Joanna Baillie and Parliamentary Reform
Though Joanna Baillie’s political
sympathies are open to debate, we do know from an 1831 letter that she welcomed
Parliamentary Reform and had “always” wanted her Scottish homeland to have more
representation. The latter claim is hard to reconcile with her treatment of
politics in earlier plays: for example, The
Election (1802) blames the contentious process for sowing hatred, and The
Family Legend (staged with Walter Scott’s help in
A bridge between Baillie’s political and social interests can be found in her two-part drama Ethwald (1802), which I treat as a plea for a fair trial of Parliamentary Reform. While usually read as a criticism of Napoleon, Ethwald also critiques the 1790s Scottish trials of would-be reformers. Finding evidence of treason or sedition in any imagined alteration of government, the Court convicted six people; five were transported and one was executed. Ethwald undertakes a composite restaging of these trials—but especially the trial of the executed Robert Watt—in order to urge spectators to interpret the convictions as mistaken and to give continuing reformers a more open-minded hearing. Elements I consider include the Anglo-Saxon setting of the play, which repeats a strategy of displacement favored by reformers, and the possible use of Watt’s autobiography as a source for Ethwald’s characterization. In conclusion, I argue that Baillie aligns her political and social goals in the play, envisioning a society that finds roles for those who want to shape its civic affairs before they need to contend for the right to participate.