Charles James Mathews

After attending Merchant Taylors' School he was articled as pupil to an architect, and continued for some years nominally to follow this profession. His first public appearance on the stage was made on December 7, 1835, at the Olympic, London, as George Rattleton in his own play The Humpbacked Lover, and as Tim Topple the Tiger in Leman Rode[?]'s Old and Young Stager. In 1838 he married Madame Vestris, then lessee of the Olympic, but neither his management of this theatre, nor subsequently of Covent Garden, nor of the Lyceum, resulted in pecuniary success, although the introduction of scenery more realistic and careful in detail than had hitherto been employed was due to his enterprise. In the year of his marriage he visited America, but without receiving a very cordial welcome.

As an actor he held in England an unrivalled place in his peculiar vein of light eccentric comedy. The easy grace of his manner, and the imperturbable solemnity with which he perpetrated his absurdities, never failed to charm and amuse; his humour was never broad, but always measured and restrained. It was as the leading character in such plays as the Game of Speculation, My Awful Dad, Cool as a Cucumber, Patter versus Clatter, and Little Toddlekins, that he specially excelled. In 1856 Mme Vestris died, and in the following year Mathews again visited the United States, where in 1858 he married Mrs AH Davenport. In 1861 they gave a series of "At Homes" at the Haymarket theatre, which were almost as popular as had been those of the elder Mathews.

Charles James Mathews was one of the few English actors who played in French successfully,--his appearance in Paris in 1863 in a French version of Cool as a Cucumber, written by himself, being received with great approbation. He also played there again in 1865 as Sir Charles Coldcream in the original play L'Homme blasé (English version by Boucicault, Used up). 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. He made his last appearance in New York at Wallack's theatre on June 7, 1872, in HJ Byron's Not such a Fool as he Looks His last appearance in London was at the Opera Comique on June 2 1877, in The Liar and The Cosy Couple. At Stalybridge he gave his last performance on June 8, 1878, when he played Adonis Evergreen in his own comedy My Awful Dad.

See the Life of Charles James Mathews, edited by Charles Dicken (2 vols., 1879); HG Paine in Actors and Actresses of Great Britain and the United States (New York, 1886).

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.