LEWIS

lewis, matthew gregory (1775-1818), english romance-writer and dramatist, often referred to as "monk" lewis, was born in london on the 9th of july 1775. he was educated for a diplomatic career at westminster school and at christ church, oxford, spending most of his vacations abroad in the study of modern languages; and in 1794 he proceeded to the hague as attache to the british embassy. his stay there lasted only a few months, but was marked by the composition, in ten weeks, of his romance _ambrosio, or the monk_, which was published in the summer of the following year. it immediately achieved celebrity; but some passages it contained were of such a nature that about a year after its appearance an injunction to restrain its sale was moved for and a rule _nisi_ obtained. lewis published a second edition from which he had expunged, as he thought, all the objectionable passages, but the work still remains of such a character as almost to justify the severe language in which byron in _english bards and scotch reviewers_ addresses-- "wonder-working lewis, monk or bard, who fain would'st make parnassus a churchyard; even satan's self with thee might dread to dwell, and in thy skull discern a deeper hell." whatever its demerits, ethical or aesthetic, may have been, _the monk_ did not interfere with the reception of lewis into the best english society; he was favourably noticed at court, and almost as soon as he came of age he obtained a seat in the house of commons as member for hindon, wilts. after some years, however, during which he never addressed the house, he finally withdrew from a parliamentary career. his tastes lay wholly in the direction of literature, and _the castle spectre_ (1796, a musical drama of no great literary merit, but which enjoyed a long popularity on the stage), _the minister_ (a translation from schiller's _kabale u. liebe_), _rolla_ (1797, a translation from kotzebue), with numerous other operatic and tragic pieces, appeared in rapid succession. _the bravo of venice_, a romance translated from the german, was published in 1804; next to _the monk_ it is the best known work of lewis. by the death of his father he succeeded to a large fortune, and in 1815 embarked for the west indies to visit his estates; in the course of this tour, which lasted four months, the _journal of a west indian proprietor_, published posthumously in 1833, was written. a second visit to jamaica was undertaken in 1817, in order that he might become further acquainted with, and able to ameliorate, the condition of the slave population; the fatigues to which he exposed himself in the tropical climate brought on a fever which terminated fatally on the homeward voyage on the 14th of may 1818. _the life and correspondence of m. g. lewis_, in two volumes, was published in 1839.