from which he was unable to free himself. The ‘Beggar's Opera,’ with Harrison as Macheath and Madame Vestris as Lucy Lockett, was more successful, and the ‘Merry Wives of Windsor,’ with Mathews as Slender and Mrs. Nisbett and Madame Vestris as the wives, proved a draw. During the period in which he held possession of Covent Garden he produced over a hundred plays, operas, interludes, farces, melodramas, and pantomimes, including ‘Hamlet,’ ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ the ‘School for Scandal,’ ‘A Midsummer-Night's Dream,’ given seventy times, the ‘Rivals,’ ‘Twelfth Night,’ an alteration of the ‘Spanish Curate,’ &c. Among the novelties were Leigh Hunt's ‘Legend of Florence,’ 7 Feb. 1840, given thirteen times; the ‘Baronet,’ a comedy by Haynes Bayly, hissed from the stage; the ‘Bride of Messina,’ subsequently known as ‘John of Procida,’ by Sheridan Knowles, 19 Sept. 1840; the ‘Greek Boy,’ a musical afterpiece by Samuel Lover [q. v.]; the ‘White Milliner;’ Boucicault's ‘London Assurance,’ in which Mathews played Dazzle; ‘Old Maids,’ by Sheridan Knowles, a failure; and several farces, some of them, as ‘You can't marry your Grandmother,’ ‘He would be an Actor,’ &c., his own works. Charles Kemble accepted an engagement and reappeared. On 2 Nov. 1841 Adelaide Kemble appeared as Norma, with a success that drew on Mathews the attention of the proprietors of Covent Garden, who pressed him for arrears of rent, and so sealed his ruin. His management finished on 30 April 1842. An arrest for debt followed, and Mathews was lodged in the Queen's Bench, whence, after an act of bankruptcy, he was released, under conditions with regard to his creditors that deprived him of all chance of shaking off the burden. A flight to Paris was followed by a fresh bankruptcy.
In October 1842 Mathews and his wife were engaged for Drury Lane by Macready, but they soon quarrelled with him, and transferred their services to the Haymarket. There they appeared 14 Nov. 1842, respectively as Charles Surface and Lady Teazle. On 29 Aug. 1843 Mathews made a great hit as Giles in Planché's ‘Who's your Friend?’ and 6 Feb. 1844 a still greater success as Sir Charles Coldstream in ‘Used up.’ On 22 Feb. 1843 Mathews, with his wife, made his first appearance in Edinburgh, playing Mr. Charles Swiftly in ‘One Hour’ and in ‘Patter versus Clatter.’ After performing at the Surrey and at the Princess's, and in various country towns, Mathews opened the Lyceum 18 Oct. 1847 with the ‘Light Dragoons,’ the ‘Two Queens,’ and the ‘Pride of the Market,’ the company including Harley, Buckstone, Leigh Murray, Charles Selby, and Mrs. Stirling. For seven years the theatre was remuneratively conducted, without enabling Mathews to get free from debt, and a whip upon the part of some friends and a ‘bumper’ public benefit followed unavailingly a new bankruptcy. Management was resigned, and Mathews, after playing in the country, was lodged for a month, beginning 4 July 1856, as a common prisoner in Lancaster Castle.
On 8 Aug. following his wife died, and Mathews, a year later, after playing at Drury Lane, where he was acting-manager, revisited America, where he met and married his second wife, who survived him, Mrs. (Lizzie) Davenport, an actress at Burton's Theatre, New York. He played sixty nights at Burton's Theatre. In October 1858, with his wife as Lady Gay Spanker, he reappeared at the Haymarket as Dazzle in ‘London Assurance.’ He played a round of his favourite characters, including, for the first time, Paul Pry and Goldfinch in the ‘Road to Ruin.’ In 1860–1 he was again at Drury Lane, where he played Will Wander in a wild melodrama adapted by himself, and called ‘The Savannah,’ and on 25 Nov. 1861 appeared with his wife at the concert-room (then called the Bijou Theatre) in Her Majesty's Theatre in an entertainment called ‘Mr. and Mrs. Mathews at Home,’ illustrated by pictures by John O'Connor, from sketches by Mathews. ‘My Wife and I,’ and a burlesque by H. J. Byron, the ‘Sensation Fork, or the Maiden, the Maniac, and the Midnight Murderers,’ were also given. In 1863 he was again at the Haymarket, and the same year played in Paris, at the Théâtre des Variétés, in ‘Un Anglais Timide,’ a French version of ‘Cool as a Cucumber.’ This experiment was repeated in the autumn of 1865, when, at the Vaudeville, he played in ‘L'Homme Blasé’ (‘Used up’). Both engagements were successful, but were not renewed, though Mathews in July 1867 played ‘Un Anglais Timide’ at the St. James's, for the benefit of Ravel, and gave ‘Cool as a Cucumber’ the same night at the Olympic. Between these performances Mathews had acted at the St. James's in ‘Woodcock's Little Game’ and in ‘Adventures of a Love-Letter,’ his own adaptation of M. Sardou's ‘Pattes de Mouche.’ A scheme for a journey round the world led to a benefit at Covent Garden, 4 Jan. 1870, in which, in scenes from various plays, the principal actors of the day took part, and a dinner at Willis's Rooms on the 10th, over which Mathews, contrary to custom, presided. Mathews himself played, on the 4th, his
