Author: Bailey, William
Biography:
BAILEY, William (fl 1822-26)
The preface to his Grimaldi states that the play was written in 1813 when he was on military duty in Colerain and Garvagh, Ireland, and therefore predates Fazio by Henry Hart Milman (q.v.). The preface is largely given over to establishing the precedence of Bailey's play, implies that Milman may have borrowed elements of Grimaldi, and notes that the two works are dissimilar. Bailey’s play was ridiculed by the critics particularly for its excessive stage directions. No biographical information has been located. His only other publication is Records of Patriotism and Love of Country which was written in England but published in Washington in 1826. The preface states that it is based on (borrowed from?) his perusal of a single copy of Alexander Garden's Anecdotes of the Revolutionary War in America (1822). (Monthly Magazine 54 [1822], 359; ANBO) SR