Teaching Resource
The Spying letters
In 1664 Aphra Johnson found herself back in London after her journey to Surinam. It is likely that her father died around this time and she needed to find work to keep herself and her widowed mother, Elizabeth. It is likely that Aphra’s foster brother, Thomas Colepeper introduced Aphra to Thomas Killigrew. She seems to have made a good impression in respect of the Surinam trip, and now Aphra was offered a new commission: to travel to Antwerp to persuade William Scot to work for Charles II’s regime.
Around this time Aphra Johnson changed her name to Aphra Behn, It is likely that she married a German trader, Johan Behn. But he either left her or died: there is no further trace of him. So the need for paid work remained. So Aphra Behn accepted the commission, the code name of Astraea 160 and an advance of £50. She received a list of instructions headed “Memorials for Mrs Affora”, and set off, accompanied by her mother, her sister and a servant.
It was not long before everything went badly wrong: the 24-year-old spy was hopelessly out of her depth in terms of how to operate unsupervised in a foreign city. An added problem was that this was an expensive place, and the exchange rate meant that the £50 was worth less than anticipated.
Most of Aphra Behn’s reports to her headquarters still exist, and are kept at the National Archive in Kew. In some cases we have the original letter; in others a copy has been kept on file.
And the reports make disheartening reading. The 24-year-old spy is completely out of her depth. She soon makes contact with her “person of interest”, William Scot, who is happy to talk, but is far more sophisticated at the espionage game than she. Scot drip feeds her a few snippets of information, but wants money in return.
As the weeks go by, Aphra Behn’s reports are increasingly concerned with her financial situation, with pleas for more money taking a primary place. We are told she has sold her jewellery to pay her hotel bill, and has made the mistake of sending a servant to London to collect a cash advance. It becomes clear that none of this is going down well with Killigrew and his colleagues.
Finally Aphra Behn borrows money from a contact to pay her bills and return to London, where she arrives in the aftermath of the Fire of London, which has destroyed some four fifths of the London she knew. Over the next few months, she petitions King Charles II for money, and may have been imprisoned for debt. At this time, possibly helped by her foster brother Thomas Colepeper, she starts to make money by writing, and may have been employed to teach the young actors at the first-ever drama school, run by Sir William Davenant and his wife. It is to be another five years before her first play is staged in the professional theatre.
Activity 1
Read the excerpts of Aphra Behn’s report letters via this link.
Using the first, “Memorials for Mrs Aphora”, imagine and write Aphra Behn’s “to do” list the first night she arrives in Antwerp. What is on the list, and in what order?
It’s all going badly wrong: Aphra Behn has heard from her mother, who has returned to London, how badly her attempt to obtain a further cash advance has gone down with Thomas Killigrew and his bosses. Use the link to Letter 8 (link). Imagine the scene when Behn’s servant arrived at HQ.
Write your own version of his report (we do not have this, and need you to imagine it)
Thinking for a moment about how William Scott might feel: he is playing a complicated and probably frightening game, playing off the English and the Netherlands. Scott was playing several spymasters off against one another. He may, however, have been afraid: we know he was not heard of again from a few months after Behn left. Please write a diary entry for him. How is he feeling?
We know Aphra Behn spent much time in petitioning Charles II for money to repay the debts she had incurred. Please write one of those petitions.
Activity 2
We have no report of Aphra Behn’s return to London. She has been away during the period of the Great Fire (September 1665) and is returning to a city virtually unrecognisable to its citizens. We don’t have an exact date, and we don’t know, either, where she stayed when she arrived.
Imagining that Aphra Behn and her servant arrive at the Port of London with no one to meet them, what are their first actions? Who does she write to and why? Please draft her first letters.
When Aphra Behn had leisure to look round the city, what are her first impressions? Remember she has known London well. Now most of it has vanished. She decides to go for a walk, heading into the old city of London. What does she see, and how does it feel?
Clio’s Company (registered charity no. 1101853) is grateful for generous financial support for this project from The Portal Trust
