Recollections of a player . e manuscript or play-book on tosome other member. Many and many anight, after the performance, when mybrothers and I were all in bed, father andmother would be at work on new partsfor hours, she reading and he poor mother, tired out, would nodover her task and lose her place, saying,Oh, dear ! I have given you the wrongspeech. And father would irritably reply,Confound it! Give me the book and I 11read it myself. But in the same momenthe would rise, kiss her, and insist uponher going to bed, finishing the task byhimself. Poor mother! God bless hermemory
Recollections of a player . e manuscript or play-book on tosome other member. Many and many anight, after the performance, when mybrothers and I were all in bed, father andmother would be at work on new partsfor hours, she reading and he poor mother, tired out, would nodover her task and lose her place, saying,Oh, dear ! I have given you the wrongspeech. And father would irritably reply,Confound it! Give me the book and I 11read it myself. But in the same momenthe would rise, kiss her, and insist uponher going to bed, finishing the task byhimself. Poor mother! God bless hermemory! One of the most patient andtender-hearted creatures that ever lived—trying to clothe and provide for her chil-dren on so slender an income, and fightinga malady, cancer, that eventually endedher life, and yet so good, so cheerful, al-ways making light of her pain. My father, night after night, would walk up and down the room, studying long parts for the next nights performance, and sometimes daylight would appear be- 32. Charles James Mathews, Jr.,as George Eattleton. KECOLLECTIONS OF A PLAYEE fore lie could retire. Again, lie would bein the theater until three or four oclockin the afternoon rehearsing, and thenhome to repeat the same sort of work was fearful, and I have sincewondered how he ever got through it. Charles Mathews and Mme. Vestrisplayed an engagement with Alexanderone season, and years after Mr. Mathewsrecalled to me, when we were together atWallacks, an incident of it. I shallnever forget, said he, your father, andthe terrific work he got through withAlexander in Glasgow. Vestris and Iwere playing an engagement there, andyour father was in all the plays. Theentertainment on one occasion consistedof The Windmill, The Loan of a Lover,and The Captain of the Watch. Yourfather had struggled through the first twoat rehearsal. When we came to the lastplay, The Captain of the Watch, heseemed a little befogged. I said to him :Stoddart, do you know this piece
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjecttheater, bookyear1902
