Philobiblon: Raise your glasses please ...

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Raise your glasses please ...

Virginia Woolf said: "All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn, which is, most scandalously but rather appropriately, in Westminster Abbey, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds. It is she -- shady and amorous as she was -- who makes it not quite fantastic for me to say to you tonight: Earn five hundred a year by your wits."

Not quite, I would argue in the light of today's knowledge, historically accurate, but Behn deserves it anyway today, on the anniversary of her baptism. (Her birth date is not known).

Which I know from Today in Literature's free newsletter. (This link will only work for a couple of days.)

I'll be raising my glass this evening for this, and for my cricket club (belated) end of season dinner. It may be some time before I return.

2 Comments:

Blogger Sharon said...

When you get back, come over and visit EMN: I've put up some Aphra links...

12/14/2004 10:12:00 pm  
Blogger Sharon said...

I should probably give a proper link shouldn't I?

http://www.earlymodernweb.org.uk/emn/index.php/archives/2004/12/aphra-behn/

12/14/2004 10:12:00 pm  

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