Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/134

120  her letters about with him, and shewed them to the ladies of the court, as proper models for imitation; and, being at Avignon, went to see her, as did his sister Margaret, queen of Navarre. She died the same day as this monarch, and also Henry VIII. of England. On becoming a nun, she took the name of Scholastica. F.C.

of a gentleman of good family in Canterbury, of the name of Johnson, who, being lieutenant-general of Surinam, &c. embarked with his family for the West-Indies, at which time Aphra was very young. Her father died on the passage; but the rest arrived at Surinam, where the natural beauties of the situation allotted them, seem to have first awakened her poetical powers; and perhaps the luxurious indulgence and state of their way of life, helped to give her that taste for pleasure, which she afterwards retained. Here she became acquainted with the American prince Oroonoko, whose story she afterwards gave to the public, from which Southerne took his play of the Royal Captive, He and his wife Climene, or Imoinda, were almost constantly with her. Some censures were passed on her respecting this intimacy; but it appears to have been without foundation. His great merit would naturally awaken esteem; and his story render him interesting to a young and romantic mind; but Aphra was also the friend of his wife, whom he tenderly loved, and her conduct was watched by anxious and respectable relations. She