Punch: Punch (76.1879)

306

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[July 5, 1879.

EARLY EXAM.

"And what did your Godfathers and Godmothers then for you?" "Knife, Fork, and 'Poon !"

CHARLES, OUR FRIEND.

Thanes to Messrs. Macmtllan for the Memoirs of Charles
Mathews, Architect, Author, Artist, and Actor.

Everyone was interested in " Charley" Mathews. " Charley
was our darling" ever since we can remember going to the play, and
yet who ever thought for one moment seriously that a time must
inevitably come when Charles Mathews would have joined the
majority, and when middle-aged playgoers would shako their heads
regretfully, and say to the cadets of their families, " Ah, you should
have seen Charles Mathews !—' Charley,' as we used to call
him ! "

Yet so it is. And, while his memory is still so brightly green
amongst us, that we can hardly realise the fact of his having left us
for good—for tbe best—and almost prefer to imagine that he has
only gone away for a longer trip than usual beyond the Antipodes
this time—" to the Sawannahs," as poor old Joe Willett softly mur-
mured,—his autobiography comes to us, pleasant and chatty as the
man himself.

Who but thinks of Charles Mathews affectionately, whether
they knew him personally, or not ? He had the popularity of the
Second Charles without his vices ; and, unlike the First Charles,
our Charley, " Cool as a Cucumber," never lost his head. We had
got into the way—old and young—of looking upon him as a " scape-
grace '' to whom everything was to be forgiven because he was such
a good fellow. We identified him with his characters: he was
equally to us Charles Coldstream as he was Charles Mathews ;
and we looked upon his Affable Hatch as himself down to the
ground,—only without the " Hawk."

" Imitate Charles Mathews ! " cried out some one in the Gallery
to Mr. j. L. Toole while giving his imitations of Phelps, Fechter,
Buckstone, &c.

"I shan't! " shouted Mr. Toole in reply. " I would if I could,
but Charles Mathews is inimitable ! "

The public took a sort of kind old fatherly view of their favourite,
and were inclined to shake their heads at him, and say "Oh,
Charles, Charles ! " like Sir Oliver in the School for Scandal,
and then forgive him as a young rascal up to anything at any age.

No matter that his autobiography clearly and emphatically dis-
avows this view of his character, the public has made its ideal
Charley, and to that tradition, in spite of his most earnest dis-
claimers, the public will stick.

The first volume is far more characteristic—more Mathewsy—than
the second ; and the idea will occur to most of his intimate friends,
and to many of his acquaintances, that there are in existence
sufficient materials for a third supplemental volume, much of which
would come under the head of " Supper-le-mental Anecdotes."
CnARLES Mathews was Charles his Friend to everyone, and never
more so than at those late, pleasant, genial meals, when he ate little,
drank hardly anything, refreshed himself with a cigar of his own
peculiar brand, talked much, and always well. The most interest-
ing part of his autobiography is contained in the first volume; *
while perhaps the most amusing is to be found in the second, where
his public speeches are recorded. If Messrs. Macmillan and the
Compiler will take this hint, we shall have to thank them again for
a third volume of Mathewsiana to complete the set.

" THE WREATH REFUSED."

Air—" Celia's Arbour."

" Lord Beaconsfield has refused to accept the People's Tribute, the
Golden "Wreath, purchased with the 52,000 pennies collected with such
unheard-of exertion by Mr. Tracy Turnerelli."—Event of the Day.

In Tracy's sanctum, black as night,
Hang, doomed wreath—so hateful now !—

And, haply, now Lord B. won't bite,
A place thou 'It find on Tracy's brow !

And if upon thy leaflets bright

Spots of corrosion we should see,
We '11 know they are not signs of slight,

But tears of pity for T. T. !

"Midsummer Night's Dream" {June, 1879).— Blankets and
Eider Downs.