LEWIS
,
DAVID
(
1683?
-
1760
), a
Welsh
-born
poet
in
England
.
He was, apparently, the son of
Roger
Lewis
of
Llanddewi Efelffre (Velfrey), Pembs.
, who matriculated from
Jesus College
,
Oxford
, on
4 Jan. 1698
at the age of 16, and graduated
B.A.
there in
1702
. He may have been for a period an
usher
at
Westminster school
. In
1726
he published a collection,
Miscellaneous Poems by Several Hands
, containing translations from
Martial
,
Horace
, and
Anacreon
, and poems by
Dyer
and
Pope
;
Lewis
's own share in the collection cannot, unfortunately, be identified. In
1726
he published
Philip of Macedon
, a tragedy in blank verse, which was dedicated to
Alexander
Pope
. First acted at
Lincoln's Inn Fields
in
1727
it was repeated three times. In
1730
he brought out a second
Collection of Miscellany Poems
, which was dedicated to the
earl of Shaftesbury
. Some stanzas addressed by
Lewis
to
Pope
were published in
A Collection of Pieces on the Occasion of the Dunciad
(ed.
Savage
,
1732
). He d. at
Low Leyton
,
Essex
, in
April 1760
, and was buried there. According to the inscription on his tomb his wife was the daughter of a
Leyton
merchant
.
Bibliography:
-
Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography
Author:
Miss Ray Looker, (Mrs Ray Morgan), Cardiff / Rhymni
