3-011-886 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mr. Charles Mathews as Plumper, in "Cool As A Cucumber", 1864. Engraving from a photograph by Messrs. Mayall. The '...excellent comedian...Mr. Charles Mathews made his first appearance at the St. James's Theatre...when he was well received by a numerous and fashionable audience...[in] "Cool as a Cucumber"...lately acted in Paris by him, in French, as "Un Anglais Timide"...Here we have a character which is in continual bustle, exhibiting the utmost effrontery, and amazing ordinary people with his bold familiarities; yet the actor demonstrates in every motion the utmost serenity-in a word, the "cucumber" sort of coolness, predicated in the title. The art of affecting this calm, which is possible to the true artist in combination with the most vehement action, is known by the name of Repose, the attainment of which is the perfection of histrionic skill. Mr. Mathews has sedulously cultivated this attribute, and has attained it so completely that it gives a finish and precision to his slightest assumption...For a time, these special qualities seemed to place him at the head of his profession as the best, if not the greatest, of our actors. Even now it would be difficult to describe his faults'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.