This was a very apt talk for today, the 8th March, as it was International Women's Day.
Our speaker Charlotte Cornell is an excellent, amusing and energetic speaker who has great affinity for the subject of her talk. She started with a gallows humour tale about some of her ancestors who were convicted murderers.
Moving on to the subject of her talk Charlotte said that despite being the foremost professional female playwright of the 17th century little is heard about Aphra Behn and her prolific literary works today. The first time she became aware of Aphra Behn and her connections with Canterbury was during lockdown in 2020. Charlotte was researching another subject for her PhD but came across some papers mentioning Aphra. This made Charlotte immediately apply to change her doctorate to Aphra Behn.
Aphra Behn, née Aphra Johnson, was born in Harbledown, Canterbury in 1640. Her parents were Bart Johnson a barber, and Elizabeth Dunham a wet nurse who came from a 'light aristocratic' Faversham family. Elizabeth’s marriage was not a particularly good match for her, not only due to Bart’s lower social status, but also because he was a drunk and was often before the courts. Bart Johnson was constantly applying for freedom of the city of Canterbury to set up as a barber. In the 17th century only, a freeman could legally ply their trade in Canterbury. But his application was refused by the mayor at least three times. Regardless, Bart Johnson sets up an illegal barber’s shop in Canterbury anyway, undercutting his contemporaries in the barbers’ guild who petition against him.
Meanwhile, Aphra’s mother Elizabeth obtains a position as nurse to the Culpepper family at Sturry House, now Junior Kings. It is thought that this is where Aphra learnt to read and write, was given access to a library and acquire some education, possibly alongside the daughter of the house. Nevertheless, Aphra complains bitterly in a poem written later that females are not given the chance to learn Latin, and to be able to study classics in their original form.
In 1649 Bart finally gets granted the freedom of the city but not as a barber. He applies as the innkeeper of the Queen’s Arms, which was in Stour Street opposite the Poor Priests Hospital. A way of trying to dissuade an unwelcome applicant from becoming a freeman was to price them out of the market. Bart’s fee was set at £10.00 which was well beyond his means. However, he borrows the money which leads to him becoming a debtor when subsequently he is unable to pay back the loan.
A debtor in the 17th century was considered a moral failure in the community and could be punished by imprisonment until the debt was paid. Bart tries to petition The Lord Protector Cromwell to quash the debt which is not granted. Consequently, Bart moves the family including a teenaged Aphra, to London the following year and it is not thought that she ever returned to Canterbury.
Charlotte has researched Aphra’s travels. She goes to Suriname in South America where she meets William Scott and she witnesses the abuses of black slavery which she writes about it in her work 'Oroonoko'. Following her father’s death, she returns to England a widow having married a Mr Behn, who is thought to be German. There was a high proportion of German nationals in Suriname at this time. However, there is no record of her marriage, so, did she pretend to have been married? Widows had greater freedom in her time than single women and wives?
Aphra meets Charles II giving him feathers and is recruited as an agent or spy. Charlotte said but not a very good one. She is sent to Holland to find Scott and bring him back, but fails to return with him. Aphra does warn the authorities that the Dutch are planning to invade with an attack on the Medway in 1667. This time her spying was accurate but nobody listens to her as she is a woman and the Dutch stage the attack as she had reported they would.
Aphra earned her own money writing 17 plays during her lifetime plus poems and other literary works. Her plays were professionally performed on stage over a 70-year period. Her plays included 'The Fore'd Marriage' and 'the Rover' they tackle the disreputable side of male female relationships. As a female writer in this era, she was considered perverted to write about such things although her male counterparts writing on the same subject were not considered degenerates.
Little else is known of Aphra Behn’s life other than she died in 1680 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Regrettably, not in poet's corner with other famous people from the world of literature.
By the end of the 17th century her work falls out of fashion and although there were two known portraits made of her they are now missing. Vita Sackville West is thought to have written the only biography of her life.
Charlotte is a leading member of the Canterbury Commemoration Society team and has raised several thousand pounds for a statue of Aphra Behn to stand on the pavement outside The Beaney Library. Charlotte plans for the statue to be life sized but commanding and also tactile so that people will want to put an arm around her. There are also plans for blue plaques at the places where she lived.
An exhibition of her life is scheduled in Canterbury in July 2024.
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Report by Heather Bethell, edited by Tricia Baxter