Charles Mathews
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Charles Mathews (June 28, 1776 - June 28, 1835) was an English theatre manager and comic actor, well-known during his time for his gift for impersonation. His play, At Home, in which he played every character, was the first monopolylogue and the defining work in the genre.
He was born in London, the son of a bookseller who also served 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.
For several years Mathews had to be content with bit parts, 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 acting career was also 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 one man show At Home, begun in the Lyceum theatre in 1808, which, according to Leigh Hunt, "for the richness and variety of his humour, were as good as half a dozen plays distilled." The show combined mimicry, storytelling, recitations, improvisation, quick-change artistry, and comic song.
In 1822 Mathews toured the United States, to great success. During his stay, he developed a number of impressions of American types. One of these was the African American, and Mathews performed a version of "Possum Up a Gum Tree" in dialect and possibly in blackface. One author called him "the paterfamilias of the Yankee theatre and the progenitor of all native American dialect comedy".[1]
A few years after his return, he bought a half-share in the Adelphi Theatre. Adelphi was a critical and popular success, but for Mathews not a financial success, so in 1834, he went on a second tour of America. He cut his trip short and returned ill from the tour after putting in his last appearance in New York City on February 11, 1835. He failed to recuperate, and died poor in Plymouth, without ever appearing again on a British stage.
His son, Charles James Mathews was also a successful actor.
[edit] Trivia
- The character of Alfred Jingle in The Pickwick Papers is said to have been inspired by Mathews.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Hodges, Francis (1964). Yankee Theatre: The Image of America on the Stage, 1825-1850. Quoted in Watkins 83. Watkins calls the actor under discussion Charles James Mathews. The African American impression first appeared during the 1822-23 American tour, so it is reasonable to assume that Watkins is discussing the elder Mathews and not his son.
[edit] External links and references
- Portraits of Mathews, from the National Portrait Gallery
- The 1828-29 and 1834-35 Seasons at Adelphi Theatre, two of several articles from an E. Michigan University website
- Special Collections, Princeton University Library, home of some of the papers of Mathews and his actor son
- Watkins, Mel (1994). On the Real Side: Laughing, Lying, and Signifying—The Underground Tradition of African-American Humor that Transformed American Culture, from Slavery to Richard Pryor. New York: Simon & Schuster.
- The Works of Art Collection from the Garrick Club, a collection started with works collected by Mathews
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
