Behn’s Law
Here today, gone tomorrow.
Novelist, dramatist and spy (for King Charles II against the Dutch), Mrs. Aphra Behn was the first Englishwoman to support herself through literary endeavors - something that relatively few professional writers, regardless of sex, are able to do today. “Here today gone tomorrow” probably is a proverbial expression as old as the hills, so to speak, but the earliest known example of its use in writing comes from Mrs. Behn’s play The Lucky Chance (1686-87): “Faith sir we are here today and gone tomorrow.”
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