was aphra Behn really a spy?

Yes! Before Behn became the first professional female playwright in English literature, she was a secret agent. A fervent supporter of the newly restored Charles II, she undertook a mission to Antwerp in 1666, where she contacted a Cromwellian exile called William Scot. Behn offered him a pardon in exchange for information on alleged Dutch plans to invade England. Prior to that, she may have visited the English colony of Suriname in

South America to gather intelligence for the crown but the evidence for this is less robust.