Charles Mathews

“ After this for some time he continued by his eccentric acting to divide the attention of London with the young Roscius, and even had his admirers who believed in his dramatic talent and abilities. His appearance created so much sensation that Charles Mathews, in his 'At Home' at Covent Garden, produced on 25 Feb. 1813 a farcical sketch, in which he personated Romeo Rantall, and held the Amateur of Fashion up to ridicule. ”

“ At the Haymarket, where, after having played with Macready at Drury Lane, she accepted an engagement under Webster, she was Medea in Planché's ‘Golden Fleece,’ 24 March 1845, and Suivanta in his ‘Golden Branch,’ 27 Dec. 1847. She then went with her husband to the Princess's, where she appeared in March 1846, and then undertook the management of the Lyceum, opening in October 1847 with the ‘Pride of the Market.’ Charles Mathews played his familiar parts, and Mrs. Mathews produced the best remembered of Planché's burlesques. ”

“ I think the audience possessed of a better knowledge of character than any I have seen. But I recollect Doctor Belcombe to have told me long ago that they first found out Charles Mathews's father, and to the last understood him (he used to say) better than any other people. . . . The let is enormous for next Saturday at Manchester, stalls alone four hundred! I shall soon be able to send you the list of places to the 15th of November, the end. ”

“ He had heard that I was theatrically given, and humoured my shattered intelligence by taking every opportunity of telling me that he had once taken his daughters to the Adelphi to see ‘Martin Chuzzlewit’ or ‘Nicholas Nickleby’—I forget which—followed invariably by a little anecdote of one Grossmith, an old ‘entertainer,’ who was wont to imitate Charles Mathews (whose loss we are regretting now) so well that when Mathews once met him in the train and heard him talk he said, ‘If you are not Mathews, you must be Grossmith.’ I think that was the story ”

“ MATHEWS, CHARLES (1776–1835) , English actor, was born in London on the 28th of June 1776. His father was “a serious bookseller,” who also officiated as minister in one of Lady Huntingdon’s chapels. Mathews was educated at Merchant Taylors’ School. His love for the stage was formed in his boyhood, when he was apprentice to his father, and the latter in 1794 unwillingly permitted him to enter on a theatrical engagement in Dublin. ”

“ The world will be candid enough to judge properly (I make no doubt) of any private abuse on this subject for the future; as nobody can defend himself from an accusation he is ignorant of.
"Thomas Mathews."
On a remonstrance from Miss Sheridan upon this outrageous proceeding, he did not hesitate to assert that her brother Charles was privy to it;—a charge which the latter with indignation repelled, and was only prevented by the sudden departure of Mathews to London from calling him to a more serious account for the falsehood. ”

“ Mathews,’ 1822, followed each other at the Lyceum. Among his friends at this period were Coleridge and Charles and Mary Lamb. In August 1822 Mathews started for New York, where he arrived 5 Sept., making his first appearance in Baltimore, 23 Sept., in his ‘Trip to Paris.’ He subsequently played in the regular drama Lord Duberly in the ‘Heir-at-Law,’ Solomon Gundy in ‘Who Wants a Guinea?’ Goldfinch in the ‘Road to Ruin,’ &c. As Goldfinch and Monsieur Tonson he appeared in New York. His artistic and social successes were equal, though he was more popular as an actor than as an entertainer ”

“ After reaching his sixty-sixth year, Mathews set out on a tour round the world, in which was included a third visit to America, and on his return in 1872 he continued to act without interruption till within a few weeks of his death on the 24th of June 1878. He made his last appearance in New York at Wallack’s theatre on the 7th of June 1872, in H. J. Byron’s Not such a Fool as he Looks. ”

“ From infancy his health had been uncertain, and the toils of his profession gradually undermined it. In 1834 he paid a second visit to America. His last appearance in New York was on the 11th of February 1835, when he played Samuel Coddle in Married Life and Andrew Steward in The Lone House. ”

“ It is not a difficult thing to do, to change one's mind, is it?"
Their eyes met; ay, these two were hot lovers once, but what are they now?
"You have laid me under a great obligation, Mr. Vasher," she says, in her proud young voice. "Pray understand that I am grateful. Good night, Mr. Frere, and forgive me, if you can, for startling you so much."
"Good night! good night!" he says, and so with a hand-shake she goes, and the two men accompany her to the gate.
Now if Mr. Frere had possessed the most rudimental idea of his duty on this occasion, he would have stopped behind with me. ”

“ It is something, indeed, that I should have to take the hand of a woman who has done you such horrible injury!"
"She won't come here, mother dear," I say, kneeling down by her side; "and you need only leave cards."
"It is such a pity," goes on mother, "that your father liked the Vashers always: if he were quarrelling with them, as he does with everybody else, there would be no trouble. ”

“ But no answer comes to me; not a leaf stirs, not a sound is abroad.
Hark! what is that? Hasty footsteps are crushing the gravel, coming nearer and nearer. Who can it be that comes here so late? And farther away I seem to hear lighter steps, that follow after the first. Have the father and mother returned, too late? And my dull heart gives an exultant leap that Silvia should come too late that Wattie died in my arms, not hers. . . . The steps pass on, retreat, come forward again, and in another minute a man steps into the flood of moonlight that fills the room—Paul Vasher. ”

“ I fall down on my knees by his side. Wattie! . . . Wattie! . . . God has taken all else on earth from me, and now he is beckoning you . . . my darling! . . . my darling! . . .
Half an hour later and a man has returned from Pimpernel with the doctor; an hour and he is gone again. He can do no more for the only son of Paul Vasher than the son of a cottager; a few days, or hours even, will determine the issue.
"It is in God's hands," say the servants, as they move to and fro, and the words sound to me in my agony like direst mockery. ”

“ I look at the girl, she is riding slowly by; she has not lifted her head or moved one hair's-breadth. I feel rather than hear the sigh of relief he gives (surely it is relief?) when she lifts her eyes, looks full in his face, then, it is all in a moment, the reins slip from her hands, she sways and falls headlong to the earth. She does not touch it though, for Paul Vasher has leapt the gate, has caught her in his arms, and is looking down on her with a strange expression as the groom hastily dismounts and catches his mistress's horse.
Bring her in!" says Mr. Frere, pale with alarm. ”

“ I look around; no one is to be seen. Dorley is invisible; the governor I saw fast asleep in the library a while ago the coast is clear. In the twinkling of an eye I have swung myself up into the tree, and am shaking with a will. The fruit is falling in a bounteous red shower, when a voice directly below me makes me start so violently, that I drop the bough and lose my footing. But, alas! instead of respectably smiting mother earth with my nose, I remain suspended, petticoats above, legs below. Even in this awful moment, the verse over the barber's shop comes into my mind ”

“ Mathews is well known as an able but somewhat eccentric writer, with the grotesqueness, as well as the insight of the humorist, and often miscalculating the avenues to popular favor, while he gave no evidence of lacking the powers which deserve it. ”

“ I say, looking forward with dismay to that dreadful engaged period of "pecking" that I have until now successfully evaded.
"Your governor and mine get on splendidly," says George, in a hopeful voice. "That would surely go for something?"
"That is one of those things no one can understand," I say, shaking my head. "My father has known your father for four years, and they have not quarrelled yet! Mr. Tempest must have the temper of an angel, or papa has never kicked him, because he thought he was so little, and old, and frail!" ”

“ Mathews played some 240 characters, very many of them in his own pieces. His most conspicuous successes were obtained in light comedy and farce. Passion and pathos seemed wholly alien from his nature, and even on those occasions when he obtained the most flattering homage an actor can receive and found himself compelled to speak words of gratitude, he remained ‘cool as a cucumber,’ conveying sometimes the idea that the seriousness of those around him perplexed as much as it pleased him. ”

“ We cannot, however, pass over his boast about uttering forth his loud behest till mountain, lake and rivers shall obey him—for the fact is that his threat is vox et preterea nihil, like the countryman’s nightingale in Catullus; the issue showing that the mountains, lakes and rivers—all very sensible creatures—go fast asleep upon the spot, and pay no attention to his rigmarole whatever. Upon the “large commands” it is not our intention to dwell. The phrase is a singularly mercantile one to be in the mouth of “a Power.” It is not impossible, however, that Mr. Mathews himself is ”

“ It seems sufficient ‘doom’ for an honest English gentleman, who has met with a mishap, to be brought to a nobleman’s threshold and get foul treatment rather than welcome. Pray for me, Sir, an you will, there’s none so much deserves or needs it. Pray on!”
“Frewen!” beckons His Lordship, as he watches the ’ostlers rubbing down the restored Homing Nell, and confers with Mr. Biggs as to the plunder and the meting out of justice. “Frewen, gain the wretch’s confidence an you can, the whereabouts of all the gold and jewels he has stolen ”

“ Mrs. Mathews, who had retired from the stage in 1810, survived her husband, whose ‘Memoirs’ she edited, and wrote ‘Anecdotes of Actors, with other Desultory Recollections, &c.,’ 8vo, 1844, and ‘Tea-Table Talk, Ennobled Actresses, and other Miscellanies,’ 2 vols. 8vo, 1857. She died, 12 Oct. 1869, at Chelsea Villa, Fulham.
Without rising into the highest rank as an actor, Mathews was in his way inimitable. He had genuine power as a comedian, and as a mimic he had no equal. ”

“ The reverent, simple voice ceases for a moment. "And now," he says, drawing my hands gently away from my eyes with one hand, while he gathers me to him with the other, "I have my reward; have I not, my darling?"
Ay! he has his reward, as I recoil from his embrace, slip away out of his arms, and stand looking at him with a measureless suffering in my eyes, with a deadly pallor on lips and cheek. A faint dread comes into his face, and dashes the surpassing brightness out, a terrible suspicion grows in his eyes, and dwells there. ”

“ Sirs!” exclaims Mr. Chalmers, “what a life ’t must be, tho’; sleep o’ days, wake o’ nights, prowling under the branches, harkening for game from dusk till dawn, all seasons the same, one’s heart in one’s mouth, till the hoof’s heard, and then a masking dash, a brawl, a thrift quick as the lightning’s flash; a corpse or two, and your purse the heavier by as many guineas as the game’s had under cover—and all to the tune of the owl’s cry, and I doubt not for some sweet Maid Marian’s sake!”
“’Slife! hear the boy!” cries Mr. Brummell. ”

“ His good-natured wife sometimes befriended them in this way, and put in a few stitches for them; the result being profitable in more ways than one. It was she, and not the miserable, intemperate mother, who plaited Matty's glossy locks in the heavy braid which she then wound round her head.
Cousin Serena went up to the peanut-stand, invested in Matty's wares, the child serving her in the dull, mechanical way usual with her, and smiled kindly down at her, eliciting, however, no response.
"What pretty hair you have, Matty!" was Miss Craven's next advance ”

“ I would hold you—keep you—bind you in my arms so safely that no one should wrest you from me—my love, my darling!" He covers up his face, he trembles in a strong man's agony, and still, still I can look at him and feel absolutely nothing.
"As you will not take up your burden and bear it like a man," I say—and at my words he lifts his head—"I must take it up and bear it for you. I will never live to have people pointing at me and saying, 'That is the girl Paul Vasher loves, and who loves him—the married man. ”

“ I say trembling, "some day perhaps, or to-morrow, but not to-day, I cannot because of—of him, you know."
"Him? there should be only one man in the world to you now, Nell."
George Tempest, then," I say, turning crimson; "Lubin, you know."
"What of him?" asks Paul in surprise; "surely you are not bothering your head about him? Poor devil! he must be cut up at losing a little pet like you; but it is not your fault, you can't help it. ”

“ The flower-girl looked after them and sighed,—a long, weary sigh, as she watched the frolicsome Lily.
"Most all little girls have their fathers and mothers," she said softly to herself; "but I don't have either. I wonder why God did take both of [20] mine away; if He didn't know how lonesome I would be, or why He didn't take me too. I don't see what good I can be to Him all alone by myself, except Betty and Jack. ”

“ We come next in order to the poems on 'Man, in his Various Aspects under the American Republic;' a very comprehensive title to much incomprehensible rhyme with little reason. As a poet, Mr. Mathews cannot reasonably expect to take the exalted order of rank which he holds as a dramatist. ”