Charles Mathews

His father was a serious bookseller, who also officiated as minister in one of the Countess of 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, who in 1794 unwillingly allowed him to take up acting in Dublin. In 1797 he married Eliza Kirkham Strong, who died in 1802. In 1803 he married Anne Jackson, an actress, the author of the popular and diverting Memoirs, by Mrs Mathews (4 vols., 1838-1839).

For several years Mathews had to be content with thankless parts at a low salary, but in May 1803 he made his first London appearance at the Haymarket as Jabel in Cumberland's The Jew and as Lingo in The Agreeable Surprise. From then on, his professional career was an uninterrupted triumph. His gift for mimicry enabled him to disguise his personality without a change of costume. His versatility and originality were displayed in his "At Homes," begun in the Lyceum theatre in 1818, which, according to Leigh Hunt, "for the richness and variety of his humour, were as good as half a dozen plays distilled."

In 1822 Mathews visited the United States, and his observations on his experiences there are entertaining. 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 City was on February 11, 1835, when he played Samuel Coddle in Married Life and Andrew Steward in The Lone House. He died at Plymouth.

His son, Charles James Mathews was also a successful actor.

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.