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Duyfhuizen, Bernard. " 'That Which I Dare Not Name': Aphra Behn's 'The Willing Mistress,"' ELH, 58 (Spring 1991), 63-82.
Through a combination of biographical, intertextual and societal considerations, Mr. Duyfhuizen positions several of Behn's passionate poems so that they propose three consequences for a woman's transgressive sexuality: marriage, death, or autonomy by way of lesbian love. "The Willing Mistress" underwent four changes, the last version not Behn's responsibility. Appearing first in the 1672 Covent Garden Drolery, the "Song" had a male voice, "I led my Silvia to a Grove." In The Dutch Lover ( 1673), a woman sang, " Amyntas led me to a grove," as she did again in 1684 (Poems...