Charles, an eminent comedian, was the son of a bookseller in the Strand, and was born in London on the 28th June 1776. After receiving his education at the Merchant Tailors' school, he was apprenticed to his father's business. But his early-developed love for mimicry had grown into a passion for the stage; and after playing several times as an amateur, he eventually, in 1794, engaged himself as a professional comedian at the Theatre Royal, Dublin. In the course of a year, however, the injustice of a cruel manager, and the pinchings of extreme poverty, had cooled his enthusiasm so much that he set out for England, bent upon spending the rest of his life in his father's shop. At Swansea the stage-fever relapsed, and there Mathews played for nearly three years with great popularity. Meanwhile he had married in 1797 the daughter of Dr Strong, a physician at Exeter. He removed in 1798 to the theatre at York, and by his careful study and ready talents soon became a great favourite with the play-goers of that city. But the gratification resulting from his public success was neutralized by domestic misfortune. Feeble health, pecuniary embarrassments, and the death of his wife, simultaneously overwhelmed him; and not until he had received, in 1802, a flattering invitation to become a member of the Haymarket Theatre, London, did he resume his wonted gaiety. After marrying his second wife, Miss Anne Jackson, a member of the York company, Mathews repaired to London in 1803. His success continued to increase during two seasons at the Haymarket, and afterwards at Drury Lane. On the destruction of the latter theatre by fire in 1809, he removed with the rest of the company to the Lyceum, and there he acquired additional fame by his personation of Maw-worm in The Hypocrite. In 1811 he set out on a provincial tour; and on his return to London in 1812 he resumed his place at the Haymarket. A severe fall from his tilbury in 1814, lamed him for the rest of his life. In 1818 the genius of Mathews, hitherto cramped by the shallow characters he had been employed to personate, gained full scope in his entertainment entitled "Mathews at Home." By a series of comic songs, personations, ludicrous adventures, and imitations of well-known actors, he filled the English Opera-House to overflowing for forty successive nights. He had thus, by one rapid stroke, gained the greatest histrionic honours, and was now considered unrivalled in the versatility of his comic powers. During the four following seasons he continued his entertainments in the same theatre with unabated applause. In 1822 he set out on a professional visit to the United States; and on his return to London in 1824, he mimicked the peculiarities of that country with inimitable effect in his "Trip to America." He continued his entertainments every season in the English Opera-House until he became, in 1828, joint-proprietor with Mr Yates of the Adelphi Theatre. In compliance with the urgent request of the American theatres, Mathews revisited America in 1834, and performed his famous "Trip" to crowded audiences, in several of the largest cities. His sinking health, however, compelled him to accelerate his return, and he died at Plymouth on the 28th June 1835.

Possessing in the highest degree a plastic countenance, a flexible voice, and a power of rapid and keen discernment, Charles Mathews stood alone in the art of mimicry. His imitation of the voice, of the physical peculiarities, of the very sentiments and mind of his subject, approached as nearly as possible to complete identification. Almost as wonderful was his dramatic power of inventing new charac- ters. Those in his entertainments "At Home" were all designed by himself; and each of them had the finish and individuality of a true transcript from nature. The gentlemanly bearing, upright conduct, and social worth of Charles Matthews, combined with his genius to introduce him into the most select society; and he numbered among his personal friends such men as Coleridge and Charles Lamb. His son, the eminent comedian of the present day, has inherited, along with his father's name, no small portion of his talents.