BAILLIE, Joanna, poet and dramatist, was born at the manse of Bothwell, on the banks of the Clyde (Scot land), in 1762. At an early period of her life she removed with her sister Agnes to London, where their brother, the celebrated Dr Matthew Baillie, was settled. The two sisters were left a small competence by their uncle, Dr William Hunter, and took up their residence at Hampstead, on the outskirts of London, where they passed the remainder of their lives. Miss Baillie died on the 23d Feb. 1851, at the advanced age of 89, her faculties remaining unimpaired to the last. Her gentleness and sweetness of disposition made her a universal favourite, and her little cottage at Hampstead was the centre of a brilliant literary society. Miss Baillie had received an excellent education, and probably cultivated very early her faculty of poetical composition, but it was not till 1798 that she published the first volume of her Plays on the Passions. Her design, founded on a careful study of the nature of dramatic poetry, was to illustrate each of the deepest and strongest passions of the human mind, such as Hate, Jealousy, Fear, Love, by a tragedy and a comedy, in each of which should be exhibited the actions of an individual under the influence of these passions. The success of the first volume was very considerable, and a second edition was soon called for. A second volume followed in 1802, a third in 1812, and three more in 1836. Some miscellaneous dramas were published in 1804, and the Family Legend appeared in 1810. Miss Baillie herself intended her plays not for the closet but for the stage. The Family Legend, brought out at Edinburgh under the enthusiastic patronage of Sir Valter Scott, had a brief though brilliant success ; De Monfort had a short run in London, mainly through the acting of Kemble and Mrs Siddons ; Henriqiiez and The Separation were coldly received. The popular verdict has thus been given against the dramas as good stage plays, and the almost universal decision of readers has confirmed this judgment. With very few exceptions, they are unsuited for stage exhibition. Not only is there a flaw in the fundamental idea, that, viz., of an individual who is the embodiment of a single passion, but there is a want of incident, and a narrowness, consequent upon the attention being too much directed on a single point, that present insuperable ob stacles to their success as acting pieces. The plot is generally well constructed, but the very consciousness of aim with which it is wrought out gives to the whole a morbid and unnatural aspect ; there is rarely, if ever, any progress in the play ; the whole is apparent from the out set, and the action never heightens the spectators interest. It must be confessed, also, that Miss Baillie had no very adequate notion of what is required in a stage drama, and that her experience was too limited. This is apparent in her comedies, which are very inferior productions. In short, her want of success is a clear proof of the impracti cability of that analytic or psychological method, which she expounds and defends in her preliminary dissertations. The plays, however, are admirably adapted for reading ; they show remarkable powers of analysis and acute obser vation, and are written in a pure and vigorous style, rising occasionally into strains of high poetic feeling and expres sion. The best of the tragedies are undoubtedly Hcnriquez, The Separation, De Monfort, and Count Basil, the first of which might perhaps be made into a good acting play. Miss Baillie s reputation does not rest entirely on her dramas : she is the authoress of some poetical pieces and songs of great beauty, and in all probability great portion of her fame will be found to rest on these minor works. The best of them are the Lines to Agnes Baillie on her Birthday, The Kitten, To a Child, and some of her adapta tions of Scotch songs, such as Woo d and Married an a . Scattered throughout the dramas are also some lively and beautiful songs, such, e.g., as the Chough and the Crow in Orra, the lover s song in the Phantom, beginning " I ve seen the moon gleam through the cave, And minute drops like diamonds glancing." And the sailor s song " swiftly glides tlxe bonny boat Just parted from the shore." (See Joanna Baillie s Dramatic and Poetical Works, Lond. 1851, 1 vol.)
BAILLIE, Dr Matthew, anatomist and physician, was born in the manse of Shotts, Lanarkshire, in 1761. He came of a highly gifted family : his father, the Rev. James Baillie, was successively clergyman of the parishes of Shotts, Bothwell, and Hamilton, in Lanarkshire, and after wards professor of divinity in the university of Glasgow ; his mother was Dorothea, sister of the celebrated William and John Hunter; and his sister Joanna was the poet. Dr Baillie was for several years a student in the university of Glasgow, where he heard the lectures of Dr Eeid on moral philosophy. His professional career was determined by the advice of his uncle, Dr William Hunter, who undertook to superintend his education. On his father s death he obtained an exhibition to Balliol College, Oxford, where he remained a year before removing to Lon don. His studies were there carried on under the personal direction of his uncle, and after two years he began to be associated with Dr Hunter in his anatomical lectures as an assistant and demonstrator, visiting Oxford occasionally, so as to keep the terms necessary for the degree of bache lor of medicine. Dr Hunter, at his death, bequeathed the use of his magnificent collections to his nephew, together with the lecture-rooms in Windmill Street, an annuity of 100 a year, and a small family estate in Scotland. The last was resigned by Baillie to his other uncle, Dr John Hunter, whom he considered as the natural heir. Within two years after Dr Hunter s death his nephew became the principal teacher in that celebrated school of anatomy; and in 1787, although only a bachelor of medi cine, he was appointed physician to St George s Hospital. In 1789 he married Sophia, daughter of the eminent accoucheur Dr Denman, a connection favourable to his practice. In 1795 he published his Morlid Anatomy, a work which Avas speedily translated into French, Italian, and German, into the last by the anatomist Sommering. After this he had the honour of being enrolled a doctor of medicine of Oxford, and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. As a practising physician he was universally respected, and his decease, which took place on the 23d of September 1823, in the 63d year of his age, was sincerely regretted.
The second edition of the Morbid Anatomy appeared in 1797 ; and two years afterwards it was illustrated by a 4to volume of en gravings, with descriptions of the plates. His Anatomical Lectures and Medical Observations were printed privately after his death. The Works, 2 vols. 8vo, edited, with a biographical sketch, by Mr "Wardrop, contain only the Morbid Anatomy and miscellaneous medical papers.
of the 17th century, was born at Glasgow in 1602. He graduated in 1620 at the university of that town, and then applied himself to the study of divinity. In 1G31, after he had been ordained and had acted for some years as regent in the university, he was appointed to the living of Kilwinning in Ayrshire. The church disputes of the century were just beginning, and Baillie was naturally drawn into them. In 1638 he was a member of the famous Glasgow Assembly, and soon after he accompanied Leslie and the Scotch army as chaplain or preacher. In 1642 he was made professor of divinity at Glasgow, and
in the following year was selected as one of the five Scotch