Lewis, David

(?1683-1760)

   Many of the facts are vague. He was Welsh, the son of Roger Lewis of Llandewi Velfrey, Pembrokeshire. He graduated B.A. from Jesus College, Oxford, in 1702, and taught at Westminster School. His Miscellaneous Poems by Several Hands (1726) contains translations from Martial, Horace, and Anacreon. It also contains John Dyer's "Grongar Hill" (1726, see entry), Alexander Pope's "Vital Spark of Heavenly Flame" (1712, see entry), and the poems "Wedding Song," "See the Springing Day From Far," and "Away! Let Nought to Love Displeasing," which was reprinted in Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765, see entry). Lewis published Philip of Macedon, a tragedy in blank verse (1727) and a second Collection of Miscellany Poems (1730). Some of his verses addressed to Pope were published by Richard Savage (see entry) in a Collection of Pieces on Occasion of the Dunciad (1732). Lewis died at Low Leyton, Essex, and was buried in Leyton Church, where an inscription speaks of his "many excellent pieces of poetry sufficiently testifying" to the fact that he was "a great favorite of the Muses" (DNB).

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Book of Eighteenth Century Verse. David Nichol Smith, ed. Oxford University Press, 1926.