he presented Country Cousins; the following year, Travels in Air, Earth, and Water; and, in 1822, The Youthful Days of Mr. Mathews; perhaps at once the best and most popular of his entertainments.

After this season Mr. MATHEWS visited America, where

he had a rapid career of splendid success. There he provoked the malignity of a methodist, who, as MATHEWS said, in a letter of the time, "Points out the causes of the late scourge to the city, to the theatre, and me in particular; for, by a most amusing anachronism, he makes out that my drawing crowds together in November, was one of the causes of the pestilence that commenced in July." Mr. MATHEWS was subjected to another attack, while in America, from the editor of The Philadelphia Gazette and Daily Advertiser. It appears that the pursuits, and (as was stated in the announcement) the station of very many respectable persons, would not permit their visiting the theatre. This, we confess, we cannot exactly comprehend; however, to accommodate the individuals thus described, Mr. MATHEWS announced an At Home, at Boylston Hall, and selected an evening not appropriated for dramatic performances; the receipts were to be appropriated to "The British Charitable Society." The day previous to his intended performance, an article, from which we extract the leading points, appeared.

"After all this excess of grateful feeling, and the positive assurances that his benefit would be the last night of his public appearance in Boston, it was to have been hoped that Mr. MATHEWS would have left the city, without committing any acts of gross and unpardonable injustice towards the people of his profession; but it seems, to gratify certain ladies and gentlemen, who, from various causes, cannot visit the theatre,' Mr. MATHEWS is to be At Home

this evening. Mr. MATHEWS made a good bargain with the manager of the theatre. He must have known his visit must injure the house, both before he arrived and after his departure. He has repeatedly told the public, that Wednesday evening was the last night he could appear; and, on the faith of these assurances, the manager informed the public, that it was the last opportunity they could have of seeing him. But certain ladies and gentlemen could not visit the theatre to see him. Why could they not? Because they would not. They will not support a theatre and stationary company; but they encourage, with their countenance and money, an itinerant mimic. They will not go to a theatre, to see a tragedy of Shakespeare's, or a comedy of Sheridan's; but they are anxious to get into Boylston Hall, to see Mr. MATHEWS imitate a sea-sick rustic, and hear him retail old stale jokes of Joe Miller.

"If we hear of any of our learned professors, sage judges, wise legislators, or pious clergymen, being present, we shall not fail to report thereof to the public, and endeavour to hold up, to the admiration of our readers, those fastidious ladies and gentlemen, whose delicate stomachs cannot digest a play, but can gorge their cormorant appetites on the vulgarity and smut, which have been scouted from the stage as stale and unprofitable excrescences."

For this libel Mr. MATHEWS commenced an action, and recovered very considerable damages.

After a career of unexampled profit and pleasure, Mr. MATHEWS bade farewell; an account of which we extract from an American paper.

"Mr. MATHEWS. This celebrated hero of the sock took leave of a numerous and brilliant audience, on Satur

day evening. He appeared in the farce of The Review, Polly Packet, and Monsieur Tonson. At the conclusion of the farce, Mr. MATHEWS came forward and thanked the audience for the flattering manner in which he had been received since his arrival in this city. He observed, that, notwithstanding the Atlantic would soon divide them, yet he would remember, with fond delight, the noble hospitality, generosity, and kindness, so often bestowed upon him; and, above all, the unbounded approbation he so frequently received from the crowded and brilliant audiences which repeatedly graced the theatre, would be cherished with gratitude to the remotest period of his existence. Here his feelings almost overcame him. Mr. MATHEWS said- Ladies and Gentlemen,-You will no doubt meet with many possessing more abilities than myself, but I do most sincerely assure you, none can feel more gratitude. I am unable to proceed-permit me to bid you all an affectionate farewell.'"

On the 25th March, 1824, the public jester returned to his native place, the English opera-house, with a new entertainment. We should have premised that he returned to England about ten months previous, and had appeared in the drama at the English opera-house, with distinguished success. As the late Editor of this work, a gentleman of the most extensive theatrical research, has assured us he could never obtain a bill of one of Foote's performances, we shall occasionally present our readers with the bills of Mr. MATHEWS's entertainments, in our Histrionic Anecdotes, &c.

After the close of his own season, he engaged during a portion of Mr. Arnold's, and appeared in Jonathan W. Doubikin, in a lively farce by Peake, called Jonathan in England; which called forth an essay in The European

Magazine, to which our hero replied the following month; and to which reply the essayist rejoined. For which articles, see that magazine for 1825.

In that year he produced an entertainment, called Mr. MATHEWS's Memorandum Book; and again performed in the drama, at the English opera-house; and once at Drury-lane, for Mrs. Bland's benefit; and in March, of the present year, he presented his Invitations.

Had we space sufficient, we should describe what we have barely room to allude to, i. e. his quarrel with Elliston in 1804, when that performer was really shamefully insolent to the Haymarket auditors-his visit to Bowstreet, for provoking a legal gentleman to fight a duel; said legal gentleman having much discommoded Mrs. Mathews, by some proceedings which he took, whilst Mr. MATHEWS was in Paris-his remaining locked out, during a winter's night, at Calais gate-his donation to the family of Emery, with the peculiarly bad taste displayed in his letter on that occasion-his speeches, &c., at the theatrical club dinners his dissentions with a Mr. Flemmington, who usurped his entertainments, &c. &c. ; but as it is, we must pass directly to a summary of his talent.

Our summary of MATHEWS's talent shall be short; because we could not do justice to our subject, whatever space we might occupy; and because the reiterated plaudits of millions in the Old and New World, must be his neverdying eulogy. As an actor, Mr. MATHEWS possesses the rare art of extracting his personal nature from his assumptions; and he is Sir Fretful or Morbleau, without one shade of Mathews about him. This, which we conceive to be the acmé of art, has been the occasion of some witlings calling him a mere mimic. Now, let us analyse this expression. The word comes from the Latin mime, which

is literally the Greek mimos, and bears no other signification, than a person who imitates some thing that does exist, or has existed. In this sense the funereal attendants, the mimes of Rome, were properly distinguished; they imitated the tones or manner of the deceased; but where a man, by the power of his imagination, conceives a voice and a manner, and executes his conception, he ceases to be a mimic; because what he produces has no real existence. The distinction is as great as that between the landscape painter, who copies existing scenes, and the artist, who trusts to the warmth of his imagination, and paints from fancy. Let us, under this idea, behold Mr. MATHEWS At Home. Where are the originals from whence Monsieur Zephyr, Longbow, Nat, Dr. Prolix, Daniel O'Rourke, Sassafras, Tourville, Hezekiah Hulk, &c. &c. &c., were drawn, to say nothing of the countless hundreds of beings that live their brief moment in his dialogue songs? Do they ever strike the ear or the eye as unnatural ? No. We feel they might exist; but to track their likeness to individuals, is impossible. Much more impossible is it that he should have copied them from individuals. Such a course would have required a much longer servitude to society, than Mr. MATHEWS'S life, quadrupled, would allow him to pay. The fact is, almost all the creatures forming Mr. MATHEWS's dramatis versonæ, are creations of his fancy; and he is, therefore, as much an actor or artist as Garrick could have been, and much more so than any actor of the present day is.

Before he took to that course which will make his name remembered whilst the drama is memorable, he was generally the representative of Harley's cast of parts; to which he tacked, occasionally, Frenchmen, old men, and countrymen. And it was then remarked, and we think justly,