Baillie, Joanna (1762-1851)

Scottish poet and dramatist. Her series of Plays on the Passions (1798-1836) are written with vigour and were admired by the novelist Walter Scott. One of them was the tragedy De Montfort, made popular through the acting of Philip Kemble and Sarah Siddons. Among Baillie's finest works are her songs and ballads written in Scottish dialect.

She was born in Bothwell, Lanarkshire, and educated in Glasgow, afterwards moving to London, where she lived for the rest of her life and associated with many literary figures.

Plays on the Passions are artificial in conception, lacking in dramatic incident, and deficient in technique. Each of them was written to illustrate one particular type of strong feeling. But her greatest success was The Family Legend (1810), a play outside the series, about a Scottish feud.