Joanna Baillie'sScottish plays: The Family Legend, Witchcraft

ARGYLL

O that man

In blood so near, in country and in valour,

Should spend in petty broils their manly strength,

That might, united for the public weal, 55

On foreign foes such noble service do!

Thus, Baillie provides a further purpose for the union of Scotland and England,

emphasising that the union of both countries together with the combination of

their values can make them stronger when facing external threats, who were the

real concern during her age because of the French Revolution in particular.

2.3 Baillie’s psychological gothic

It is widely acknowledged that Baillie is a significant innovator with regard

to her Gothic production. Indeed, as previously mentioned, she tried to detach

herself from the current tendency towards the exploitation of German gothic

convention, in an attempt to create a pure and national Gothic drama. Baillie’s use

of the typical Gothic conventions, nevertheless, is quite unusual. Even though she

used spectacle and supernatural effects to provide a certain degree of moral

instruction for her audience, the Gothic elements and supernatural effect is only

created by the character’s mind, their mental state and the external influences on

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their psychology. Thus, the supernatural is not really represented on stage, even

though there are recognizable gothic settings, as happens in The Family Legend.

Maclean, the unstable chieftain, is guided by his vassals into a gloomy cave,

lightened up by firebrands on its rugged sides, because they want to convince him

to agree to their cruel plot against Helen, his wife. Here, they try to influence his

unstable and superstitious mind by describing certain inauspicious signs and

premonitions, but also false apparitions that apparently are threatening their clan,

forecasting a catastrophe:

55

Baillie J., The Family Legend, Edinburgh: J. Ballantyne & Co., 1810, pp. 93-94.

56

Gamer M., Romanticism and the Gothic: Genre, Reception and Canon Formation, Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 137-138.

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MACLEAN

A goodly meeting at this hour convened.

(A sullen pause)

Benlora; Thona; Allen of Glenore;

And all of you, our first and bravest kinsmen;

What mystery in this sullen silence is?

Hangs any threaten’d evil o’er the clan?

BENLORA

Yes, chieftain; evil that doth make the blood

warriors’ veins to burn,

Within your grey-hair’d

And their brogued feet to spurn the ground that bears them.

LOCHTARISH

Evil that soon will wrap your tower in flames,

Your ditches fill with blood, and carrion birds

Glut with the butcher’d corses of your slain.

[…]

FIRST VASSAL

The mermaid hath been heard upon our rocks:

The fatal song of waves.

GLENFADDEN

The northern deep

Is heard with distant moanings from our coast,

Uttering the dismal bodeful sounds of death.

SECOND VASSALS

The funeral lights have shone upon our heath,

Marking in countless groups the graves of thousands.

BENLORA like to thy father’s voice

Yes, chief; and sounds

Have from the sacred mould wherein he lies,

At dead of night by wakeful men been heard

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Three times distinctly.

Thus, the vassals provide him with the alleged supernatural proofs of the

forthcoming adversity that their clan will have to face if they do not murder

57

Baillie J., The Family Legend, Edinburgh: J. Ballantyne & Co., 1810, pp. 35-36.

31

Helen, who is considered the spy of Argyll. They talk about the mermaids’

laments, the vision of the clan’s seers about the disaster, the funeral lights shining

on their fields, the voice of Maclean’s father. However, the public cannot really

witness these phenomena, but the only visible aspect of the supernatural is

actually the effect it has on Maclean’s mind. He is indeed terrified and anxious,

but he still hesitates because he values the sacred holy ties of his wedding with

Helen. However, they eventually manage to convince him by highlighting the

stronger ties he has with his clan and through their threat of abandoning him. In

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addition, they urge him to watch John of the Isle, «the sighted awful man» while

he is shaken by terrible visions about their future outside the cave. However, it is

soon revealed that the vision was only a mise-en-scène:

FIRST VASSAL (looking after Maclean)

Ay, there he goes; so spent, and scar’d and feeble!

Without a prophet’s skill, we may foretell,

John of the Isle, by sly Lochtarish taught,

Will work him soon to be an oath-bound wretch

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To this their fell design.

Thus, the supernatural and Gothic elements are not real bur they are just created

by the evil characters to pressure Maclean; in the end, the only real Gothic effect

is the one that affect Maclean’s mind, leaving him bewildered and scared, willing

to sacrifice his own wife because of the vassal’s plan. Despite the fake

supernatural elements, there are recognizable gothic settings in The Family

Legend. In the background of the action, it is certainly possible to notice gloomy

and isolated castles, the wild moor, the steep rock hit by furious waves. Thus, the

Ossianic and mysterious plot is combined with these gothic and dark settings,

which most of the times represent also the internal and mental state of the

characters. As observed by Battelli, Joanna Baillie exploit the geographical gothic

setting and the characterization of scenes to unveil the internal conflicts and

58

Ibidem, p. 39.

59

Ibidem, p. 40. 32

instability of the minds, so that the wild landscapes seem to express and share the

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character’s passions, like hatred, anger, melancholy or fear.

2.4 The re-evaluation of the female character

The Family Legend is extremely significant also because of its contribution to the

re-evaluation of the role of women in history, usually considered a male-centred

field. Crisafulli emphasises that women were usually marginalized and excluded

from history. Thus female dramatists constantly tried to restore the presence of

women in history, exploring their needs and their points of view. Indeed, they

tried to renegotiate their role in history and society instead of passively accepting

their subjection, thus exercising historical agency while they were not considered

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able to do so. The practice of restoration of female historical agency is surely

exemplified by the characterization of the central female figure of Helen in Joanna

Baillie’s first Scottish drama. It is indeed unusual to find a female protagonist in a

romantic drama even though in the first part of the play she is in an inferior

position compared to her male counterparts. Undoubtedly, Helen is fundamental

for the union and peace between the rival clans and even though she was forced to

sacrifice her love for Sir Hubert and marry Maclean, she firmly believes in this

cooperation and as Battelli observed, she is almost the only one who does so in

the play. Helen clearly represents the determination and pride typical of Scottish

clans, the fundamental figure for the retention of peace, but she is also in a

subordinate position compared to the dominant male characters, who keep

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controlling her destiny, imposing their choices on her life. Thus, she has no real

power at the beginning but her value is undeniable, as she is constantly proud of

her position and she keeps defending her new clan and her holy ties with Maclean,

even though it was a choice imposed on her by her father. In fact, she firmly fights

60

Baillie J.,Leggenda di famiglia,p. 44.

61 «Historical Agency in Romantic Women’s Drama» in Women’s Romantic

Crisafulli L.M.,

Theatre and Drama: History, Agency and Performativity, eds. Crisafulli L.M., Elam K., Farnham:

Ashgate, 2010, pp. 50-53.

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Battelli L.,«The Family Legend: storia o leggenda?» in Baillie J., Leggenda di famiglia,pp. 47-

48. 33

John of Lorne when he visits her to warn her about the Macleans’

with her brother

hatred and he tries to take her away:

HELEN

[…] here my place I’ll hold

As dame and mistress of the warlike clan

Who yield obedience to their chief, my lord;

And whatsoe’er their will to me may bear,

Of good or ill, so will I hold me ever.

Yea, did the Lord of Lorne, dear as he is,

With all the warlike Campbells at his back

Here hostile entrance threaten; on these walls,

Failing the strength that might defend them better,

I would myself, while by my side in arms

One valiant clan’s –man stood, against his powers,

To the last push, with desp’rate opposition,

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This castle hold.

Indeed, she still believes in her marriage and in her duty as the wife of a chieftain,

power. Afterwards, when the clan’s cruel scheme is

even though she has no actual

organized, she is led on an isolated rock to die because of the tide; here she must

still appear powerless, however, she totally regains her dignity. She strongly

birth and she is willing to die because

refuses to deny the legitimacy of her son’s

of this choice, thus asserting her historical agency and becoming protagonist of

her own life, until then controlled by men. According to Crisafulli, the trope of the

isolated rock that can disappear and is constantly swallowed by the sea represents

clearly the typical female characters and their alienation from history and society.

Both during their lives and on stage they live under constraints, without being able

to speak freely and express themselves, like Helen who has to marry Maclean for

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a political purpose, thus suppressing her real feelings. Here, Helen can regain

power and historical agency by refusing to surrender to the threats imposed by

63

Baillie J., The Family Legend, 1810, p. 27.

64 «Historical Agency in Romantic Women’s Drama», pp. 54-55.

Crisafulli L.M., 34

cruel men, even though she risks her life, eventually saving her son and

symbolically creating the basis for the creation of Great Britain. Her son

represents the future union of England and Scotland, forecast in the end of the

play by the future relationship between Helen and her true love, Sir Hubert, the

Englishman. Thus, while Maclean proves to be an incapable leader, with an

unstable identity, Helen turns out to be the true heroine of the drama, also because

Maclean is not able to be strong enough to protect his wife against his evil vassals.

Before the vassals burst into their bedroom, in fact, Maclean is clearly upset about

what is going to happen, but he does not try to defend his wife or unveil the truth.

The oblivious Helen, otherwise, is the one who tries to comfort him and offers to

protect him, thus being the only one who proves to be faithful to their wedding

vows and to still believe in her husband:

[…]

HELEN

Nay, try to rest: I’ll sit and watch by thee.

MACLEAN