a tragi-comedy,’ printed at london in quarto in 1671 for james magnus in ‘russel-street,’ london. This is an exceptionally rare book. I can trace no example in the auction record between 1980 and 2011, and there is no other example for sale at present. Further, estc notes only 16 copies in institutional libraries worldwide, which is an extremely small number for a late 17th century imprint. The full title reads as follows: “the forc’d marriage, or the jealous bridegroom, a tragi-comedy. As it is acted at his highnesse the duke of york’s theatre. / written by a. Behn. Va mon enfant! Prend ta fortune — / … london, / printed by h.l. And r.b. For james magnus in russel-street, near the piazza. 1671.” The volume is complete in all respects and is paginated [6], 89, [1]. Each leaf measures about 210 mm by 165 mm. The volume is cleanly disbound and is in very good to excellent condition, with ample margins, clear print and generally clean pages throughout. The leaves are mildly toned. In the history of english literature, the 1671 first edition of aphra behn’s ‘the forc’d marriage, or the jealous bridegroom’ occupies a place of great import. It is the first publication by the first woman to earn her living by writing. The play was written shortly after behn had returned to england following her work as a spy for charles ii during the second anglo-dutch war. The prologue and epilogue address explicitly the place of women in literature and the right of women to pursue literary endeavours: “gallants, our poets have of la’e so us’d yee, In play and prologue too, so much abus’d yee. That should we beg your aids, i justly fear, Y’are so incens’d you’d hardly lend it here. But when against a common foe we arm, Each will assist to guard his won concern. Women, those charming victors, in whose eyes, Lay all their arts, and their artilleries; Not being contented with the wounds they made, Would by new stratagems our light invade. Beauty alone goes now at too cheap rates, And therefore they like wise and politick states, Court a new power that may the old supply, And keep as well as gain the victory. They’le joyn the force of wit to beauty now, And so maintain the right they have in you; If the vain sex this priviledge should boast, Past sure of a declining face we’re lost …” The wikipedia entry for aphra behn reads as follows: “aphra behn (baptised 14 december 1640 – 16 april 1689) was a prolific dramatist of the english restoration and was one of the first english professional female writers. Her writing contributed to the amatory fiction genre of british literature. Along with delarivier manley and eliza haywood, she is sometimes referred to as part of “the fair triumvirate of wit. “one of the first english women to earn her livelihood by authorship, behn’s life is difficult to unravel and relate. Information regarding her, especially her early life, is scant, but she was almost certainly born in or near canterbury to bartholomew johnson, a barber, and elizabeth denham. The two were married in 1638 and aphra, or eaffry, was baptized on 14 december 1640 in harbledown, a village just outside canterbury. Elizabeth denham was employed as a nurse to the wealthy colepeper family, who lived locally, which means that it is likely that aphra grew up with and spent time with the family’s children. The younger child, thomas colepeper, later described aphra as his foster sister. “in 1663 she visited an english sugar colony on the suriname river, on the coast east of venezuela (a region later known as suriname). During this trip she is supposed to have met an african slave leader, whose story formed the basis for one of her most famous works, oroonoko, widely credited as the book which first brought home to england a sense of the horrors of slavery. The veracity of her journey to suriname has often been called into question; however, enough evidence has been found to convince most behn scholars today that the trip did indeed take place. “though little is really known about behn’s early years, evidence suggests that she may have had a catholic upbringing. She once admitted that she was “designed for a nun” and the fact that she had so many catholic connections, such as henry neville who was later arrested, would certainly have aroused suspicions during the anti-catholic fervor of the 1680s (goreau 243). Her sympathy to the catholics is further demonstrated by her dedication of her play “the rover ii” to the catholic duke of york who had been exiled for the second time (247). “behn was firmly dedicated to the restored king charles ii. As political parties first emerged during this time, behn was a tory supporter. Tories believed in absolute allegiance to the king, who governed by divine right (246). Behn often used her writings to attack the parliamentary whigs claiming “in public spirits call’d, good o’ th’ commonwealth…so tho’ by different ways the fever seize…in all ’tis one and the same mad disease.” this was behn’s reproach to parliament which had denied the king funds. Like most tories, behn was distrustful of parliament and whigs since the revolution and wrote propaganda in support of the restored monarchy (248). “shortly after her return to england in 1664 aphra johnson married johan behn, who was a merchant of german or dutch extraction. Little conclusive information is known about their marriage, but it did not last for more than a few years since her husband died soon. “by 1666 behn had become attached to the court, possibly through the influence of thomas culpepper and other associates of influence, where she was recruited as a political spy to antwerp by charles ii. Her code name for her exploits is said to have been astrea, a name under which she subsequently published much of her writings. The second anglo-dutch war had broken out between england and the netherlands in 1665. Her chief business was to establish an intimacy with william scott, son of thomas scott, the regicide who had been executed 17 october, 1660, since william was ready to become a spy in the english service and to report on the doings of the english exiles who were plotting against the king. “behn’s exploits were not profitable, however, as charles was slow in paying (if he paid at all) for either her services or her expenses whilst abroad. Money had to be borrowed for behn to return to london, where a year’s petitioning of charles for payment went unheard, and she ended up in a debtor’s prison. By 1669 an undisclosed source had paid behn’s debts, and she was released from prison, starting from this point to become one of the first women who wrote for a living. She cultivated the friendship of various playwrights, and starting in 1670 she produced many plays and novels, as well as poems and pamphlets. Her most popular works included the rover, love-letters between a nobleman and his sister, and oroonoko. In 1688, the year before her death, she published a discovery of new worlds, a translation of a french popularisation of astronomy, entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes, by bernard le bovier de fontenelle, written as a novel in a form similar to her own work, but with her new, thoughtful, religiously-oriented preface. “aphra behn died on 16 april 1689, and was buried in westminster abbey. Below the inscription on her tombstone read the words: “here lies a proof that wit can never be / defence enough against mortality.” she was quoted as once stating that she had led a “life dedicated to pleasure and poetry.” “in author virginia woolf’s reckoning, behn’s total career is more important than any particular work it produced. Woolf wrote, “all women together, ought to let flowers fall upon the grave of aphra behn… For it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds.” vita sackville-west called behn “‘an inhabitant of grub street with the best of them, . . . A phenomenon never seen and . . . Furiously resented.’ she was, as felix shelling said, ‘a very gifted woman, compelled to write for bread in an age in which literature . . . Catered habitually to the lowest and most depraved of human inclinations. Her success depended upon her ability to write like a man.’ . . . She was, as edmund gosse remarked, ‘the george sand of the restoration,’ and she lived the bohemian life in london in the seventeenth century as george sand lived it in paris in the nineteenth.” (entry on behn in british authors before 1800: a biographical dictionary ed. Stanley kunitz and howard haycraft. New york: h.w. Wilson, 1952. Pg. 36.)”