The 17th century in England was a time of great political turmoil and change especially in the latter half of the century. It was around this time that the country found itself in turmoil; Charles I was the first monarch to have been assassinated by the people, and General Oliver Cromwell had led a military rule during the period now referred to as the Interregnum. During this time, there was great literary censorship, and a growing strife amongst two warring political factions, the "Whigs" and the "Tories." Whigs were those Presbyterians who found themselves in favor of the return of monarchial power and a continued and increased censorship of such profligate literature as was being produced by the Cavalier poets. Pastoral lyric, with its erotic conceits and celebration of extramarital sex, they argued, was a bad influence on British society. Meanwhile, Tories were largely those Catholics who, although they desired a return to a monarchy, wanted to do so without a return to familial succession.
The Tories—whom had sought to prevent the monarchial line of succession, by keeping the Scottish Presbyterian James II from ascending to the throne after Oliver Cromwell's Interregnum—often sympathized with the Cavalier poets and sought a "high" literature, which celebrated the pastoral and the erotic. Aphra Behn, interestingly enough, found her sympathies lying with them. As a Tory for most of her life, Behn reveled in writing against a censored public that marginalized the literary to buttoned down versions of Presbyterian ideals. Her poetry marks one instance of resistance, as evidenced in "On Her Loving Two Equally," but Behn also wrote prose narratives and especially theater productions. Her plays engaged the great Tory/Whig debate in the form of Restoration-Comedies (a genre that flourished during the Restoration period that immediately followed the Interregnum) that often fantasized of a courtly and chivalric past brought back to life in late 17th century England.
Thus, in many ways, it is difficult to read any of Aphra Behn's writing without a keen eye towards the historical context in which she wrote. Late 17th century England was a vastly different politic landscape than one would find in the present day. But instead of serving to obfuscate and shroud Aphra Behn's works, this historical context actually works to bring her writing to life by coloring many of the subtler intricacies of her arguments, tone, and positioning in a more vibrant way.
