The death of Mr. Philip James Bailey, the author of
" Festus," in his eighty-seventh year, was announced on Mon- day. " Festus " was published as far back as 1839, and the rest of the author's long life was practically devoted to the revision and expansion of this poem, a drama in monologue, which is in its essentials a variant upon the Faust legend, and won the approval of critics so competent and widely divergent in their methods as Tennyson, Browning, and Bulwer Lytton. "Festus," if it lacks melody, conciseness, and sustained grandeur of style, abounds in fine rhetoric and pi?turesque imagery. Of its abiding vitality as a work of art it is harder to speak with confidence than of its nobility of aim and elevating influence: Though it was acclaimed by some of the most commanding intellects of the time, " Festus " failed to commend itself to the higher literary criticism of subsequent generations, and it is not a little significant that its vogue, as tested by the number of editions, was three times greater in America than in England. Bailey was never a fashionable poet, but " Festus " is, we believe, still read largely by the most thoughtful repre- sentatives of the average public.
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