The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-14 00:00:00

DRIJRY-LANE.

The most accomplished actor of the day—our incom-
parable Charles Mathews—still remains the bright par-
ticular star of Old Drury, the pre-eminent attraction
among all the many and remarkable attractions collected
together by the enterprise of Mr. E. T. Smith within
the ample scope of his great popular establishment.
Nitocris continues to be, of course, the gorgeous close of
almost every successive evening's entertainment. Satur-
day night, indeed, is the sole weekly exception—but
then on Saturdays eomes the finest farce ever written,
the monstrously laughable and exquisitely ridiculous
Critic of Sheridan. Charles Mathews being at once a
glorious Puff and an inimitable Sir Fretful Plagiary.
Besides which, "A New Drama, in Five Acts," is under-
lined upon the Playbills as in active preparation. An
announcement appearing also through the same channel
to the effect that " A new Play" is shortly to be forth-
coming from the pen of J. W. Robson, Esq., author of
" Love and Loyalty." So that in Mr. Smith's hands
the management continues to be as active as ever, no
effort apparently being spared to render the entertain-
ments as varied and novel as possible. Meanwhile there
continues to be repeated on four or five nights out of
every half-dozen the serio-comic drama, in two acts—
taken from the French, of course—called, in its original
shape, Monsieur qui suive lee Femmes, and in its present
form, quite as significantly, An Impudent Puppy, Glori-
ous Charles Mathews as the impudent puppy in question,
one Mr. Nestor Nimble, being "fooled to the top of his
bent" by the other characters, and then fooling them in
turn to the top of theirs, so that his share in the plot is
at length conducted to a very satisfactory conclusion.
The materials out of which the plot is constructed are
the flimsiest imaginable, but that the hero of the piece
is Charles Mathews, and Charles Mathews, we all
know, and have known for years past, can make any-
thing go down under the influence of his contagious
good humour, aided by his inexhaustible volatility,
sparkle, and animation. Flitting hither and thither
about the stage through all the mazes of the comedy,
arising from the vices and eccentricities of such men and
women as the Hon. Paul Paragon, M.P., and the Lady
Olivia, as horrid Mr. and Mrs. Dobbs, as abominable
Major Firebrace, and preposterous Sir Felix Faddle—
Nestor Nimble is, from the beginning to the end, the
life and soul of the two acts, from his chance meeting
with his sister Maria in the parks, to his final betrothal
to his first love Emma in the drawing room—the park
and the drawing-room being the scenes to which the
action of the drama is altogether restricted. Still m ore
laughable, if possible, than this Nestor Nimble, is the
Charles Beeswing of Mr. Mathews, in the extravagantly
comic interlude of Twenty Minutes with a Tiger, wherein
Mr. A. Younge makes up absurdly enough as " the
Beast " of the occasion—Mr. Chili Cbutnee, a genuine
Bengal Tiger, a rampagious, tearing, raving, raging, cata-
maran— the terror of everybody, including his servants
Jacob and Dolly—the terror of every one at least, except-
ing his daughter Arabella, to whom the brute in the tiger-
skin dressing-gown and red-tasselled nightcap is the ten-
derest and gentlest of doating old governors. The cool-
ness of Charles Mathews, as Beeswing, in dealing
with this same ;inflammable specimen of Cayenne-
pepper-and-curry-powder-eating old firework of a
Nabob is a thing to be seen—and yet hardly
to be seen either —for the laughing ! Better than
in such ephemeral parts as these, however, the
London public like to see their old favourite in charac-
ters in which he is not only delightful, but in which he
is altogether incomparable. To put Charles Mathews i❑
indifferent parts, such as Nimble and Beeswing, is to
treat most unworthily the most finished artiste on the
English stage. Let us hope to see him henceforth only
in parts really worthy of his delicious ease and match-
less assurance.