Her moral courage throughout life recalls the physical courage which characterized her youth.  She never concealed her religious convictions, and in 1831 she published her ideas in ’A View of the General Tenor of the New Testament Regarding the Nature and Dignity of Jesus Christ.’  In 1836, having finally given up the long hope of seeing her plays become popular upon the stage, she prepared a complete edition of her dramas with the addition of three plays never before made public,—­’Romiero,’ a tragedy, ‘The Alienated Manor,’ a comedy on jealousy, and ‘Henriquez,’ a tragedy on remorse.  The Edinburgh Review immediately put forth a eulogistic notice of the collected edition, and at last admitted that the reviewer had changed his judgment, and esteemed the author as a dramatist above Byron and Scott.

“May God support both you and me, and give us comfort and consolation when it is most wanted,” wrote Miss Baillie to Mary Berry in 1837.  “As for myself, I do not wish to be one year younger than I am; and have no desire, were it possible, to begin life again, even under the most honorable circumstances.  I have great cause for humble thankfulness, and I am thankful.”

In 1840 Jeffrey wrote:—­“I have been twice out to Hampstead, and found Joanna Baillie as fresh, natural, and amiable as ever, and as little like a tragic muse.”  And again in 1842:—­“She is marvelous in health and spirit; not a bit deaf, blind, or torpid.”  About this time she published her last book, a volume of ‘Fugitive Verses.’

“A sweeter picture of old age was never seen,” wrote Harriet Martineau.  “Her figure was small, light, and active; her countenance, in its expression of serenity, harmonized wonderfully with her gay conversation and her cheerful voice.  Her eyes were beautiful, dark, bright, and penetrating, with the full innocent gaze of childhood.  Her face was altogether comely, and her dress did justice to it.  She wore her own silvery hair and a mob cap, with its delicate lace border fitting close around her face.  She was well dressed, in handsome dark silks, and her lace caps and collars looked always new.  No Quaker was ever neater, while she kept up with the times in her dress as in her habit of mind, as far as became her years.  In her whole appearance there was always something for even the passing stranger to admire, and never anything for the most familiar friend to wish otherwise.”  She died, “without suffering, in the full possession of her faculties,” in her ninetieth year, 1851.

Her dramatic and poetical works are collected in one volume (1843).  Her Life, with selections from her songs, may be found in ’The Songstress of Scotland,’ by Sarah Tytler and J.L.  Watson (1871).

WOO’D AND MARRIED AND A’

The bride she is winsome and bonny,
Her hair it is snooded sae sleek,
And faithfu’ and kind is her Johnny,
Yet fast fa’ the tears on her cheek. 
New pearlins are cause of her sorrow,
New pearlins and plenishing too: 
The bride that has a’ to borrow. 
Has e’en right mickle ado. 
Woo’d and married and a’! 
Woo’d and married and a’! 
Isna she very weel aff
To be woo’d and married at a’?