Aphra Behn [Aphara] (; 14 December 1640? – 16 April 1689) was a British playwright, poet, translator and fiction writer from the
Restoration era. As one of the first English women to earn her living by her writing, she broke cultural barriers and served as a literary role model for later generations of women authors. Rising from obscurity, she came to the notice of
Charles II, who employed her as a spy in
Antwerp. Upon her return to
London and a probable brief stay in debtors' prison, she began writing for the stage. She belonged to a coterie of poets and famous
libertines such as
John Wilmot, Lord Rochester. She wrote under the pastoral pseudonym
Astrea. During the turbulent political times of the
Exclusion Crisis, she wrote an epilogue and prologue that brought her into legal trouble; she thereafter devoted most of her writing to prose genres and translations. A staunch supporter of the Stuart line, she declined an invitation from
Bishop Burnet to write a welcoming poem to the new king
William III. She died shortly after.