A derelict history of 19th century Scottish drama
JOANNA Baillie (1752-1851) started writing plays in the 1790s. De Montfort was produced in London in 1800 and 1821, a large-scale tragedy in which the title character fights a duel with his old school rival, Rezenvelt, and loses, but when his life is spared, his hatred and resentment fester over time and when he hears a rumour that Rezenfelt and his saintly sister Jane are secret lovers, intense and jealous hatred drives him to murder.
After this came another tragic love story, Count Basil, and then The Tryal, a comedy in which the hero is less important than the heroine.