Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/54

 favourite character of Puff in the second act of the ‘Critic,’ Mrs. Mathews appearing as Tilburina.

On 9 April 1870 he made his first appearance at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne, in ‘Patter versus Clatter’ and ‘Married for Money.’ Various parts were played, and Ballarat, Sydney, and Adelaide were visited, the Australian trip ending 31 Jan. 1871, when he set sail for Auckland. He gave there a performance of ‘Used up’ and ‘Cool as a Cucumber’ at 11 A.M. on 7 Feb., and sailed three hours later for Honolulu, where he acted for one night. On the 12th he arrived at San Francisco, where he performed, then proceeded to New York, and fulfilled a six weeks' engagement. A tour in the United States and Canada followed, and on 1 June 1872 he took, at Wallack's Theatre, New York, as Sir Simon Simple in H. J. Byron's ‘Not such a Fool as he looks,’ his farewell of America. On 7 Oct. 1872 he appeared at the Gaiety Theatre, London, in ‘A Curious Case’ and the ‘Critic.’ A second engagement at the same house began 26 May 1873, and a third, 29 Sept. of the same year. In 1874 he was again at the Gaiety, and 13 Sept. 1875 produced there his own adaptation, ‘My Awful Dad’ (‘Un Père Prodigue’). This was his last new part. The periods between these performances had been spent in the country. In November 1875 he went to India, and played at Calcutta before the Prince of Wales. In 1876 he was again at the Gaiety, and in 1877 at the Opera Comique, where, in the ‘Liar’ and the ‘Cosy Couple,’ he reappeared 2 June 1877. In 1878 he started on a country tour with a company under the management of Miss Sarah Thorne. On 8 June he made his last appearance, playing at Stalybridge in ‘My Awful Dad.’ He died 24 June, at the Queen's Hotel in Manchester. His body was removed to 59 Belgrave Road, S.W., his last London residence, and was on the 29th buried in Kensal Green cemetery.

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. The motto of the dial was held to apply to him in acting—‘Horas non numero nisi serenas.’ He was, within limits, an admirable comedian. In his early days he was a model of grace, brightness, and elegance. George H. Lewes tells how the youth of the day were wont to worship him, and says of his Affable Hawk that its artistic merit was so great ‘that it almost became an offence against morality, by investing a swindler with irresistible charms, and making the very audacity of deceit a source of pleasurable sympathy.’ Lewes saw M. Got in the same part, and says that he prefers Mathews. Lewes owns, however, that Mathews was ‘utterly powerless in the manifestation of all the powerful emotions: rage, scorn, pathos, dignity, vindictiveness, tenderness, and wild mirth are all beyond his means. He cannot even laugh with animal heartiness. He sparkles; he never explodes.’ Mathews had, however, airiness, finesse, aplomb, and, in spite of an occasional tendency to jauntiness, repose and good breeding, which are rare on the English stage, and he had powers of observation and gifts of mimicry. His popularity was indescribable, and at times embarrassing. His frequent imprisonment and the class of parts he played gained him a character he did not wholly deserve of ‘a gay dog.’ He was not at all the reckless character popularly supposed, was the least possible of a gourmet, and was a little shy in the presence of strangers. His greatest parts were Sir Charles Coldstream in ‘Used up,’ Affable Hawk in ‘A Game of Speculation,’ Lavater, the hero of ‘Cool as a Cucumber,’ Puff in the ‘Critic,’ and the Chorus in Planché's ‘Golden Fleece.’

Of Mathews's plays, mostly adaptations, no full catalogue seems to be in existence. A list of his own pieces and of those in which he had appeared was contributed to the ‘London Figaro,’ whence it was, with additions, transferred as an appendix to Mr. Dickens's ‘Life of Mathews.’ Such of the plays as are printed are included in Lacy's ‘Acting Edition’ and the collections of Cumberland, Webster, &c. The British Museum collection is meagre. In the ‘Chain of Events,’ a drama in eight acts, Mathews collaborated with Slingsby Lawrence (LEWES, Actors). With the exception of this piece and the ‘Savannah,’ a four-act melodrama, in which he was seen at Drury Lane, his plays were generally in three acts or less. His three-act pieces included ‘Black Domino,’ ‘Dead for a Ducat,’ ‘Married for Money,’ ‘Milliner to the King,’ ‘Match for a King,’ and ‘Soft Sex.’ In two acts are ‘Aggravating Sam,’ ‘Bachelor of Arts,’ ‘Carlo,’ ‘Court Jester,’ ‘Impudent Puppy,’ ‘Kill him again,’ ‘My Awful Dad,’ ‘My Wife's Mother,’ ‘Pong-wong,’ ‘Serve him Right,’ ‘Striking Likeness,’ ‘Take that Girl away,’ ‘Who killed