charles mathews actor manager (6 risultati)

12mo, 1 p. Fair, on aged paper, with traces of previous mount adhering to the corners of the blank reverse. Of course Hollingshead should 'wait till the last night of "used up" ' before writing to Mathews, who has 'hunted up Buckstone - hunted up Turpin - but in vain. Not a box to be had'. He has sent 'the best I could get': '3 Dress Circle to Mrs Smiles with "Mr Hollingshead's best compliments." '. In a postscript states that if Hollingshead wants 'a box for the "Overland Route" before the last night' he will be 'too happy'. 'There is always a run on last nights.'.

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. The recipient is not named. An interesting letter, indicating the relationship between two major theatrical figures in Victorian London. The main body of the letter reads: 'Dear Sir, | You really must excuse my incurring any such responsibility as that you would impose upon me. I am unable to controul Mr. Webster's actions and do not see why I should take upon myself a risk in a matter in which I have no possible interest.' Mathews has added subsequently, in a smaller hand: '(especially as my private belief is that Mr Webster never reads the pieces at all. He has at least half a dozen in hand at this moment that I know of.)'.

Printed on one side of a piece of laid paper 28 x 23.5 cm. The hand-coloured engraving (showing Mathews in riding garb with long whip in foreground, and a coach and four in the background) is 16 x 22.5 cm. Fair, on aged paper, with wear and slight loss to extremities (not affecting the engraving or text), and the reverse showing signs of removal from an album. Above the engraving are the words 'BANG UP - RANDOM, OR TANDEM.' and beneath are the publication details, followed by the full title: Some Push Along With Four In Hand, While Others Drive At Random. Written by J. Pocock, Esq.; composed by Mr. C. SMITH; and sung, wish [sic] unbounded Applause, by Mr. MATHEWS, in the Musical Farce, called "HIT or MISS!" at the Lyceum Theatre, Strand.' First two lines: 'WITH spirits gay I mount the box, the tits up to their traces, | My elbows squar'd, my wrist turn'd down, dash off to Epsom races;'. Divided into three columns, each with a six-line stanza followed by spoken text. Scarce: COPAC only lists a 12mo Newcastle reprint, from c.1815.

Printed for display, on one side of a piece of paper 24.5 x 49.5 cm. Text clear and complete. On aged and creased paper, with one closed tear and bottom right-hand corner lacking, causing slight loss to the last letter of Mathews' name at foot of document. Heading in bold type in a variety of point sizes. Giving a 'brief statement of my fourteen years' struggle and of my latest difficulty'. He has 'stood in a false position towards the world for many years', 'performing an honorable duty under almost superhuman difficulties', while 'the world believes me to be an extravagant, thoughtless, reckless fellow, living an idle, dissolute life, totally regardless of my own honor and the interests of others'. Excessively scarce: no copy in the British Library, on COPAC or WorldCat.

See his entry, and that of his son, in the Oxford DNB. The topic of this letter is referred to in the second volume of Dickens's edition of the son's life, 1879. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with strip of tape from mount adhering at edge of blank second leaf and two folds for postage. Addressed to 'Dear Harley' and signed 'C Mathews.' He begins by thanking him for his 'kind enquiries', and (with regard to his son the actor Charles James Mathews) writes that 'Our dear good Charles thank God! is recovered, and writes in excellent spirits from Florence. His disorder has been small pox! So much for vaccination! for of all the victims I have ever witnessed to that system, he was the greatest - as his face was covered with frightful blotches for two years after inoculation.' He claims that the 'English Physician' who attended the boy 'hand no hesitation from the first in pronouncing it to be Small Pox', but that 'this was concealed from us'. 'He accounts rationally for 3 weeks of silence - namely that he was blind. "The first reason will do."' He has had 'irksome work to play comforter to an almost broken hearted mother - and six nights per week to mimic gladness when the heart was sad'. He ends with renewed thanks for the 'kind note, which my wife equally appreciates'.

3pp., 12mo. Fair, on aged paper. Mathews begins by quoting contradictory passages from letters of Charles Mathews, one from Mrs Mathews' 'Memoirs of Charles Mathews, Comedian' (1839) and the other from Bunn's 'The Stage: Both before and behind the Curtain' (1840). Regarding a performance in Dublin in 1811, the letter Mrs Mathews quotes complains that, although Mathews had been led to believe £600 would be raised, and despite a full house, 'When every account was closed, the sum-up was 470l.' In the letter quoted by Bunn, Mathews states that he never 'played to one full house in Dublin, but once, in Crow Street; and then they knocked down the door-keepers and got in for nothing. 289/., was returned for the greatest number of people ever collected in the building' Mrs Mathews has clearly taken offence at Bunn's printed comment that the account given by Mathews in the letter in his book 'does not exactly tally' with that given in the letter in her book. He attempts to placate her with a generous tribute to her husband: 'In all the relationships of life, public or private, I ever found, ever reported, & ever shall report, my departed friend, as a pattern of greatness not to be surpassed.' Bunn hopes she will permit him to pay his respects 'ere the week wanes'. In a postscript he writes: 'I had a chat with Charles about this very letter, before he started for Dublin.' At the foot of the first page Mrs Mathews notes, of the £289, 'This alludes to the first account. A M'; and along the foot of the second and third pages, 'Money was afterwards paid in which brought the total receipt to 470 | A M'.