SOURCE: "Aphra Behn: Sexuality and Self-Respect," in Women's Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. 7, No. 1-2, 1980, pp. 67-78.

In the essay below, Kegan Gardiner maintains that Behn's work is imbued with eroticism, reflecting the author's belief that "sexual passion … [is the root of all social impulse. "]

The ideal seventeenth-century cavalier could not love his "Deare so much," loved he "not Honour more"; in his code of war, art, and love, independent action posed as effortless and loyal service. Yet this elegant code rested on a sexual double standard. According to the notorious Restoration rake, John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, "real honor" is "noble confidence in men; / In women, mean mistrustful shame." Even the gallant, long-locked Richard Lovelace himself abruptly dropped his tone of respectful admiration for women when they dared to write poetry; the "Pen" was "nere truely justly slit till now" that women prostituted themselves in sonnets. Adored...