ABSTRACT
The Younger Brother: Or, The Amorous Jilt A Comedy was the last of Aphra Behn’s plays to be acted and printed. It was staged in about February 1696, almost seven years after her death in April 1689. In dedicating The Widdow Ranter to Madam Weldon, George Jenkins had declared that Behn would have chosen this dedicatee had she lived, and this may be the case with Colonel Codrington, the dedicatee of The Younger Brother whom Behn may have known. The Younger Brother has no obvious theatrical source, although there are echoes of other plays within it. The relationships of the Marteen family, father and two dissolute sons, resemble those in the historical family of George and his famous brother, the republican Henry Marten, much lampooned for womanising. Again, as with the details of Behn’s early life, Charles Gildon’s information may have come in part through Colonel Codrington.
