"CHARLES SURFACE" AND " MEROUTIO."

Otago Witness, Issue 1926, 15 January 1891, Page 32

"CHARLES SURFACE" AND " MEROUTIO."

I saw Charles Mathews in the part of Charles Surface, and it was a failure. He had been for years aoting the London man-about-town style of character, and the modern air and rather trifling manners, which were admirable when introduced into those parts, were entirely out of place in old English comedy. The quaintness of the language and the fashion of the costume seem to demand a oourtly carriage, which a modern swagger, with one's hands thrust into one's breeches pockets, will fail to give. The modern light comedians, with a few exceptions, seem to have discarded the quaint manners of the stage, thinking them antiquated and pedantic. And so they were, for modern plays j but it is dangerous to engraft new fashions upon old forms. I should as soon expect to see Mercutio Bmoke a cigarette as to find -him ambling ! about the stage with the mincing manners of a dude. And speaking of this very character, Charles Mathews told me that, during Maoready's Shakespearian revivals at Drury Lane Theatre, he was engaged to play Roderigo, in which light and frivolous part he made such a hit that Macaulay tried to persuade him to aot Meroutio. He was delighted with the idea at first, but upon reading and pondering over the part he felt convinced that it was beyond him. Maoready urged, but Mathews would not undertake the responsibility. Some years afterward Charles Kemble returned to the stage for a short farewell engagement and acted Mercutio. " Oh," Baid Mathews, " when I Baw thia elegant and manly aotor dash across the stage with the confident carriage of a prince, and heard him read the lines of Shakespeare as though they had been written for him, I felt that I had made a fortunate escape in dodging this first gentleman of Verona."— Joseph Jefferson, in The Century. LOLA MONTES AS OLEQPATRA. Amongst the famous Cleopatras know to the stage, those who have of late been busy with the topic have forgotten to name the once much-talked of Lola Montea. It is true that the beautiful and bewitching dancer never essayed the statlier Shakesperian role but merely played the Cleopatra of, a Btupid farce —nevertheless she played Cleopatra, and so is entitled to a plaoe in tho reoord.' It wad before Plancbe's star had well arisen on the horizon, and the light touch of that now vanished hand had not yet brightened and vivified the humorous portion of the British drama. Lola, with her grace and loveliness, would have been an ideal queen of fairy burlesque and extravaganza had Bhe but been granted by Venus the one charm ahe lacked— a murical voice. Even without this, however, she must have achieved no small measure of success had the opportunity offered. As it was she lived just a few years too soon, I saw her also in " Asmedeus," a Spanish comedy, and the impression made upon me by her perfect features— her profile was of the Graek type— lustroua eyea, and radiant expression, remains to this day/ urieffaced and uneffaoeable. As to her carriage, it gave one the idea of pride, and of an' unquenchable vitality. I saw her dance; her famous " Tarentelle " or "Spider Dance," and although she had not the facility of the accomplished danseuse, still her face and figure were bo charming, her manner and bearing so gay, blithesome, and vivacious* that it was impossible not to yield to these the admiration to which her technique alone did not, perhaps, entitle her.— F., in the Queenslander.