APHRA BEHN, that good-humoured lady, that
lady "dressed in the loose robe de chambre,
with her neck and breasts bare; how much fire
in her eye! what a passionate expression in her
motions! how much assurance in her features!"
was born at Wye near Canterbury in the sum-
mer of 1640, and disappears at an early age
from the shores of England and the pages of
reputable biography. From the moment when
she was carried, an infant in arms, past the hop
gardens and into the church under the green hill
at Wye, she set out on a career rich in con-
tradiction and controversy. Her parentage,
the place of her birth, the status of her father,

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