Matthew Gregory Lewis

Matthew Gregory Lewis 1775-1818, English author, b. London. In addition to his writing he pursued a diplomatic career and served for a time in Parliament. He was often called "Monk" Lewis from the title of his extravagant Gothic romance The Monk (1796), the writing of which was influenced by the tales of Ann Radcliffe . The novel concerns a saintly Capuchin monk who, led into a life of depravity by a fiend-inspired woman, subsequently becomes a rapist and murderer. Charges of immorality and irreligion brought against Lewis by his critics caused a less offensive second edition to be published. Of his melodramatic plays the most famous is The Castle Spectre (1797). His ballads, notably Alonzo the Brave and the Fair Imogene, influenced Sir Walter Scott 's early poetry.

Bibliography: See biography by L. F. Peck (1961); studies by M. Summers (1938, repr. 1964) and R. P. Reno (1980).

Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775–1818), English novelist and dramatist, usually known as ‘Monk’ Lewis from the title of his most famous novel, Ambrosio; or, The Monk (1795). This provided material for a number of sensational plays, which, together with The Castle Spectre (1797) and Timour the Tartar (1811), found their way into the repertory of the 19th-century toy theatre. Lewis's work, most of which is now forgotten, was deliberately concocted to appeal to the prevailing taste for melodrama and spectacle. Somewhat crude but offering great scope for effective acting and lavish scenery enhanced by incidental music, it shows very clearly the influence of Kotzebue.