# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Baillie, Joanna

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BAILLIE, JOANNA.
This lady, one of the most eminent of British female writers, was a native of Scotland, her father being the Rev. James Baillie, minister of Bothwell parish, near Glasgow, where the subject of our notice was born in the year 1762. Her mother was sister to the celebrated anatomists William and John Hunter; and her brother. Dr. Matthew Baillie, was a physician whose name ranks high among the distinguished men who have adorned the annals of medicine. Miss Baillie spent the greater part of her life at Hampstead, near London, in modest retirement: here she died, at the advanced age of ninety years, beloved and regretted by all who knew her. Her life is truly described as having been pure and moral in the highest degree, and characterized by the most ​consummate integrity, kindness, and active benevolence.
The social sphere in which this favoured daughter of the muse ha!s ever moved, was peculiarly suited to her character and genius; it was one in which taste, and literature, and the highest moral endowments were understood and appreciated. She had no need to resort to her pen from pecuniary motives, and her standing in society' made fame of little moment to her. But the spirit prompted, and she obeyed its voice—always, we think, with that loftiest motive of human action or purpose, the desire of doing good.
To accomplish those reforms which she felt society needed, she determined to attempt the reform of that mimic world, the stage, by furnishing dramas whose representation should have a salutary effect on morals. In pursuance of this idea, she planned her celebrated "Plays on the Passions,"—love, hatred, fear, religion, jealousy, revenge, and remorse, she has pourtrayed with the truth, power, and feeling, which richly entitle her to the honour of having her fame as a dramatic writer associated with that of Shakspere. The parallel which was drawn by Scott is true, so far as placing the name of Joanna Baillie in the same relation to the dramatic poets of her own sex, which the name of Shakspeare bears to that of men. In such compositions she is unrivalled by any female writer, and she is the only woman whose genius, as displayed in her works, appears competent to the production of an Epic poem. Would that she had attempted this.
In the portraiture of female characters, and the exhibition of feminine virtues, she has been very successful. Jane de Montfort is one of the most sublime, yet womanly, creations of poetic art.
The power of Miss Baillie's genius seems concentrated in one burning ray—the knowledge of the human heart. She has illustrated this knowledge with the cool judgment of the philosopher, and the pure warm feelings of the Christian. And she has won fame, the highest which the critic has awarded to woman's lyre. Yet we have often doubted whether, in selecting the drama, as her path of literature, she judged wisely. We have thought that, as an essayist, or a novelist, she might have made her great talents more effective in that improvement of society, which she evidently had so deeply at heart, and have won for herself, if not so bright a wreath of fame, a more extensive and more popular influence. And even had she chosen poetry as the vehicle of instruction, we still think that she would better and more generally have accomplished her aim, by shorter effusions, and more simple plans.
There is in the "Cyclopaedia of English Literature," a very clever and candid criticism on Miss Baillie's peculiar style of constructing her dramas; it is appropriate to our plan of showing, whenever possible, the opinions of literary men concerning the genius, and productions of women. After stating that the first volume of Joanna Baillie's "Plays on the Passions" was published in 1798; that she had, in her theory, "anticipated the dissertations and most of the poetry of Wordsworth," and that her volume passed through two editions in a few months, it goes on:—"Miss Baillie was then in the thirty-fourth year of her age. In 1802, she published a second volume, and in 1812 a third. In the interval she had produced a volume of miscellaneous dramas (1804,) and 'The Family Legend,' (1810,) a tragedy founded on a Highland tradition, and brought out with success at the Edinburgh theatre. In ​1836, this authoress published three more volumes of plays, her career as a dramatic writer thus extending over the long period of thirty-eight years.
One of her dramas, 'De Montfort,' was brought out by Kemble, shortly after its appearance, and was acted eleven nights. It was again introduced in 1821, to exhibit the talents of Kean, in the character of De Montfort; but this actor remarked that, though a tine poem, it would never be an acting play. The design of Miss Baillie in restricting her dramas each to the elucidation of one passion, appears certainly to have been an unnecessary and unwise restraint, as tending to circumscribe the business of the piece, and exclude the interest arising from varied emotions and conflicting passions. It cannot be said to have been successful in her own case, and it has never been copied by any other author. Sir Walter Scott has eulogized 'Basil's love and Montfort's hate,' as something like a revival of the inspired strain of Shakspeare. The tragedies of Count Basil and De Montfort are among the best of Miss Baillie's plays; but they are more like the works of Shirley, or the serious parts of Massinger, than the glorious dramas of Shakspeare, so full of life, of incident, and imagery. Miss Baillie's style is smooth and regular, and her plots are both original and carefully constructed; but she has no poetical luxuriance, and few commanding situations. Her tragic scenes are too much connected with the crime of murder, one of the easiest resources of a tragedian; and partly from the delicacy of her sex, as well as from the restrictions imposed by her theory of composition, she is deficient in that variety and fullness of passion, the 'form and pressure' of real life, which are so essential on the stage. The design and plot of her dramas are obvious almost from the first act—a circumstance that would be fatal to their success in representation. The unity and intellectual completeness of Miss Baillie's plays are their most striking characteristics. Her simple masculine style, so unlike the florid or insipid sentimentalism then prevalent, was a bold innovation at the time of her two first volumes; but the public had fortunately taste enough to appreciate its excellence. Miss Baillie was undoubtedly a great improver of our poetical diction."
Besides these many volumes of plays, Miss Baillie has written miscellaneous poetry and songs sufficient to fill a volume, which was published in 1841. Her songs are distinguished for "a peculiar softness of diction, yet few have become favourites in the drawing-room." In truth, it is when alone, in the quiet sanctuary of one's own apartment, that the works of Miss Baillie should be studied. She addresses the heart through the understanding, not by moving the fancy or even the passions in any strong degree; she writes to mind, not to feeling; and the mind of the reader must become concencrated on the drama at first, by an effort of the will, before its singular merit will be fully apparent; even the best of all, "De Montfort," requires this close attention.