Aphra Behn's 'Oenone to Paris', John Dryden, and the Ovidian Complaint in Restoration Literary Culture

Ovid’s Epistles (1680) represented a landmark poetic publication for both John Dryden, its editor and principal contributor, and Aphra Behn, who supplied a version of “Oenone to Paris”. Published amid the Exclusion Crisis, Ovid’s Epistles offered Dryden the opportunity to comment on issues of royal sexuality and translation theory. Participating in the collection enabled Behn both to become better known as a poet and also to develop her own distinctive style of translation. Her version of “Oenone to Paris” makes use of an earlier translation by John Sherburne, but is more sensitive and empathetic than previous versions in her portrayal of Oenone. Though Dryden may have disapproved of Behn’s imitative style, she was to follow similar methods in all her subsequent forays into translation.