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As a Professor of English at the University of San Diego, I have long had a research interest in Aphra Behn. In fact, along with Bonnie Hain, Ellen Gardiner, and Carolyn Woodward, I helped organize the initial meeting in 1990 of the Aphra Behn Society in San Diego. Since that time I have given a number of papers and published a few articles on Behn. In the Fall of 1997, I visited London, and I was invited by Professor Mary DeShazer of Wake Forest University to give a lecture on The Lucky Chance to students and faculty who were spending a semester at the University’s London facility, Worrell House. Professor DeShazer was editing a new anthology of women’s literature (recently published by Longman) and had decided to include Behn’s play, as well as teaching it to the students. I decided to take advantage of the opportunity by setting the lecture into a tour of Aphra Behn’s London. I built the tour around information gleaned from Maureen Duffy’s The Passionate Shepherdess, using the Michelin Guide to London to discover which buildings were still extant. The students, faculty and I spend a happy day in Aphra Behn’s footsteps. For members of the society visiting London might enjoy doing the same, I have included the tour below.
--Cynthia Caywood, University of San Diego
1. Birdcage Walk: a favorite
Restoration walk, lined with aviaries built by Charles II.
2. Westminster Abbey: Behn
is buried in the Cloisters.
3. Pall Mall: Nell Gywnn,
one of the leading actresses of the period, a close friend of Behn’s, and
a mistress of Charles II, lived at No. 79.
4. The Banqueting Hall,
Whitehall Place: one of the few surviving bits of Whitehall Palace, residence
of Charles II and James II. See attached guide.
5. York Watergate: marked
the river’s edge in Behn’s time.
6. #12 Buckingham St.: Samuel
Pepys’ home from 1679-1688. Pepys was a devoted diarist and theatregoer
who has left us extensive accounts of daily life in the Restoration.
7. The Lamb and Flag, Rose
St.: pub extant during Behn’s time; John Dryden was attacked outside the
pub, possibly by literary enemies. Site of our pub lunch, if possible.
8. #1 Bow St: site of Will’s
Coffeehouse, the heart of Restoration literary London.
9. The Strand: Behn’s
mother, Elizabeth Johnson, is thought to have lived in this neighborhood after
she joined her daughter in London.
10. Theatre Royal, Drury
Lane: the site of Thomas Killegrew’s theatre. The King’s Company (the
name of his theatre company ) was rival to Behn’s company, The Duke’s.
However, the two companies merged in 1683, and The Lucky Chance was produced
here in l686.
11. Lincoln’s Inn Fields:
the first home of the Duke’s Company. Behn’s first play. The Amorous
Prince, was produced here in l671. During the time of The Lucky Chance, it had
become a dangerous part of the city; Bredwell tells Gayman his “spirit”
will meet him at L.I.F. at the end of II,i.
12. The Temple: John Hoyle,
Behn’s lover, had his law offices here and lived nearby. Her publisher
was also located in this area.
13. Fleet Street: site of
the Fleet Prison, where Behn was imprisoned for debt in 1668. Supposedly, in
1686, Behn’s coach broke down in the slush in front of the Temple on Fleet
Street, and Behn was thrown out. Also located here is Child’s Bank, one
of London’s oldest bank, and perhaps the kind of establishment Sir Cautious
ran. See attached.
14. Gray’s Inn: place
where John Hoyle studied law.
15. St. Andrew’s Street:
Hoyle murdered a man here in l665, but was acquitted.
16. Whitefriar’s Rd.:
Behn lived most of her London life somewhere in this area. Alsatia, the slum
where Gayman is living in The Lucky Chance, was located in the bad part of Whitefriars.
17. Dorset Blgs: the site
of the Dorset Garden Theatre, the home of the Duke’s Company, Behn’s
employer.
18. Dorset St: at the end
of her life, Behn lived here.
19. St. Bride’s: Behn’s
neighborhood parish, and the possible site where her husband is buried: a Richard
Ben, merchant of Dutch extraction, is buried here. See attached.
20. Criminal Courts, The
Old Bailey: the judicial center of Behn’s (and modern day London). Hoyle
was tried here for homosexuality in 1687. The charges were dismissed.
21. Guildhall: center of
London government. Bredwell tells Sir Feeble that the Alderman are gathering
there because of a threat to the King, a ruse to get him to go to Sir Cautious’
house before he can bed Leticia.
22. Bank of England: established
during the late seventeenth century, it was important to the merchants of the
city like Fulbank and Fainwood.
23. The Royal Exchange:
established by Charles II. Again, an important financial center for city merchants
like Fulbank and Fainwood.