I haven’t had time to post in a week, because I’ve been working on my paper for the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, which meets in Atlanta later this next week. My paper is on Thursday morning, and I’ve been working all week to finish it. I finally finished a complete draft of it, so I can sit back and let it (and my brain) rest for a day before giving it one last once over.
The paper is on Aphra Behn’s 1681 comedy The False Count. My interest in the play lies in its depiction of a group of men who disguise themselves as Turks and “capture” an Englishman, his wife, and his daughter. I’m trying to figure out how this play’s representation of “Turks” reflects Behn’s participation in partisan debates on the exclusion crisis.
This is a portrait of Behn. I’ve never really worked on her before, but I have taught two classes on her. During my first year at OU I taught a senior seminar on Behn. It was a fun class, even if some of Behn’s works weren’t all that great. It always amazes me how some works are anthologized while others — better ones — aren’t. In general, the scholars who were the first to champion Behn were also most interested in her plays that feature prostitutes and women who disguise themselves as prostitutes. They analyzed these characters as early, proto-feminist figures. So, some of the plays that are available in print aren’t, in my opinion, her best ones. The False Count is a good example. It’s not anthologized, but it’s a great play. (I also taught a junior composition course on her and her work.)
The Restoration period was once taught as the ‘Age of Dryden;’ we could easily rename it the ‘Age of Behn.’ It’s been fun researching her play and rediscovering some of the historical context that informs her depiction of “Turks.” It reminds me that one of the things I really enjoy about writing is the discovery process. As you read one scholar, s/he introduces you to a new concept or quote or fact; you then follow up on that, which often leads to another new concept or quote or fact. It’s like a game or a choose-your-own-adventure book.
Being on leave for the past two quarters has been extremely helpful to my research. I haven’t completed anything yet, but I’ve gotten some really good reading and thinking done. And it’s put me in a position to finish an article or two (or maybe three) by the end of the year.
I’m looking forward to the ASECS conference. I’m excited to learn some new things and make some new discoveries. If research is a choose-your-own-adventure, I’m ready to start reading a new one!
![IMG_8341[1]](https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8644/27753735444_2ca20d29d0_s.jpg "IMG_8341[1]")
Have you ever heard about the French book by Bernard de Fontenelle, that Aphra Behn translated into English:
“The history of oracles, and the cheats of the pagan priests. Fontenelle based his work on Antonius van Dale’s De oraculis ethnicorum dissertationes duae. and set out to disprove the supernatural origin of oracles and then analysed the causes of the credulity which accepts the marvellous”. E. Bourgeois, Source de l’histoire de France XVIIe siècle,no. 1639.
The book is more interesting because of its foreword, where Aphra dedicates her work to… George Jeffreys, the (in)famous judge!
She writes:
“Methought when all the honest part of the World was full of your Praise, when all that profess Loyalty were Celebrating your never dying Name, I shou’d have lookt upon my self as unworthy of the Honour I now aspire to, if I amongst the number, shou’d not with all imaginable gratitude pay my acknowledgments for the good you have rendered the publick, as well as for the Services you haverendred the Crown; which you have more effectually done, with more nobleBravery, Fortitude and Resignation, than any other great States-man”
I wonder for years, is she playing the hypocrite or really adores him? Because I always loved him despite the common view, I’d be happy to know if Aphra was sincere.