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Philip James Bailey

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the poet. For the musician, whose full name is the same, seePhilip Bailey.

Philip James Bailey
Philip James Bailey in his study at theRope Walk, Nottingham
Born(1816-04-22)22 April 1816
Nottingham,England
Died6 November 1902(1902-11-06)(aged 86)
Nottingham, England
OccupationPoet
Notable workFestus

Philip James Bailey(22 April 1816 – 6 September 1902) was an EnglishSpasmodic poet,best known as the author ofFestus.

Life

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Bailey was born on 22 April 1816 inNottingham,the only son ofThomas Baileyby his first wife, Mary Taylor. He was brought up on the poetry ofLord Byron.Educated in Nottingham, he was tutored in classics by Benjamin Carpenter, a Unitarian minister. At the age of 15, he matriculated atGlasgow University.Dropping the idea of becoming a Presbyterian minister, he began in 1833 to study law in a solicitor's office in London. On 26 April 1834 he enteredLincoln's Inn,and wascalled to the baron 7 May 1840, but never practised law.[1]

In 1836, Bailey retired to his father's house at Old Basford, near Nottingham, to write. In 1856, he received acivil list pensionin recognition of his literary work. In 1864 he moved toJersey,and travelled. In 1876, he returned to England, settling first at Lee nearIlfracombe,and in 1885 atBlackheath.Finally he retired to Nottingham.[1]In June 1901, he received the honoraryDoctor of Laws(DLL) from theUniversity of Glasgow.[2]

Bailey died ofinfluenzaon 6 September 1902. He was buried inNottingham Rock (aka Church) Cemeteryafter a service atSt Andrew's Church, Nottingham.[3]

Works

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Bailey is known almost exclusively by his one voluminous poem,Festus,first published anonymously in 1839, and then expanded with a second edition in 1845. A vast pageant of theology and philosophy, it comprised in some twelve divisions an attempt to represent the relation of God to man, and to postulate "a gospel of faith and reason combined."

Among the admirers ofFestuswasTennyson.Henry Wadsworth Longfellowimitated it inThe Golden Legend(1851). Bailey himself described his approach with the neologism "omnist".[4]Margaret Fullerwas an enthusiast for the work, if with critical reservations.[5]

The subsequent poems of Bailey,The Angel World(1850),The Mystic(1855),The Age(1858), andThe Universal Hymn(1867), were failures. The author then incorporated large extracts of these into the later editions ofFestus,which ultimately extended to over 40,000 lines when the final edition was published in 1889. At one time his work was immensely popular, admired for its 'fire of imagination' (Elizabeth Barrett Browning), but, like the other works of theSpasmodic schoolof which Bailey was considered the father, it is now little read.[6]

In 2021,Edinburgh University Presspublished a critical edition ofFestus,edited byMischa Willett.[7]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^abLee, Sidney,ed. (1912)."Bailey, Philip James".Dictionary of National Biography(2nd supplement).Vol. 1. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  2. ^"Glasgow University Jubilee".The Times.No. 36481. London. 14 June 1901. p. 10.Retrieved5 January2024– via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^Club, Manchester Literary (1903).Papers.
  4. ^Herbert F. Tucker (2008).Epic: Britain's Heroic Muse 1790-1910: Britain's Heroic Muse 1790-1910.OUP Oxford. p. 344.ISBN978-0-19-923298-7.
  5. ^Meg McGavran Murray (2008).Margaret Fuller, Wandering Pilgrim.University of Georgia Press. p. 230.ISBN978-0-8203-3659-6.
  6. ^The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 6th Edition. Edited by Margaret Drabble, Oxford University Press, 2000 Pp59
  7. ^"Philip James Bailey, Festus".edinburghuniversitypress.com.Retrieved27 October2021.

References

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