ne, James Francis Edward, Prince of Wales, was born at St. James's
Palace, and Mrs. Behn having already written a _Congratulatory Poem_[49]
to Queen Mary of Modena on her expectation of the Prince, was ready with
a Poem on his Happy Birth.

[Footnote 48: In the original edition of _The Fair Jilt_ (1688),
we have advertised: 'There is now in the Press, _Oroonoko; or, The
History of the Royal Slave_. Written by Madam _Behn_.']

[Footnote 49: In the second edition (1688), of this _Congratulatory
Poem_ to Queen Mary of Modena we have the following advertisement:--
'On Wednesday next will be Published the most Ingenious and long
Expected History of _Oroonoko; or, the Royal Slave_. By Mrs. _Behn_.']

One of the most social and convivial of women, a thorough Tory, well
known to Dryden, Creech, Otway and all the leading men of her day, warm
helper and ally of every struggling writer, Astrea began to be
completely overpowered by the continual strain, the unremittent tax upon
both health and time. Overworked and overwrought, in the early months of
1689 she put into English verse the sixth book (_of Trees_) from
Cowley's _Sex Libri Plantarum_ (1668). Nahum Tate undertook Books IV and
V and prefaced the translation when printed. As Mrs. Behn knew no Latin
no doubt some friend, perhaps Tate himself, must have paraphrased the
original for her. She further published _The Lucky Mistake_ and _The
History of the Nun; or, The Fair Vow Breaker_,[50] licensed 22 October,
1688. On the afternoon of 12 February, Mary, wife of William of Orange,
had with great diffidence landed at Whitehall Stairs, and Mrs. Behn
congratulated the lady in her Poem _To Her Sacred Majesty Queen Mary on
her Arrival in England_. One regrets to find her writing on such an
occasion, and that she realized the impropriety of her conduct is clear
from the reference to the banished monarch. But she was weary,
depressed, and ill, and had indeed for months past been racked with
incessant pain. An agonizing complication of disorders now gave scant
hope of recovery. It is in the highest degree interesting to note that
during her last sickness Dr. Burnet, a figure of no little importance at
that moment, kindly enquired after the dying woman. The Pindaric in
which she thanks him, and which was printed March, 1689, proved the last
poem she herself saw through the press. At length exhausted nature
failed altogether, and she expired 16 April, 1689, the end hastened