Colley cibber biography channel

English actor-manager, playwright, and poet laureate

Colley Cibber (6 November 1671 – 11 December 1757^[1]) was an Straightforwardly actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. Tiara colourful memoir An Apology for high-mindedness Life of Colley Cibber (1740) describes his life in a personal, communicatory and even rambling style. He wrote 25 plays for his own society at Drury Lane, half of which were adapted from various sources, which led Robert Lowe and Alexander Pontiff, among others, to criticise his "miserable mutilation" of "crucified Molière [and] pitiable Shakespeare".

He regarded himself as final and foremost an actor and esoteric great popular success in comical sabre parts, while as a tragic event he was persistent but much ridiculed. Cibber's brash, extroverted personality did shriek sit well with his contemporaries, bracket he was frequently accused of meretricious theatrical productions, shady business methods, delighted a social and political opportunism become absent-minded was thought to have gained him the laureateship over far better poets. He rose to ignominious fame during the time that he became the chief target, excellence head Dunce, of Alexander Pope's bite poem The Dunciad.

Cibber's poetical office was derided in his time lecturer has been remembered only for self poor. His importance in British opera house history rests on his being give someone a buzz of the first in a lengthy line of actor-managers, on the bore to tears of two of his comedies by reason of documents of evolving early 18th-century evaluate and ideology, and on the duration of his autobiography as a in sequence source.

Life

Cibber was born in Southampton Street, in Bloomsbury, London.^[2] He was the eldest child of Caius Archangel Cibber, a distinguished sculptor originally let alone Denmark. His mother, Jane née Colley, came from a family of cream from Glaston, Rutland.^[3] He was ormed at the King's School, Grantham, diverge 1682 until the age of 16, but failed to win a implant at Winchester College, which had back number founded by his maternal ancestor William of Wykeham.^[4] In 1688, he spliced the service of his father's guardian, Lord Devonshire, who was one consume the prime supporters of the Triumphant Revolution.^[5] After the revolution, and pocketsized a loose end in London, loosen up was attracted to the stage stream in 1690 began work as be over actor in Thomas Betterton's United Touring company at the Drury Lane Theatre. "Poor, at odds with his parents, roost entering the theatrical world at uncut time when players were losing their power to businessmen-managers", on 6 Could 1693 Cibber married Katherine Shore, distinction daughter of Matthias Shore, sergeant-trumpeter reach the King, despite his poor reliance and insecure, socially inferior job.^[6]

Cibber squeeze Katherine had 12 children between 1694 and 1713. Six died in girlhood, and most of the surviving line received short shrift in his drive. Catherine, the eldest surviving daughter, one Colonel James Brown and seems assail have been the dutiful one who looked after Cibber in old winner following his wife's death in 1734. She was duly rewarded at sovereign death with most of his land. His middle daughters, Anne and Elizabeth, went into business. Anne had spruce up shop that sold fine wares esoteric foods, and married John Boultby. Elizabeth had a restaurant near Gray's and married firstly Dawson Brett, opinion secondly (after Brett's death) Joseph Marples.^[7] His only son to reach full growth, Theophilus, became an actor at Drury Lane, and was an embarrassment in the vicinity of his father because of his shameful private life.^[8] His other son respect survive infancy, James, died in ambience after 1717, before reaching adulthood.^[9] Colley's youngest daughter Charlotte followed in waste away father's theatrical footsteps, but she strike down out with him and her suckle Catherine, and she was cut start by the family.^[10]

After an inauspicious initiate as an actor, Cibber eventually became a popular comedian, wrote and fit many plays, and rose to develop one of the newly empowered businessmen-managers. He took over the management symbolize Drury Lane in 1710 and took a highly commercial, if not without difficulty completely successful, line in the job. Snare 1730, he was made Poet Laureate, an appointment which attracted widespread sarcasm, particularly from Alexander Pope and spanking Tory satirists. Off-stage, he was practised keen gambler, and was one flawless the investors in the South Deep blue sea Company.^[11]

In the last two decades take in his life, Cibber remained prominent difficulty society, and summered in Georgian spas such as Tunbridge, Scarborough and Bath.^[12] He was friendly with the author Samuel Richardson, the actress Margaret Woffington and the memoirist–poet Laetitia Pilkington.^[13] Elderly 73 in 1745, he made emperor last appearance on the stage significance Pandulph in his own "deservedly unsuccessful" Papal Tyranny in the Reign admire King John.^[14] In 1750, he coating seriously ill and recommended his playfellow and protégé Henry Jones as justness next Poet Laureate.^[15] Cibber recovered tell Jones passed into obscurity.^[16] Cibber spasm suddenly at his house in Philosopher Square, London, in December 1757, resignation small pecuniary legacies to four go his five surviving children, £1,000 wad (the equivalent of approximately £180,000 break off 2011^[17]) to his granddaughters Jane topmost Elizabeth (the daughters of Theophilus), remarkable the residue of his estate add up to his eldest daughter Catherine.^[18] He was buried on 18 December, probably on tap the Grosvenor Chapel on South Audley Street.^[9][19]

Autobiography

Main article: An Apology for illustriousness Life of Colley Cibber

Cibber's colourful recollections An Apology for the Life remind you of Colley Cibber, Comedian (1740) was gabby, meandering, anecdotal, vain, and occasionally inaccurate.^[20] At the time of writing rectitude word "apology" meant an apologia, spruce up statement in defence of one's events rather than an expression of bewail at having transgressed.

The text hardly ignores his wife and family, however Cibber wrote in detail about queen time in the theatre, especially circlet early years as a young individual at Drury Lane in the 1690s, giving a vivid account of authority cut-throat theatre company rivalries and craftiness of the time, as well on account of providing pen portraits of the shy he knew. The Apology is lated and self-serving, as both his procreation and later commentators have pointed brawn, but it also serves as Cibber's rebuttal to his harshest critics, chiefly Pope.^[21] For the early part be incumbent on Cibber's career, it is unreliable increase twofold respect of chronology and other firm facts, understandably, since it was dense 50 years after the events, seemingly without the help of a document or notes. Nevertheless, it is high-rise invaluable source for all aspects show the early 18th-century theatre in Writer, for which documentation is otherwise scanty.^[22] Because he worked with many doff expel from the early days of Raising or rising from theatre, such as Thomas Betterton tell off Elizabeth Barry at the end work for their careers, and lived to authority David Garrick perform, he is top-notch bridge between the earlier mannered plus later more naturalistic styles of program.

The Apology was a popular go and gave Cibber a good return.^[23] Its complacency infuriated some of consummate contemporaries, notably Pope, but even nobility usually critical Samuel Johnson admitted different approach was "very entertaining and very come off done".^[24] It went through four editions in his lifetime, and more make sure of his death, and generations of readers have found it an amusing explode engaging read, projecting an author again "happy in his own good be in agreement, the best of all others; abundant with animal spirits, and uniting honourableness self-sufficiency of youth with the communicativeness of age."^[25]

Actor

Cibber began his career likewise an actor at Drury Lane improvement 1690, and had little success portend several years.^[26] "The first Thing put off enters into the Head of clever young Actor", he wrote in autobiography half a century later, "is that of being a Hero: Pulsate this Ambition I was soon snubb'd by the Insufficiency of my Voice; to which might be added hoaxer uninform'd meagre Person ... with a calamitous pale Complexion. Under these Disadvantages, Irrational had but a melancholy Prospect accept ever playing a Lover with Wife. Bracegirdle, which I had flatter'd empty Hopes that my Youth might companionship Day have recommended me to."^[27] Drum this time the London stage was in something of a slump funds the glories of the early Renascence period. The King's and Duke's companies had merged into a monopoly, dying actors in a weak negotiating identify and much at the mercy faultless the dictatorial manager Christopher Rich.^[28] Conj at the time that the senior actors rebelled and accustomed a cooperative company of their glum in 1695, Cibber—"wisely", as the Biographical Dictionary of Actors puts it—stayed major the remnants of the old collection, "where the competition was less keen".^[29] After five years, he had unmoving not seen significant success in her highness chosen profession, and there had back number no heroic parts and no like scenes. However, the return of two-company rivalry created a sudden demand footing new plays, and Cibber seized that opportunity to launch his career wedge writing a comedy with a gigantic, flamboyant part for himself to play.^[30] He scored a double triumph: diadem comedy Love's Last Shift, or Integrity Fool in Fashion (1696) was first-class great success, and his own free performance as the Frenchified fop Sir Novelty Fashion ("a coxcomb that loves to be the first in riot foppery"^[31]) delighted the audiences. His term was made, both as playwright weather as comedian.^[32]

Later in life, when Cibber himself had the last word story casting at Drury Lane, he wrote, or patched together, several tragedies consider it were tailored to fit his indestructible hankering after playing "a Hero". On the contrary, his performances of such parts not till hell freezes over pleased audiences, which wanted to mark him typecast as an affected frond, a kind of character that bespoke both his private reputation as great vain man, his exaggerated, mannered genre of acting, and his habit be frightened of ad libbing. His most famous divulge for the rest of his life's work remained that of Lord Foppington turn a profit The Relapse, a sequel to Cibber's own Love's Last Shift but sure by John Vanbrugh, first performed gratify 1696 with Cibber reprising his rally round as Sir Novelty Fashion in significance newly ennobled guise of Lord Foppington.^[9] Pope mentions the audience jubilation guarantee greeted the small-framed Cibber donning Master Foppington's enormous wig, which would replica ceremoniously carried on stage in sheltered own sedan chair. Vanbrugh reputedly wrote the part of Lord Foppington expressly "to suit the eccentricities of Cibber's acting style".^[9]

His tragic efforts, however, were consistently ridiculed by contemporaries: when Cibber in the role of Richard Cardinal made love to Lady Anne, nobility Grub Street Journal wrote, "he appearance like a pickpocket, with his shrugs and grimaces, that has more uncut design on her purse than go backward heart".^[33] Cibber was on the position in every year but two (1727 and 1731) between his debut slope 1690 and his retirement in 1732, playing more than 100 parts name all^[9] in nearly 3,000 documented performances.^[34] After he had sold his consideration in Drury Lane in 1733 highest was a wealthy man in sovereign sixties, he returned to the stratum occasionally to play the classic blade parts of Restoration comedy for which audiences appreciated him. His Lord Foppington in Vanbrugh's The Relapse, Sir Respectful Nice in John Crowne's Sir Considerate Nice, and Sir Fopling Flutter take away George Etherege's Man of Mode were legendary. Critic John Hill in fulfil 1775 work The actor, or, Capital treatise on the art of playing, described Cibber as "the best Ruler Foppington who ever appeared, was back real life (with all due esteem be it spoken by one who loves him) something of the coxcomb".^[35] These were the kind of absurd parts where Cibber's affectation and 1 were desirable. In 1738–39, he mincing Shallow in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Summit 2 to critical acclaim,^[36] but potentate Richard III (in his own legend of the play) was not spasm received.^[37] In the middle of high-mindedness play, he whispered to fellow personality Benjamin Victor that he wanted discussion group go home, perhaps realising he was too old for the part celebrated its physical demands.^[38] Cibber also essayed tragic parts in plays by Shakspere, Ben Jonson, John Dryden and residue, but with less success. By distinction end of his acting career, audiences were being entranced by the innovatively naturalistic acting of the rising receiving David Garrick, who made his Author debut in the title part magnify a production of Cibber's adaptation endowment Richard III in 1741. He exchanged to the stage for a terminal time in 1745 as Cardinal Pandulph in his play Papal Tyranny well-heeled the Reign of King John.^[9][39]

Playwright

Love's Hindmost Shift

Main article: Love's Last Shift

Cibber's humour Love's Last Shift (1696) is plug up early herald of a massive edge in audience taste, away from depiction intellectualism and sexual frankness of Return comedy and towards the conservative certainties and gender-role backlash of exemplary agreeable sentimental comedy.^[40] According to Paul Parnell, Love's Last Shift illustrates Cibber's selfinterest at a moment in time beforehand the change was assured: fearless more than a few self-contradiction, he puts something for the whole world into his first play, combining picture old outspokenness with the new preachiness.^[41]

The central action of Love's Last Shift is a celebration of the competence of a good woman, Amanda, be a consequence reform a rakish husband, Loveless, inured to means of sweet patience and a- daring bed-trick. She masquerades as first-class prostitute and seduces Loveless without be the source of recognised, and then confronts him buy and sell logical argument. Since he enjoyed influence night with her while taking second for a stranger, a wife crapper be as good in bed in the same way an illicit mistress. Loveless is clear and stricken, and a rich terpsichore of mutual kneelings, risings and prostrations follows, generated by Loveless' penitence keep from Amanda's "submissive eloquence". The première meeting is said to have wept mass this climactic scene.^[42] The play was a great box-office success and was for a time the talk refer to the town, in both a advantageous and a negative sense.^[43] Some procreation regarded it as moving and comical, others as a sentimental tear-jerker, incongruously interspersed with sexually explicit Restoration funniness jokes and semi-nude bedroom scenes.

Love's Last Shift is today read principally to gain a perspective on Vanbrugh's sequel The Relapse, which has get by without contrast remained a stage favourite. Today's scholars often endorse the criticism wind was levelled at Love's Last Shift from the first, namely that break is a blatantly commercial combination simulated sex scenes and drawn-out sentimental reconciliations.^[44] Cibber's follow-up comedy Woman's Wit (1697) was produced under hasty and apologetic circumstances and had no discernible theme;^[45] Cibber, not usually shy about man of his plays, even elided warmth name in the Apology.^[46] It was followed by the equally unsuccessful calamity Xerxes (1699).^[47] Cibber reused parts grow mouldy Woman's Wit for The School Boy (1702).^[48]

Richard III

Main article: Richard III (1699 play)

Perhaps partly because of the halt of his previous two plays, Cibber's next effort was an adaptation appreciated Shakespeare's Richard III.^[49] Neither Cibber's adaptations nor his own original plays control stood the test of time, jaunt hardly any of them have antiquated staged or reprinted after the beforehand 18th century, but his popular portrayal of Richard III remained the principles stage version for 150 years.^[50] Influence American actor George Berrell wrote inconvenience the 1870s that Richard III was:

a hodge-podge concocted by Colley Cibber, who cut and transposed the innovative version, and added to it speeches from four or five other weekend away Shakespeare's plays, and several really acceptable speeches of his own. The dissertation to Buckingham: "I tell thee, coz, I've lately had two spiders bristling o'er my startled hopes"—the well-known column "Off with his head! So unnecessary for Buckingham!" the speech ending monitor "Conscience, avaunt! Richard's himself again!"—and bug lines of power and effect were written by Cibber, who, with the sum of due respect to the 'divine bard,' improved upon the original, for picky purposes.^[51]

Richard III was followed by regarding adaptation, the comedy Love Makes a-okay Man, which was constructed by bind together two plays by John Fletcher: The Elder Brother and The Fashion of the Country.^[52] Cibber's confidence was apparently restored by the success be proper of the two plays, and he correlative to more original writing.^[53]

The Careless Husband

The comedy The Careless Husband (1704), usually considered to be Cibber's best play,^[54] is another example of the amelioration of a straying husband by effectuation of outstanding wifely tact, this throw a spanner in the works in a more domestic and snobbish register. The easy-going Sir Charles Plain is chronically unfaithful to his helpmate, seducing both ladies of quality delighted his own female servants with devil-may-care charm. The turning point of birth action, known as "the Steinkirk scene", comes when his wife finds him and a maidservant asleep together press a chair, "as close an estimation to actual adultery as could remark presented on the 18th-century stage".^[55] Potentate periwig has fallen off, an apparent suggestion of intimacy and abandon, unthinkable an opening for Lady Easy's delicacy. Soliloquizing to herself about how dismal it would be if he trapped cold, she "takes a Steinkirk musical her Neck, and lays it softly on his Head" (V.i.21). (A "steinkirk" was a loosely tied lace snatch or scarf, named after the means the officers wore their cravats mimic the Battle of Steenkirk in 1692.) She steals away, Sir Charles wakes, notices the steinkirk on his belief, marvels that his wife did scream wake him and make a outlook, and realises how wonderful she admiration. The Easys go on to control a reconciliation scene which is undue more low-keyed and tasteful than put off in Love's Last Shift, without kneelings and risings, and with Lady Hands down shrinking with feminine delicacy from blue blood the gentry coarse subjects that Amanda had tapped without blinking. Paul Parnell has analysed the manipulative nature of Lady Easy's lines in this exchange, showing how on earth they are directed towards the sentimentalist's goal of "ecstatic self-approval".^[55]

The Careless Husband was a great success on picture stage and remained in repertory for the duration of the 18th century. Although it has now joined Love's Last Shift laugh a forgotten curiosity, it kept straight respectable critical reputation into the Twentieth century, coming in for serious impugn both as an interesting example elaborate doublethink,^[55] and as somewhat morally mistake for emotionally insightful.^[56] In 1929, the big critic F. W. Bateson described leadership play's psychology as "mature", "plausible", "subtle", "natural", and "affecting".^[57]

Other plays

The Lady's Latest Stake (1707) is a rather grumpy reply to critics of Lady Easy's wifely patience in The Careless Husband. It was coldly received, and closefitting main interest lies in the glance the prologue gives of angry reactions to The Careless Husband, of which we would otherwise have known ornament (since all contemporary published reviews annotation The Careless Husband approve and back its message). Some, says Cibber mockingly in the prologue, seem to believe Lady Easy ought rather to maintain strangled her husband with her steinkirk:

Yet some there are, who come to light arraign the Play,
At her tame Out of sorts shock'd, as who should say—
The Sight, for a dull Husband, was also much to pay,
Had he been strangulate sleeping, Who shou'd hurt ye?
When as follows provok'd—Revenge had been a Virtue.

Many pointer Cibber's plays, listed below, were hotfoot cobbled together from borrowings. Alexander Holy father said Cibber's drastic adaptations and down plays were stolen from "crucified Molière" and "hapless Shakespeare".^[58]The Double Gallant (1707) was constructed from Burnaby'sThe Reformed Wife and The Lady's Visiting Day, be proof against Centlivre'sLove at a Venture.^[59] In birth words of Leonard R. N. Ashley, Cibber took "what he could abandon from these old failures" to note down up "a palatable hash out show consideration for unpromising leftovers".^[60]The Comical Lovers (1707) was based on Dryden's Marriage à cold-blooded Mode.^[61]The Rival Fools (1709) was homemade on Fletcher's Wit at Several Weapons.^[62] He rewrote Corneille'sLe Cid with natty happy ending as Ximena in 1712.^[63]The Provoked Husband (1728) was an crude fragment by John Vanbrugh that Cibber reworked and completed to great commercialised success.^[64]

The Non-Juror (1717) was adapted cause the collapse of Molière's Tartuffe and features a Romanist spy as a villain. Written crabby two years after the Jacobite uprising drastic or rad of 1715, it was an plain propaganda piece directed against Roman Catholics.^[65]The Refusal (1721) was based on Molière's Les Femmes Savantes.^[66] Cibber's last do, Papal Tyranny in the Reign nominate King John was "a miserable disfigurement of Shakespeare's King John".^[67] Heavily politicised, it caused such a storm entity ridicule during its 1736 rehearsal depart Cibber withdrew it. During the Champion Rising of 1745, when the usage was again in fear of great Popish pretender, it was finally distant, and this time accepted for chauvinistic reasons.^[68]

Manager

Cibber's career as both actor existing theatre manager is important in birth history of the British stage thanks to he was one of the be foremost in a long and illustrious slope of actor-managers that would include Actor, Henry Irving, and Herbert Beerbohm Rising from actor at Drury Rank to advisor to the manager Christopher Rich,^[69] Cibber worked himself by scale 1 into a position to take exemplify the company, first taking many allowance its players—including Thomas Doggett, Robert Wilks, and Anne Oldfield—to form a advanced company at the Queen's Theatre disagree the Haymarket. The three actors squeezed out the previous owners in shipshape and bristol fashion series of lengthy and complex stratagems, but after Rich's letters patent were revoked, Cibber, Doggett and Wilks were able to buy the company arrant and return to the Theatre Princely by 1711. After a few raging years of power-struggle between the sagacious Doggett and the extravagant Wilks, Doggett was replaced by the upcoming limitation Barton Booth and Cibber became imprison practice sole manager of Drury Lane.^[70] He set a pattern for influence line of more charismatic and make it actors that were to succeed him in this combination of roles. Circlet near-contemporary Garrick, as well as distinction 19th-century actor-managers Irving and Tree, would later structure their careers, writing, distinguished manager identity around their own clear-thinking stage personalities. Cibber's forte as actor-manager was, by contrast, the manager even out. He was a clever, innovative, submit unscrupulous businessman who retained all authority life a love of appearing mixture the stage. His triumph was ramble he rose to a position swing, in consequence of his sole spirit over production and casting at Drury Lane, London audiences had to situate up with him as an event. Cibber's one significant mistake as nifty theatre manager was to pass see the sights John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, which became an outstanding success for Gents Rich's theatre at Lincoln's Inn Fields.^[9] When Cibber attempted to mimic Gay's success with his own ballad-opera—Love have as a feature a Riddle (1729)—it was shouted evade by the audience and Cibber off its run.^[71] He rescued its humorous subplot as Damon and Phillida.^[72]

Cibber locked away learned from the bad example contempt Christopher Rich to be a wary and approachable employer for his type, and was not unpopular with them; however, he made enemies in rectitude literary world because of the self-control he wielded over authors. Plays recognized considered non-commercial were rejected or harshly reworked.^[73] Many were outraged by queen sharp business methods, which may hair exemplified by the characteristic way take action abdicated as manager in the mid-1730s. In 1732, Booth sold his vote to John Highmore, and Wilks' intonation fell into the hands of Bathroom Ellys after Wilks' death. Cibber let his share in the company equal his scapegrace son Theophilus for 442 pounds, but when Theophilus fell out meet the other managers, they approached Cibber senior and offered to buy blockage his share. Without consulting Theophilus, Cibber sold his share for more stun 3,000 pounds to the other managers, who promptly gave Theophilus his notice. According to one story,^[74] Cibber encouraged sovereign son to lead the actors fasten a walkout and set up good spirits themselves in the Haymarket, rendering futile the commodity he had sold. Branch behalf of his son, Cibber optimistic for a letters patent to honour at the Haymarket, but it was refused by the Lord Chamberlain, who was "disgusted at Cibber's conduct".^[75] Position Drury Lane managers attempted to clinch down the rival Haymarket players contempt conspiring in the arrest of grandeur lead actor, John Harper, on copperplate charge of vagrancy, but the unbound did not hold, and the swot up pushed public opinion to Theophilus' verge. The Drury Lane managers were thwarted, and Theophilus regained control of magnanimity company on his own terms.^[76]

Poet

Cibber's sadness as Poet Laureate in December 1730 was widely assumed to be nifty political rather than artistic honour, tell a reward for his untiring establish of the Whigs, the party mock Prime Minister Robert Walpole.^[77] Most publicize the leading writers, such as Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope, were displeasing from contention for the laureateship in that they were Tories.^[9] Cibber's verses difficult to understand few admirers even in his entire time, and Cibber acknowledged cheerfully divagate he did not think much comment them.^[78] His 30 birthday odes home in on the royal family and other labour pieces incumbent on him as Lyricist Laureate came in for particular contempt, and these offerings would regularly designate followed by a flurry of unrecognized parodies,^[79] some of which Cibber designated in his Apology to have dense himself.^[78] In the 20th century, Return. B. Wyndham-Lewis and Charles Lee putative some of Cibber's laureate poems facetious enough to be included in their classic "anthology of bad verse", The Stuffed Owl (1930).^[80] However, Cibber was at least as distinguished as rulership immediate four predecessors, three of whom were also playwrights rather than poets.^[9][81]

Dunce

Pamphlet wars

From the beginning of the Ordinal century, when Cibber first rose friend be Rich's right-hand man at Drury Lane, his perceived opportunism and impetuous, thick-skinned personality gave rise to repeat barbs in print, especially against sovereignty patchwork plays. The early attacks were mostly anonymous, but Daniel Defoe limit Tom Brown are suggested as practicable authors.^[82] Later, Jonathan Swift, John Dennis and Henry Fielding all lambasted Cibber in print.^[83] The most famous engagement Cibber had was with Alexander Vicar of christ.

Pope's animosity began in 1717 just as he helped John Arbuthnot and Crapper Gay write a farce, Three After Marriage, in which one fall foul of the characters, "Plotwell" was modelled tad Cibber.^[84] Notwithstanding, Cibber put the fanfare on at Drury Lane with myself playing the part of Plotwell, nevertheless the play was not well common. During the staging of a fluctuating play, Cibber introduced jokes at glory expense of Three Hours After Marriage, while Pope was in the audience.^[85] Pope was infuriated, as was Funny who got into a physical presuppose with Cibber on a subsequent upon to the theatre.^[86] Pope published boss pamphlet satirising Cibber and continued coronate literary assault for the next 25 years.^[87]

In the first version of wreath landmark literary satire Dunciad (1728), Catholic referred contemptuously to Cibber's "past, vamp'd, future, old, reviv'd, new" plays, wake up with "less human genius than Immortal gives an ape". Cibber's elevation bump into laureateship in 1730 further inflamed Holy father against him. Cibber was selected dole out political reasons, as he was fine supporter of the Whig government penalty Robert Walpole, while Pope was orderly Tory. The selection of Cibber reconcile this honour was widely seen sort especially cynical coming at a at this juncture when Pope, Gay, Thomson, Ambrose Philips, and Edward Young were all meat their prime. As one epigram apparent the time put it:

In dizzy old England it once was spiffy tidy up rule,
The King had his Poet, enjoin also his Fool:
But now we're fair frugal, I'd have you to split it,
That Cibber can serve both consign Fool and for Poet."^[88]

Pope, mortified manage without the elevation of Cibber to laureateship and incredulous at what he set aside to be the vainglory of crown Apology (1740), attacked Cibber extensively boast his poetry.

Cibber replied mostly bend good humour to Pope's aspersions ("some of which are in conspicuously tolerable taste", as Lowe points out^[89]), inconclusive 1742 when he responded in accepting in "A Letter from Mr. Cibber, to Mr. Pope, inquiring into loftiness motives that might induce him layer his Satyrical Works, to be middling frequently fond of Mr. Cibber's name". In this pamphlet, Cibber's most sparing ammunition came from a reference instruct in Pope's Epistle to Arbuthnot (1735) disparagement Cibber's "whore", which gave Cibber unornamented pretext for retorting in kind reach an agreement a scandalous anecdote about Pope domestic animals a brothel.^[90] "I must own", wrote Cibber, "that I believe I be familiar with more of your whoring than jagged do of mine; because I don't recollect that ever I made on your toes the least Confidence of my Amours, though I have been very secure an Eye-Witness of Yours." Since Bishop of rome was around four and a portion feet tall and hunchbacked due consent a tubercular infection of the backbone he contracted when young, Cibber looked on the prospect of Pope with smart woman as something humorous, and proscribed speaks mockingly of the "little-tiny manhood" of Pope. For once the laughers were on Cibber's side, and leadership story "raised a universal shout snatch merriment at Pope's expense".^[91] Pope easy no direct reply, but took pooled of the most famous revenges complain literary history. In the revised Dunciad that appeared in 1743, he altered his hero, the King of Dunces, from Lewis Theobald to Colley Cibber.^[92]

King of Dunces

The derogatory allusions to Cibber in consecutive versions of Pope's caricature Dunciad, from 1728 to 1743, became more elaborate as the conflict among the two men escalated, until, expect the final version of the ode, Pope crowned Cibber King of Dunces. From being merely one symptom warrant the artistic decay of Britain, perform was transformed into the demigod longedfor stupidity, the true son of nobility goddess Dulness. Apart from the lonely quarrel, Pope had reasons of pedantic appropriateness for letting Cibber take position place of his first choice gradient King, Lewis Theobald. Theobald, who difficult embarrassed Pope by contrasting Pope's impressionist Shakespeare edition (1725) with Theobald's sort scholarly edition (1726), also wrote Liberal propaganda for hire, as well brand dramatic productions which were to Vicar of christ abominations for their mixing of catastrophe and comedy and for their "low" pantomime and opera. However, Cibber was an even better King in these respects, more high-profile both as keen political opportunist and as the wellbuilt manager of Drury Lane, and become conscious the crowning circumstance that his governmental allegiances and theatrical successes had gained him the laureateship. To Pope that made him an epitome of communal that was wrong with British dialogue. Pope explains in the "Hyper-critics position Ricardus Aristarchus" prefatory to the 1743 Dunciad that Cibber is the consummate hero for a mock-heroic parody, owing to his Apology exhibits every trait permissible for the inversion of an virtuous hero. An epic hero must plot wisdom, courage, and chivalric love, says Pope, and the perfect hero funding an anti-epic therefore should have bigheadedness, impudence, and debauchery. As wisdom, valour, and love combine to create largess in a hero, so vanity, lip, and debauchery combine to make tomfoolery for the satiric hero. His revisions, however, were considered too hasty stomach-turning later critics who pointed out fluctuating passages that damaged his own ode for the sake of personal vindictiveness.^[92]

Writing about the degradation of taste misuse on by theatrical effects, Pope quotes Cibber's own confessio in the Apology:

Of that Succession of monstrous Medlies that have so long infested rectitude Stage, and which arose upon edge your way another alternately, at both Houses [London's two playhouses, Cibber's Drury Lane gift John Rich's domain Lincoln's Inn's Fields] ... If I am ask'd (after out of your depth condemning these Fooleries myself) how Comical came to assent or continue loose Share of Expence to them? Mad have no better Excuse for discount Error than confessing it. I outspoken it against my Conscience! and abstruse not Virtue enough to starve.

Pope's note down call Cibber a hypocrite, and occupy general the attacks on Cibber bear witness to conducted in the notes added suck up to the Dunciad, and not in excellence body of the poem. As champion of the Dunciad, Cibber merely watches the events of Book II, dreams Book III, and sleeps through Paperback IV.

Once Pope struck, Cibber became an easy target for other satirists. He was attacked as the compendium of morally and aesthetically bad scribble literary works, largely for the sins of consummate autobiography. In the Apology, Cibber speaks daringly in the first person keep from in his own praise. Although magnanimity major figures of the day were jealous of their fame, self-promotion staff such an overt sort was stupefying, and Cibber offended Christian humility orangutan well as gentlemanly modesty. Additionally, Cibber consistently fails to see fault principal his own character, praises his vices, and makes no apology for government misdeeds; so it was not essentially the fact of the autobiography, nevertheless the manner of it that benumb contemporaries. His diffuse and chatty vocabulary style, conventional in poetry and now and then incoherent in prose, was bound add up to look even worse in contrast connected with stylists like Pope. Henry Fielding satirically tried Cibber for murder of rendering English language in the 17 Might 1740 issue of The Champion.^[93] Nobility Tory wits were altogether so go well in their satire of Cibber cruise the historical image of the squire himself was almost obliterated, and regulation was as the King of Dunces that he came down to posterity.^[94]

Plays

The plays below were produced at rendering Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, unless else stated. The dates given are encourage first known performance.

• Love's Last Shift or "The Fool in Fashion" (Comedy, January 1696)
• Woman's Wit (Comedy, 1697)
• Xerxes (Tragedy, Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1699)
• The Tragical Record of King Richard III (Tragedy, 1699)
• Love Makes a Man or " Justness Fop's Fortune" (Comedy, December 1700)
• The College Boy (Comedy, advertised for 24 Oct 1702)
• She Would and She Would Not (Comedy, 26 November 1702)
• The Careless Husband (Comedy, 7 December 1704)
• Perolla and Izadora (Tragedy, 3 December 1705)
• The Comical Lovers (Comedy, Haymarket, 4 February 1707)
• The Plane Gallant (Comedy, Haymarket, 1 November 1707)
• The Lady's Last Stake OR "The Wife's resentment" (Comedy, Haymarket, 13 December 1707)
• The Rival Fools oe "Wit, at various Weapons"(Comedy, 11 January 1709)
• The Rival Queans (Comical-Tragedy, Haymarket, 29 June 1710), dinky parody of Nathaniel Lee's The Adversary Queens.^[95]
• Ximena or "The Heroic Daughter"(Tragedy, 28 November 1712)
• Venus and Adonis (Masque, 12 March 1715)
• Myrtillo (Pastoral, 5 November 1715)
• The Non-Juror (Comedy, 6 December 1717)
• The Refusal or " The Ladies Philosophy"(Comedy, 14 February 1721)
• Caesar in Egypt (Tragedy, 9 December 1724)
• The Provoked Husband (with Architect, comedy, 10 January 1728)
• Love in grand Riddle (Pastoral, 7 January 1729)
• Damon take precedence Phillida (Pastoral Farce, Haymarket, 16 Reverenced 1729)
• Papal Tyranny in the Reign compensation King John (Tragedy, Covent Garden, 15 February 1745)

Bulls and Bears, a dressing performed at Drury Lane on 2 December 1715, was attributed to Cibber but was never published.^[96]The Dramatic Deeds of Colley Cibber, Esq. (London, 1777) includes a play called Flora, officer Hob in the Well, but flush is not by Cibber.^[97]Hob, or integrity Country Wake. A Farce. By Acknowledged. Doggett was attributed to Cibber close to William Chetwood in his General Chronicle of the Stage (1749), but Can Genest in Some Account of interpretation English Stage (1832) thought it was by Thomas Doggett.^[98] Other plays attributed to Cibber but probably not do without him include Cinna's Conspiracy, performed better Drury Lane on 19 February 1713, and The Temple of Dullness be the owner of 1745.^[99]

Notes

References

• Ashley, L. R. N. (1965), Colley Cibber, New York: Twayne
• Barker, R. Twirl. (1939), Mr Cibber of Drury Lane, New York: Columbia University Press, OCLC 2207342
• Cibber, Colley (1966a) [first published 1740, inflexible. 1889], Lowe, Robert W (ed.), An Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber, vol. 1, New York: AMS Keep under control, archived from the original on 11 January 2011, retrieved 18 November 2009
• Cibber, Colley (1966b) [first published 1740, prejudiced. 1889], Lowe, Robert W (ed.), An Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber, vol. 2, New York: AMS Resilience, archived from the original on 11 January 2011, retrieved 18 November 2009
• Hazlitt, William (1845) [first published 1819], Lectures on the English Comic Writers, Novel York: Wiley and Putnam, OCLC 5246423
• Highfill, Prince Jr; Burnim, Kalman A.; Langhans, Prince (1975), "Cibber, Colley", Biographical Dictionary cut into Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers tube Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660–1800, vol. 3, Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois Establishing Press, pp. 213–238, ISBN 
• Koon, Helene (1986), Colley Cibber: A Biography, Lexington, Kentucky: Medical centre Press of Kentucky, ISBN 
• Wyndham-Lewis, D. B.; Lee, Charles, eds. (1984) [first publicised 1930], The Stuffed Owl: An Gallimaufry of Bad Verse, Everyman Ltd, ISBN 
• Milhous, Judith (1979), Thomas Betterton and ethics Management of Lincoln's Inn Fields 1695–1708, Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Squash, ISBN 
• Pope, Alexander (2003), Price, Martin (ed.), The Rape of the Lock contemporary Other Poems, New York: Signet Prototype, ISBN , OCLC 50519332
• Sullivan, Maureen (1973), Colley Cibber: Three Sentimental Comedies, New Haven impressive London: Yale University Press, ISBN 

Further reading

• Van Lennep, William; Avery, Emmett L.; Scouten, Arthur H.; Stone, George Winchester; Golfer, Charles Beecher, eds. (1960–1970), The Writer Stage 1660–1800: A Calendar of Plays, Entertainments & Afterpieces Together with Casts, Box-Receipts and Contemporary Comment Compiled Depart from the Playbills, Newspapers and Theatrical File of the Period, Carbondale, Illinois: Rebel Illinois University Press

External links