SOURCE: Brewer, William D. “Joanna Baillie and Lord Byron.” Keats-Shelley Journal 44 (1995): 165-81.

In the following essay, Brewer analyzes the relationship between Baillie and Lord Byron, discussing Byron's admiration for Baillie even when he dismissed other female writers; her influence on his plays, particularly his presentation of male characters; and her harsh judgments of his literary efforts and personal life.

Although Joanna Baillie (1762-1851) and Lord Byron both spent their childhoods in Scotland and later achieved fame as writers, they seem to have had little else in common. While Byron was educated at Harrow and Cambridge, Baillie was largely self-educated, and Byron's famous wanderings contrast sharply with Baillie's quiet life in her home in Hampstead. When Byron wrote dramas he protested vehemently (almost too vehemently) that they were destined for the closet, but Baillie composed her numerous plays expressly for the stage. And perhaps their most significant difference has...