gratification than what may be derived from his Sir Harry Wildair, and Archer. Elliston is the complete gentleman in comedy. This is, I am told, the most difficult of dramatic characters; so much so, that, were the best bred man to attempt to personate it on the stage, the chances of his not being able to maintain the character would be fearfully against him. To professional skill Elliston unites the advantages of a very liberal education. The rapid transition from one character to its opposite which this actor possesses the power of doing is really marvellous. No actor is capable, in so short a time, of producing so many tears, and so many smiles as Elliston. He is also much respected in private life, as an amiable man, and well-bred gentleman. There is not upon the stage a more chaste and truly scientific comic actor than Mathews. Always attentive to his part, by study and an acute and just con 249 MR. MATTHEWS. ception of it, always appearing to understand what his author intended, he never attempts, or rather despises, the contemptible efforts by which inferior actors in his line too often secure the applauses of the gallery. An author, in the hand of Mar thews, is sure to be safe; he is not tortured by finding his sentence curtailed and interpolated, for the purpose of making room for the clap-trap buffoonery of the actor, Much as I admire him in every character, I prefer his Sir Fretful Plagiary, and his Sir Andrew Aguecheek, the representation of which, I think I hazard nothing in asserting, never has been equalled. Mathews. has also another excellence which deserves to be noticed. There is no actor of the day, Kemble not excepted, who dresses his character better, or so well. If Mathews were to wear a mask, and not to speak, I could discover him by the admirable attention which he pays to cos tume. MR. MATTHEWS. 248 Excellent as Mathews is, as a public performer, he has the power of gratifying his friends with a still more extraordinary display of talent in private. He is decidedly the first mimic of the times in which he lives. I know not what it was perhaps a prejudice, which reflection never noticed; but I always felt something like contempt for the powers of mimickry, until I witnessed those of Mathews. In him such powers, with admiration, excite commensurate impressions of respect: but this may perhaps arise from his uniting the deportment of a gentleman to the ta lents of a man of genius. It has been my good fortune to witness his exhibition of this extraordinary faculty several times, and every time he has never failed to represent the same character with some exquisite addition either of manner or matter: indeed his powers of composition appear to be as prompt and fruitful as his application of it is unrivalled. You would be lost in astonishment, to hear and wit 244 MR. MATHEWS. HIS IMITATIVE POWERS. ness his imitation of the principal actors, and singers of the day; with instantaneous succession they are brought before you, as in propria persona. Many, and most of his subjects are from real scenes in life, next to the actors. The master of a German post-house; his wife and child; a Frenchman playing at billiards; Incledon cursing and praying in the same breath, in a storm at sea; the late Manager of York Theatre; the Town Cries of York; Kemble's instructing D'Egville, as the parrot in the pantomime of Robinson Crusoe, to say "Pretty Poll," in point of humour, are wonderful: and, in the horrible, Mathews still possesses the same powers. The eye cannot contemplate any thing more painfully affecting than his exquisite representation of an ideot catching a fly. In this extraordinary exhibition, nothing is said; the whole is the work of the face. I have seen this exhibition. twice at the second display, I was enabled to turn my attention from the actor MR. MATHEWS.- -HIS HUMOUR. 245 to the spectators; and such was the effect which he produced, that, in every face, whether young or old, I saw that sympathy had fashioned the features into something that resembled Mathews's, during this frightful performance. Nature has been not a little kind to Mathews, by having twisted one side of his mouth a little, which frequently gives considerable effect to his comical humour, particularly in the characters of rough old men-another branch of his excellence. He so often played these characters, and with so much effect, that many people fully believed that he is a very old and infirm man, instead of a young one, two or three and thirty; and he told us, that he was much amused once, in going from London into the country, in one of the stage-coaches, to hear a country farmer talk to him about himself; having, as it seemed, a short time before, seen him in one of these characters; and, amongst other observations, to say, "I'll tell 'e |