“ 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 attaché 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. ”

“ 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. ”