The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-27 00:00:00

HAYMARKET THEATRE,

A splendid audience last night assembled at the Hay-
market Theatre to welcome home the inimitable Charles
Mathews, after an absence from the stage of nearly two
years. This circumstance of itself would have been quite
sufficient to hays filled the house, but the eclat which
has recently attached to his perfortnances in the French
language at the Theatre des VariCttt'.t.s, Paris, gave an
additional amount of interest to the occasion. It was felt by
all a duty to welcome him, in conjunction with his ac-
complished wife, in a manner peculiarly and thoroughly
English. The piece he selected for his entree was a
farce from the French, known here as " Cool as a
Cucumber." In this farce for forty nights Mr. C.
Matthews, in the French language, elicited from the
most fastidious and exacting audiences in Paris not only
applause but admiration, and that, be it remem-
bered, from a class by no means ready to admit
the existence of excellence in anY but Pa-
risian actors, in what is familiarly termed here
" light" comedy. The moment his voice was heard
" without," as it is professionally termed, as the modest,
retiring and bashful (?) Mr. Plumper, the applause of the
audience commenced, and on his appearance the assembly '
gave vent to such hearty demonstrations of fervour, that
Mr. Mathews seemed for the moment perfectly over-
powered by the cordial greeting. Again and again he
attempted to commence his ps.rt, but salvos of applause
followed each effort, and for some minutes the interior ch
the theatre presented a scene of the most extraordinary
description—the cries of " Bravo, bravo 1" " welcome,
welcome 1" accompanied by the waving of het; and
handkerchiefs, coming from all parts of the house. At
length the farce was allowed to proceed. There is no
need of even giving a mere outline of the plot, as every-
body knows that. Plumper introduces himself into the
house of a retired gentleman, on the supposition that he
has once met his son on board the Rhine steamboat, and
immediately he commences arranging the furniture, hang-
ings to pictures, d:c., &c., to please his own fancy, irre-
spective of the wishes and desires of the astonished and
dumbfoundered owner of the house. He kisses the maid,
makes love to the niece, drinks Old Barkina's wine, rings
for biscuits, orders luncheon, &c., &e., in the most off-
hand free-and-easy style; and the farce is brought to a
climax by his obtaining the consent of the father to the
marriage of his (Barkins's) son and niece, a consent he had
determined never to give. The manner in which Mr. Mathews
enacts the part is the perfection of light comedy. He sus-
tains a perpetual laugh by the most delicate acting, and
when the farce evaporates into mere burlesque, and he
mingles stage facts with the dramatic story, the whimsi-
cality of the whole thing finishes the little drama amidst
roars of laughter. In the classical burlesque "The Golden
Fleece," Mrs. Mathew's sustained the part of Medea with
extraordinary spirit, of which it is impossible to speak
in too high terms of praise. To sum the performance up
in two or three words, it was the very cream of burlesque
acting, and elicited immense applause. Mr. C. Mathews
appeared as Chorus, and gave two or three of his extra-
ordinary patter songs, in a manner perfectly and wholly his
own. Mr. Compton was great and glorious as the King of
Corinth, and Miss Louisa Keeley as the fast young Jason,
reminded us very forcibly of her talented and gifted mother.
The burlesque, which was put on tke stage in magnificent
style, pleased the audience amazingly.