SOURCE: Friedman-Romell, Beth H. “Duelling Citizenships: Scottish Patriotism v. British Nationalism in Joanna Baillie's The Family Legend.” Nineteenth Century Theatre 26, no. 1 (summer 1998): 25-49.

In the following essay, Friedman-Romell contends that Baillie solidified her reputation as her country's most important playwright through her characterizations of Scottish heroes, her discourse on the civilizing forces of womanhood and Protestantism, and her rewriting of Scottish history in the patriotic drama The Family Legend.

On the evening of January 29, 1810, the audience of the Edinburgh Theatre Royal was dazzled by the premier of a new play by one of their own countrywomen, the celebrated Joanna Baillie. The sellout crowd for the first night of The Family Legend sat in rapt admiration from the curtain's rise to the moment when actor/manager Henry Siddons announced that the play's run would continue throughout the week, news which, according to Walter Scott, “was received not only with...