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My Brother's Keeper: The Striving of Siblings in Joanna Baillie's De Monfort

2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 23; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10509585.2012.728830

1740-4657

Jane E. Kim,

Irish and British Studies

Abstract While early reviewers of Joanna Baillie's De Monfort complained of a lack of cause for De Monfort's hatred, modern readers have offered various interpretations of the source and nature of the drama's focal passion. The search for a proper motivation for hatred may be misguided, however, as Baillie's Introductory Discourse makes clear that strong passions stir the heart independent of external circumstance or offense. This essay argues that Baillie is concerned not with the origin of De Monfort's hatred, but rather with the origin of hatred itself, turning to a biblical understanding of hatred and its manifestation. Examining God's curse on Adam and Eve as the defining inheritance dictating the condition of fallen human nature, this paper follows Baillie's tracing of the history of opposition and struggle to God's establishment of enmity between man and the serpent. The Cain-Abel sibling rivalry serves as the primal precedent for De Monfort's hatred of Rezenvelt, while Eve's fated striving with Adam illuminates Jane's powerful struggle to contain and restrain her brother. Finally, the paper discusses the importance of the struggle between the passions and sympathetic curiosity for the successful working of Baillie's conception of theater. Notes Thomas Campbell attributes the lack of sufficient rationale substantiating De Monfort's hatred to Baillie's inexperience with theatre (254); Elizabeth Inchbald, though she praises both author and play as a "woman" and "work of genius" (3), writes that "the most attentive auditor, whilst he plainly beholds effects, asks after causes; and not perceiving those diminutive seeds of hatred … till, swollen, they extend to murder" (4); and Thomas Dutton, in his review for the Dramatic Censor, complains of the inconsistency of De Monfort's hatred that "grows more fierce and implacable; yet … is almost instantly soothed and appeased by the intreaties, not of a mistress, but a sister" (451). Critics have identified pride, humiliation, "incestuous desire," the view of Rezenvelt as a "negative double" (Patten); contempt for Rezenvelt's social mobility (Colón 107); intolerance of Rezenvelt's hypocrisy (Murray 1059); and the struggle with gender performance and homosexual desire (Burroughs, "Out of the Pale") as possible motivations for De Monfort's hatred. Hereafter I will refer to Baillie's project as it is commonly known – the Plays on the Passions. Baillie's phrase "rise and progress" appears several times in David Hartley's Observations on Man: His Frame, His Duty, and his Expectations (1.82, 1.471, 2.157, 2.181). Baillie's Introductory Discourse will be denoted in parentheses as ID. All following biblical quotations will be from the King James Version unless otherwise noted. Hartley's Observations, first published in 1749, was reprinted in a very popular second edition in 1791. Baillie was, herself, extremely close to her brother Matthew Baillie. She also would have witnessed the relationship of her maternal uncle and mother, who, after being widowed, seemed to view her brother William Hunter as filling the place of her late husband, writing: "I now give [Matthew] over to you. Be a father to him – you are the only father he has alive" (Carhart 9). Baillie makes particular reference to Cain in The Separation (Act 3 Sc. 2) and Witchcraft (Act 3 Sc. 1). In her interest in Cain and the fall of man, Baillie, like many other Romantic writers, was likely influenced by John Milton (Baillie, Collected Letters 8 n.20). Salomon Gessner's epic poem The Death of Abel is translated into English by Mary Collyer in 1761. Vittorio Alfieri's "tramelogedy" Abele is published in 1796, and Coleridge begins work, initially in collaboration with William Wordsworth, on his incomplete "The Wanderings of Cain" in 1797 (Coleridge 211 n.1). (The characters of the wandering Jew and the Ancient Mariner demonstrate Coleridge's and Wordsworth's continued interest in the Cain story.) Byron also publishes his closet drama Cain in 1821, to which William Blake responds with his The Ghost of Abel in 1822. Cain may also have been an attractive subject for the Romantics because his story allows very naturally for a consideration of sibling incest. In Gessner's poem, Cain and Abel are married to their sisters; in Byron's drama, Cain's wife Adah is his twin. William D. Brewer notes that Byron also reads into the figure of Cain Baillie's idea of a causeless hatred: "Baillie's view that obsessional passions are 'seemingly unprovoked by outward circumstances' is echoed in Byron's explication of his mystery play Cain, which focuses on Cain's pride and 'internal irritation'" (175.). Byron writes: " … the object of the demon is to depress [Cain] … till he falls into the frame of mind that leads to the Catastrophe – from mere internal irritation – not premeditation or envy – of Abel –" (9:53–54). The Mosaic law, equating rape with murder, calls for the execution of one who violates "a betrothed damsel in the field" (Deut. 22.25). By contrast, the betrothed virgin who lies with a man "in the city" (Deut. 22.23) shares culpability in the illicit act. More than a literal field, the term "field" seems to subsume settings in which the victim is isolated and without aid, while environments with proximate potential witnesses or help – the "city" – confer on the victim at least partial guilt or complicity. "I confess that I would have called him out to the field, and that our encounter should not have been terminated but by the death of one or both of us" (105). Cain's descendant Lamech refers to Cain in justifying his own escalating retribution: "I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. (I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me [New International Version Gen. 4.23].) If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold" (King James Version Gen. 4.23–24). Baillie was also born a twin. Her twin sister "died a few hours after their premature delivery" (Slagle, Literary Life 35–36). The biblical twins are not consistently compatible analogues for De Monfort and Rezenvelt, however. Rezenvelt, previously read as a forgiving Esau, would, in this consideration, be better likened to the socially rising Jacob. Jacob's election contributes to a pattern of divine favoring of the younger brother that overturns the traditionally primogenital expectations of Old Testament culture. Abel, Isaac, Moses, and David are all chosen younger brothers; Jacob also blesses Joseph's sons: "but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he" (Gen. 48.19). The imagery of a struggle in the context of sibling rivalry is also not limited to brothers. Jacob's two wives – Leah and Rachel – who are also sisters, compete for his love by birthing as many sons as possible. With the birth of one son, Rachel says: "With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed" (Gen. 30.8). Blake's The Ghost of Abel also demonstrates the disturbing mixing up of Abel with the serpent. Standing over Abel's corpse, Adam's cry to God expresses his disappointed hopes for Cain as the child of promise: "Is this Thy Promise, that the Woman's seed / Should bruise the Serpent's head: Is this the Serpent? Ah!" (1: 11–12). Abel's false ghost also claims sin's desire for Cain (Gen. 4.7): "My desire is unto Cain, / And he doth rule over me:" (2: 8–9). "Worm" and "toad" are synonymous with the serpent. Milton describes the serpent as "that false worm" (9.1068) and also describes Satan: "Squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve," (4.800). A 1725 usage of "toad" ("Mix't wi' the venom of black taids and snakes" [OED 1.a.γ]) also demonstrates that toads, along with snakes, are associated with venom, which De Monfort attributes to Rezenvelt: "The venom of thy mind is rank and devilish" (1.2.203). In Paradise Lost, "inmate" illustrates a possession or in-dwelling of another: "So spake the enemy of mankind, enclosed / In serpent, inmate bad" (9.494–95). William Cowper's 1784 usage of the word demonstrates a similar understanding of the heart as a residence that may be invaded or inhabited by various sins and desires: "But if thou guard [the heart's] sacred chambers sure / From vicious inmates and delights impure" (171: 891–92). Baillie also describes the strong passions as "unquiet inmates" that "foster themselves within the breast" (ID 103). Jane's comforting of a guilt-ridden De Monfort closely mirrors the interaction of Cain and his wife Mahala in Gessner's Death of Abel. In both scenes, the men, though moved by the consolation of the angelic women, initially resist their embraces, fearful that they will taint their sibling-spouses with their opprobrium. They claim their destiny as cursed outcasts, while the women urge them to repentance (Gessner 255–58.). De Monfort's doubting that he can ever be absolved of his "murd'rer's guilt" (5.2.89) also recalls Hamlet, in which Claudius compares his guilt to that of Cain (3.3.36–37). Both Claudius and De Monfort consider daring to hope in a merciful God, but neither can bring himself to pray. Claudius anguishes: "… But oh, what form of prayer / Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul murder?'" (3.3.51–52), while De Monfort tells Jane: "… dost thou pray for me? heav'n hear thy prayer! / I fain would kneel – Alas! I dare not do it" (5.2.105–6). "Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake" (Jn. 13.36–37). "Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her" (Mt. 26.13). Colón writes: "Jane has trespassed into De Monfort's soul, releasing the hatred, yet neither she nor De Monfort is powerful enough to destroy it" (143). Duthie also notes traces of Schiller's influence in Baillie's Introductory Discourse (74 n.1, 104 n.1). The audience is made to demonstrate a curiosity about curiosity in observing the inquisitive behavior of De Monfort's characters. Baillie also anticipates not only a watching of the performers, but also a concurrent observation of fellow spectators: "The impressions made by [drama] are communicated, at the same instant of time, to a greater number of individuals, than those made by any other species of writing; and they are strengthened in every spectator, by observing their effects upon those who surround him" (ID 104). The much lauded Jane serves as an uncanny incarnation of her equally esteemed creator. A newspaper excerpt describing Baillie (cited in Slagle "Evolution" 21–22) remarks her ageless beauty, plainness of dress, mesmerizing presence, and regal manner in a near echo of the Page's reverent impression of Jane (2.1.20–40). Like Jane, who seeks to teach and govern her brother, Baillie regards the theater as school and the dramatist as "cultural authority" who "alone can combine an abstract moral lesson with a concrete appeal to our 'sympathetic curiosity' … that will produce political action, cultural ideology and meaning itself" (Mellor 563). Lucy Aikin understands the author's reticence as functioning as a veil: "Her genius had shrouded itself under so thick a veil of silent reserve …" (7). "[W]omen authors were still required to defend themselves against ridicule resulting from their reception by a male-dominated public" (Brigham 428.). Byron writes in 1817: "When Voltaire was asked why no woman has ever written even a tolerable tragedy? 'Ah (said the Patriarch) the composition of a tragedy requires testicles'. – If this be true Lord knows what Joanna Baillie does – I suppose she borrows them" (5:203).