Lewes, George Henry (1817–78), philosopher, dramatist, and dramatic critic. He was the grandson of the actor
(Charles) Lee Lewes (1740–1803), who created the role of Young Marlow in
Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer (1773), and was himself an amateur actor, appearing with a group formed by Charles
Dickens in such parts as Sir Hugh Evans in
The Merry Wives of Windsor and Old Kno'well in
Jonson's Every Man in His Humour. In 1849 he appeared in Manchester as Shylock in
The Merchant of Venice with some success, anticipating
Irving's conception of the part as ‘a noble nature driven to outlawry by man’. He also played the chief part in his own play
The Noble Heart when it was produced in Manchester in 1849 before its appearance in London, where he does not appear to have acted professionally. Under the pseudonyms of Slingsby Lawrence and Frank Churchill he wrote several other plays, of which
The Game of Speculation (1851) was based on Balzac's
Mercadet. A Chain of Events (1852) and
A Strange History in Nine Chapters (1853) were written for and in collaboration with the younger Charles
Mathews and produced at the Lyceum, as were all Lewes's other plays except
Buckstone's Adventure with a Polish Princess (1855), seen at the Haymarket, and
Stay at Home (1856), produced at the Olympic. Lewes, who in 1854 began a lifelong liaison with the novelist George Eliot, was the founder and editor of the
Leader, for which as ‘Vivian’ he wrote dramatic criticism from its foundation in 1850 to 1854, sometimes reviewing his own plays. He particularly disliked Charles
Kean, whom he harried whenever possible, but was one of the first to recognize the genius of Henry Irving.
