,
And swept it with a kindred measure,
Till Avon's swans, while rung the grove
With Montfort's hate and Basil's love,
Awakening at the inspiring strain
Deem'd their own SHAKSPEARE lived again!"

Her first volume was published in 1798, under the title, _A Series of
Plays, in which it is attempted to delineate the stronger Passions of
the Mind, each Passion being the subject of a Tragedy and a Comedy_. A
second volume was published in 1802, and a third in 1812. During the
interval, she gave the world a volume of miscellaneous dramas, including
the _Family Legend_, a tragedy founded upon a story of one of the
Macleans of Appin, which, principally through the good offices of Sir
Walter Scott, was brought out at the Edinburgh Theatre. She visited
Scott, in Edinburgh, in 1808, and in the following year the _Family
Legend_ was played in that city fourteen nights in succession. Scott
wrote for it a prologue, and Mackenzie, the author of _The Man of
Feeling_, contributed an epilogue. The same piece was performed in
London in 1814. The only "Play of the Passions" ever represented on a
stage was _De Montfort_, first brought out by John Kemble and Mrs.
Siddons, and played eleven nights. In 1821 it was revived by Edmund
Kean, but fruitlessly. Miss O'Neil then played the heroine. Kean
subsequently brought out _De Montfort_ in Philadelphia and New-York. No
actors of inferior genius have ventured to attempt it, and probably it
will not again be represented.

The "Plays of the Passions" are Miss Baillie's most remarkable works. In
this series each passion is made the subject of a tragedy and a comedy.
In the comedies she failed completely; they are pointless tales in
dialogue. Her tragedies, however, have great merit, though possessing a
singular quality for works of such an aim, in being without the
earnestness and abruptness of actual and powerful feeling. By refinement
and elaboration she makes the passions sentiments. She fears to distract
attention by multiplying incidents; her catastrophes are approached by
the most gentle gradations; her dramas are therefore slow in action and
deficient in interest. Her characters possess little individuality; they
are mere generalizations of intellectual attributes, theories
personified. The very system of her plays has been the subject of
critical censure. The chief object of every dramatic work is to please
and interest, and this object may be arrived at as well by situa