4 JULY 1835, Page 15

DEATII A1'I1EW S.

Cu alters AI.vritt:ws, the cot1:,•ilian, liZH made his exit from the stage

of lee. Ills face, with its Pli■leall varieties of bade has undoleame

it• fical change. Our l'erick is dead. I'vt. ho lives in our reeellee that. We lo:ove him belOre us, seated behind flee litde green table, his ro,v. flexible fire radiant with the helot ef the lamp., aid it, expression AIATIIEWs was a mimic in the fell SellsT. of the terra. Ile not only itifiteted the look, the voice, and the extern:A peenlimities of an indi- vidird to the life. Ina ito convqed a distinct and true impression of the ;name and di,position of the man. Ills mimicry went below the sort:Ice—it Nva,: Inor:11 as Nvc!I as physical. Al.vrerws had all the deli- caer and retinemetit which belong to the nice perception and delincit- titM of charin•ter. his humour amused :Al and offended none. It was ell...viler. in serious as well as in comic incidents : witness his touching -episode of Jews/car .,1/adet. But the ludicrous was his torte I wit Oil, eceentricirv, and drollery of all kinds, were embodied by him with the ease and freedom of habitude. his plastic physiognomy seemed only to bremne fixed in the mould of another inan's character.

Ii out one of the biographical compilatione, we learn that MATHEWS was stage.struek when a boy. Ile had tasted the discipline of 3Ier- chant Tailors' School; and was bound apprentice to his hither, who was what is called " a serious bookseller." Perhaps the young actor felt that he could never be one; so he drew from his father his "slow leave" to try his fortune on the stage. lie made his debit in Dublin, and went a round of provineial engagements, passing three years in Wales, until he succeeded ENIERY in TATE WILKINSON'S company at York. There he was a great favourite, and acquired the reputation which led to his engagement at. the Haymarket, when that theatre was managed by GEORGE COLMAN. lie made his first bow to a London audience in 1803. He was for several years a member of the Drury Lane and Covent Garden companies; until, in 1818, he commenced his series of At Ilialles,—the most popular and successtnl performances of their kind, and for which, by his versatility as an actor and his ven- triloquial powers, joined to a qui,:k and acute observation and a reten- tive memory, he was peculiarly qualified. Ile visited America; and then sucreeded TEIMY in the partnership with YATES in the Adelphi 7'heatre; where his last " At Dome" was given. Latterly his iii. creasing infirmity, arising not only from lameness of one leg (occasioned by a hill from a gig), but from a morbid nervous irritability., prevented lns appearance. His partner Vaers amused the audience with imita- tions of MATIIEWS ; amid to hi to those must now look who desire to have an idea of what Ala-mews was. The copy is broad and some- what coarse, but very like, and fell of spirit and vigour. 'Ile doubt is, whether even YATES will be able to act again after his late accident.

Al.ermays's career as an actor lett no stain on his character as a man and a gentleman. lie was respected in private life as well as applauded in public. He was twice married ; and has left a widow, and one son —who has evinced talent both as a dramatist and an architect.

eves was born in the Strand, London, on the •28th June 1776; and died at Devonport, on the talth June 1834: so that he was nearly sixty years old—forty years of Ins life baying been spent on the stage.