Author: Lewis, Philip
Biography:
LEWIS, Philip (d 1791: Highfill)
Philip Lewis was born in Wales, probably in Monmouthshire about 1725 or possibly earlier. His father is said to have been the rector of Traghaire (Tregare), but that remains to be confirmed by a record of his birth or baptism. He had an older brother, William. Both brothers were drawn to the stage and started their careers in Ireland in the 1740s. By 1750 they had joined an Irish touring company and became joint owners of a company in Newry, but William died in 1753 and the company was dissolved. Between 1750 and 1757 Philip Lewis had occasional work in small parts at Drury Lane in London; then he returned to Ireland and performed at Dublin’s Smock Alley Theatre—again in minor parts. His great opportunity came in 1761 when he went back to London under contract to Covent Garden for almost a decade, but he was then, to use his own words, “discharged . . . without any claim upon the fund”—i.e. the theatre’s fund to support its retirees. His specialty on the stage appears to have been an ability to burst into tears which earned him the title “the King of Grief.” After leaving Covent Garden Lewis, who never married, returned to work as an itinerant actor, supplementing his earnings by selling copies of his poems. Besides the Miscellaneous Pieces in Verse of 1774 and 1778 and the enlarged Poetical Works of 1790 that are included in this bibliography, Highfill reports a further “fifth” edition at Portsmouth (1782). In a preface to the final collection of 1790, Lewis explains his desolate and destitute condition and complains particularly of the neglect of his only relative, his nephew; he reprints an article from the European Magazine of 1783 designed to shame the nephew into doing something for him. Newspapers reported that the King, during a royal visit to Cheltenham in 1788, had promised to “make provision for him for the rest of his days” but nothing came of that. He evidently spent his final days in the house of his nephew William T. Lewis, near Mile End (east London), and died there in Sept. 1791. No record of burial has yet been found. (Highfill; ancestry.com 14 Jan. 2024; findmypast.com 14 Jan. 2024; Chester Chronicle 23 Sept. 1791; Aris’s Birmingham Gazette 26 Sept. 1791)
Other Names:
- P. Lewis