Joanna Baillie

“ Had the lambent flame of genius not burned in the breast of Joanna Baillie, that of a pure piety and a spirit made to estimate the blessings of life, and to enjoy all the other blessings of peace and social good which it brings, would have still burned brightly in her bosom, and made her just as happy though not as great. ”

“ Although Mrs. Baillie was forty years of age when she married, she gave birth to five children. Of these, three grew up: the eldest, Agnes who still survives; the celebrated Matthew physician to George III.; and Joanna. [Pg 89]
When Joanna was seven years old, her father removed to Hamilton. There he was colleague to the Rev. Mr. Miller, father to the well-known professor of law at Glasgow of that name, whose daughters were throughout life among Joanna's most intimate and cherished friends. ”

“ Though her society was much cherished by her contemporaries, including distinguished foreigners who visited the metropolis, her life was spent in general retirement. She was averse to public demonstration, and seemed scarcely conscious of her power. She died at Hampstead, on the 23d of February 1851, at the very advanced age of eighty-nine, and a few weeks after the publication of her whole Works in a collected form.
The songs of Joanna Baillie immediately obtained an honourable place in the minstrelsy of her native kingdom. ”

“ Throughout their lives the most tender affection subsisted among them all. Mrs. Baillie and her daughters now retired to the country—at first a little way up the Thames, then to Hythe, near Dover; but they did not settle any where permanently till they located themselves in a pretty cottage at Hampstead—that flowery, airy, charming retreat with which Joanna's name has now been so long and so intimately associated. ”

“ ELLA.
⁠It is a blessed one: I would believe it.
RODRIGO.
⁠Yes, we'll believe it. Whilst our battle roars,
Thou'lt think of me in thy lone distant tower,
And be to me a gallant armed mate,
With prayers and wishes striving powerfully.
Give me thy hand: we will not weep and wail:
We will part cheerfully.—God bless thee, Ella!
Nay, hang not on me thus!
Thou lov'st a brave man: be thou valiant then,
As suits a brave man's love. ”

“ Baillie, the friend of Walter Scott, the woman whose masculine muse every great poet has for nearly half-a-century delighted to honor, Joanna Baillie, wrote because she could not help pouring out the fullness of her heart and mind, and the natural consequence was fame ”

“ The darkness of night was around when the bay of Arthula receiv'd them.
Thick beat the joy of his bosom, as he drew near the place of his love;
But the strength of his limbs was unloos'd, as he trode on the dark
sounding shore.
Thou did'st promise, O maid of my soul! thou did'st promise to watch for
thy love!
But no kindly messenger waits to hail my return from the war.
The tow'r of Arthula is dark; and I hear not the sound of its hall.
The watch dog howls to the night, nor heeds the approach of our feet. ”

“ WORSHIPTON.
Say that you will be mine, and make me happy: there is nothing a lover can do, that I will not do to please you.
HANNAH.
Miss Languish's lover made songs upon her.
WORSHIPTON.
I'll do so too, or any thing: but don't let your aunt know that I have spoken to you, she would be so angry.
HANNAH.
O no! she is very fond of people being married.
WORSHIPTON.
Yes, but she will be angry at us tho'; so don't tell her, nor Miss Martin, nor any body a word of the matter. Do promise this, my charming Hanabella! my life depends upon it. (Kneeling again, and taking her hand.) ”

“ Not that we would venture positively to assert that Mrs Hemans stands at the head of our poetesses, the first absolutely in point of genius,—though there is but one name, that of Joanna Baillie, which occurs to us, at the moment, as disputing with hers that pre-eminence,—but because she, in a more complete manner than any other of our poetesses, represents the mind, the culture, the feelings, and character, of the English gentlewoman. ”

“ She's able enough to walk.
AMARYLLIS.
⁠Don't be so ill-natured now: she would not be so to you if she could serve you.
WILL.
⁠No, to be sure: as far as a kick o' the guts goes to cure one of the extericks, kindly christian! she will be ready enough with her service,
AMARYLLIS.
⁠Come, come! don't be so crusty now. Here is money for you: Blackberry must carry double.⁠ (Giving him money.)
WILL.
⁠Ay, to be sure, if I coax him well, I don't know but he may: for tho' he is but a brute he has as many odd humours about him as any reasonable creature. ”

“ The authoresses themselves, to do them justice, seem to have been very little dazzled by all this excitement. Hannah More contentedly retires with her maiden sisters to the Parnassus on the Mendip Hills, where they sew and chat and make tea, and teach the village children. Dear Joanna Baillie, modest and beloved, lives on to peaceful age in her pretty old house at Hampstead, looking through tree-tops and sunshine and clouds towards distant London. ”

“ CLAUDIEN.
Upon this hand, so lovely and so dear,
Not to be absent for a day—an hour
Longer than sad necessity compels me.
But thou meanwhile wilt keep me in thy thoughts.
Write to me often; wilt thou not, Rosella?
And be to me, in whate'er clime or country
A wayward fate may doom me to reside,
The very gleam and warmth of my existence.
ROSELLA.
A wayward fate may doom thee to reside!
What words are these? Thou never wilt return!
(Wringing her hands in anguish.)
VAN MAURICE (aside to Claudien) .
Begone, begone! thy weakness will betray us. ”

“ I must go to the island of Uthal, and scatter his gathering force.
But like a cleft oak of the forest, I'll quickly return to my love:
When the hard wedge is drawn from its side, it returns to itself again.
The daughter of Lorma was silent: she turn'd her fair face from his sight.
Go to the war, son of Mora; and the strength of thy fathers go with thee.
I will sit on the high rocky shore, and look o'er the wide foaming sea.
I will watch ev'ry blue rising cloud, till I see thy dark vessels return.
He gather'd his warriours around him ”

“ MONTEBESA.
Because I would upon your sadden'd brow
Print traces which may lead our poor Artina
To question thee; and thou, who art her friend,
Canst by degrees, with gentle, wise precaution,
Reveal to her what she must needs be told.
SABAWATTÉ.
I cannot: put not such a task on me,
I do implore your goodness!—No, I cannot.
MONTEBESA.
Hush, hush! I hear the footsteps of a man,
But not Rasinga.—It is Samarkoon;
I know his rapid tread.—Be wise; be silent;
For he awhile must live in ignorance.
Enter Samarkoon, and Sabawatté retires to some distance. ”

“ No, my dear Seabright; in a very different spirit are we come: we come to sympathize with you, and to console you.
Sea. I hate sympathy, and I hate consolation! You are come, I suppose, to sympathize with me too, my Lord, and to put me in mind of the damn'd place I have given up to that knave Sir Crafty Supplecoat.
Lord A. No, Sir Anthony, I scorn to upbraid, but I pretend neither to sympathize with you nor to console you: I come to rescue my sister from a situation unworthy a daughter of the house of Allcrest, and she shall go home with me. ”

“ I'll read no more. What said he in the letter?
(Reads again.) The bearer will return with the key, and I'll come by the path at night-fall.
Night falls on some who never see the morn.
Re-enter Blas.
BLAS.
My Lord, I've found her: Donna Leonora
Has bid me say she will be with you instantly.
HENRIQUEZ.
I cannot see her now; I am not well.
I shall be better shortly: tell her so.
I'll rest me in my chamber for an hour,
And would not be disturb'd. ”

“ They were of a family in which talent and genius were hereditary. Their father was a Scottish clergyman, and their mother a sister of the celebrated Dr. William Hunter. They were born at Bothwell, within a short distance of the rippling of the broad waters of the Clyde. Joanna's child-life and associations are beautifully mirrored in the poem to which we have alluded. Early in life the sisters removed to London, where their brother, the late Sir Matthew Baillie—the favorite medical adviser of George III.—was settled as a physician, and there her earliest poetical works appeared, anonymously. ”

“ I have the honour to congratulate Sir Anthony Seabright.
Sea. Is it really so? Is it really so? Let me see, let me see. (snatches the letter from her and reads it.) O it is so in very truth!—Give me your hand, my dear Lady Sarah! and give me a kiss too. (kisses her on one cheek, and she graciously turns to him the other.) O one will do very well.—Where are all the children? let every soul in the house come about me!—No, no, no! let me be decent; let me be moderate.
(Enter Plausible.)
Sea. (going up joyfully to him) How do you do? how do you do, my very good friend? ”

“ To whom all tongues give praise, all hearts give blessing.
Oh, ev'ry heart did bless him tho' he fell,
And ne'er a saving hand was found—Oh! oh!
(Bursting into an agony of grief, and laying her head upon the ground, covered with both her hands.)
ELLA (to Lucia and Attendants) .
⁠Do not surround her thus! I'll sit and watch her.
I will not speak, but sit and weep by her;
And she shall feel, ev'n thro' her heavy woe,
That sympathy and kindness are beside her.
VALERIA (raising her head) .
⁠There spoke a gentle voice: is Ella near me? ”

“ Indeed, from the period of marriage, a new life commences for the Breton, whose days of single blessedness have been days of festivity and freedom; and it would seem that when once the wedding-ring has been placed upon the finger, her only business is the care of her household—her only delight, the peace of her domestic hearth.
[From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.] JOANNA BAILLIE.
Joanna Baillie was born in the year 1762, at the manse of Bothwell, in Lanarkshire. Her father had just been translated from the parish of Shotts to that of Bothwell ”

“ MARTHON.
⁠Nay, let Petronius go: I will remain,
And with the meanest soldier on your walls
Spend my last blood, if a true penitent——
CONSTANTINE (waving him off impatiently) .
⁠Well, be it as thou wilt: but hence and leave me!
RODRIGO (to Ella, as he leads her out) .
⁠Did I not tell thee he was safe, my Ella?
(Exeunt all but Constantine, who, after walking up and down for some time in a perturbed manner, starts at the sound of Valeria's voice without.)
CONSTANTINE.
⁠Ha! here she comes! alas! how shall I now
Look on her face, and hear her voice of love! ”

“ I believe, he thinks me a strange diving, penetrating, kind of a genius, already, and he is not far wrong, perhaps. You know me, cousin Withrington: ha, ha, ha, ha! You know me.
Ag. O! I wish it were over, and we were out of this house again!
Roy. Dont be uneasy, ma'am. I'll manage every thing. Jonathan, (Enter Jonathan,) dont you go and tell Mr. Harwood that I have got company here.
Jon. No, no, your honour, I knows better than that; for the ladies are to be behind the screen, sir, and he must know nothing of the matter, to be sure. I'ficken! it will be rare sport! ”

“ Baillie was taken ill, probably from over-fatigue, and was prematurely brought to bed of twin-daughters, one of whom died in the birth, and the other, named Joanna—after her maternal uncle, the celebrated John Hunter—lived for eighty-nine years, and became the most celebrated of her race, and one of the most celebrated women of her time. ”

“ When other men, in gayest pursuit of love,
Each beauty follow'd, by her side I stay'd;
Far prouder of a brother's station there,
Than all the favours favour'd lovers boast.
We quarrel'd once, and when I could no more
The alter'd coldness of her eye endure,
I slipp'd o' tip-toe to her chamber door;
And when she ask'd who gently knock'd—Oh! oh!
Who could have thought of this?
(Throws himself into a chair , covers his face with his hand, and hursts into tears. After some time he starts up from his seat furiously.)
Hell's direst torment seize th' infernal villain! ”

“ She is small in figure, and [Pg 13] her gait is mean and shuffling, but her manners are those of a well-bred woman. She has none of the unpleasant airs too common to literary ladies. Her conversation is sensible. She possesses apparently considerable information, is prompt without being forward, and has a fixed judgment of her own, without any disposition to force it on others. Wordsworth said of her with warmth, ‘If I had to present any one to a foreigner as a model of an English gentlewoman, it would be Joanna Baillie.’”—1812. ”

“ ARTINA (still working at the chains) .
Ha! thou speak'st cheerly now; and thy changed voice
Is a good omen. Dost thou not remember
How once in play I bound thy stripling limbs
With braided reeds, as a mock criminal?
We little thought——Another link is conquer'd;
And one alone remains. (Tries to unloose it.)
But it is stubborn.
Oh, if that I should now lack needed strength!
Vile, hateful link, give way!
Enter Rasinga, and she starts up, letting fall her tools on the ground.
RASINGA.
And thou art here, thou most rebellious woman! ”

“ BERTRAM.
Heav'n bless your honour! O, if by your means
He might have grace!
HARDIBRAND.
⁠Come, let us go to him.
BERTRAM.
Not now, an' please you: he is now engaged
With one most dear to him. But an hour hence
I will conduct you to his cell.
HARDIBRAND.
⁠So be it.
Mean time, stay thou with me, and tell me more
Of this unhappy youth: I have a mind.
With the good keeper's leave, to view the prison.
⁠ (Exeunt.
Enter Mira and Alice by opposite sides, both muffed up in cloaks and their faces conceal'd.)
MIRA (stopping Alice) . ”