Colley Cibber was a British actor-manager, playwright, and Poet Laureate. His colourful memoir
Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber (1740) started a British tradition of personal, anecdotal, and even rambling
autobiographyAn autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
. He wrote some plays for performance by his own company at
Drury LaneDrury Lane is a street in the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....
, and adapted many more from various sources, receiving frequent criticism for his "miserable mutilation" (Robert Lowe) of "hapless
ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, and crucify'd
MolièreJean-Baptiste Poquelin, mostly known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
" (
Alexander PopeAlexander Pope is a famous eighteenth century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson. Pope is famous for his use of the heroic couplet.-...
). He regarded himself as first and foremost an actor and had great popular success in comical
fopFop became a pejorative term for a foolish man over-concerned with his appearance and clothes in 17th century England. Some of the very many similar alternative terms are: "coxcomb," fribble, "popinjay" , fashion-monger, and "ninny." "Macaroni" was another term, of the 18th century, more...
parts, while as a tragic actor he was persistent but much ridiculed. Cibber's brash, extroverted personality did not sit well with his contemporaries, and he was frequently accused of tasteless theatrical productions, social and political opportunism (which was thought to have gained him the laureateship over far better poets), and shady business methods. He rose to
herostratic fameHerostratus was a young man who set fire to the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus in his quest for fame on about July 20, 356 BC. The temple was constructed of marble and considered the most beautiful of some thirty shrines built by the Greeks to honour their goddess of the hunt, the wild and...
when he became the chief target, the head Dunce, of Alexander Pope's satirical poem
The DunciadThe Dunciad is a landmark literary satire by Alexander Pope published in three different versions at different times. The first version was published in 1728 anonymously. The second version, the Dunciad Variorum was published anonymously in 1729. The New Dunciad, in four books and with a...
.
Cibber's poetical work was ridiculed in his time, and has been remembered only for being bad. His importance in British theatre history rests on his being the first in a long line of actor-managers, on the interest of two of his comedies as documents of mutating early 18th-century taste and ideology, and on the value of his autobiography as a source for our knowledge of the 18th-century London stage.
Life
Cibber was born in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, his father being
Caius Gabriel CibberCaius Gabriel Cibber was a Danish sculptor, who enjoyed great success in England, and was the father of the actor and author Colley Cibber. He was appointed "carver to the king's closet" by William III....
, a distinguished sculptor originally from
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
. Colley's parents wanted him to become a clergyman, but he was irresistibly attracted to the stage and in 1690 began working as an actor at the
Drury Lane theatreThe Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
, a more insecure and socially much inferior job. "Poor, at odds with his parents, and entering the theatrical world at a time when players were losing their power to businessmen-managers" (
Biographical Dictionary of Actors), Cibber nevertheless married early in life (1693), to Katherine Shore. He had a large number of children, for whom his parental feeling seems to have been mostly casual. Most of them certainly received short shrift in his will. His only son to reach adulthood,
Theophilus CibberTheophilus Cibber was an English actor, playwright, author, and son of the actor-manager Colley Cibber.Theophilus Cibber began acting in the Drury Lane Theatre in 1721. In 1727, Alexander Pope satirized Theophilus Cibber in his Dunciad as a youth who "thrusts his person full into your face"...
, became an actor at Drury Lane, and was an embarrassment to his father because of his scandalous private life. Colley's youngest daughter
Charlotte CharkeCharlotte Charke was an English actress, playwright, novelist, autobiographer, and noted transvestite. She acted on the stage from the age of 17, mainly in breeches roles, and took to wearing male clothing off the stage...
also followed in her father's footsteps (though she too fell out with him) as did others in the family. In his later years Cibber acted in productions with his own grandchildren. Catherine, the eldest daughter, seems to have been the dutiful one who looked after Cibber in old age and was duly rewarded at his death with most of his estate.
After an inauspicious start as an actor, Cibber eventually became a popular comedian, wrote and adapted many plays, and rose to become himself one of the newly empowered businessmen-managers. He took over the management of Drury Lane in 1710 and was as theatre manager highly commercially, if not artistically, successful. In 1730, he was made
Poet LaureateA Poet Laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for State occasions and other government events....
, an appointment which attracted widespread scorn, particularly from
Alexander PopeAlexander Pope is a famous eighteenth century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson. Pope is famous for his use of the heroic couplet.-...
and other
ToryToryism is a traditionalist political philosophy, which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is most prominent in Great Britain, but also features in some parts of The Commonwealth — particularly in Canada...
satirists.
When he was seventy-three years old he made his last appearance on the stage as Pandulph in his own
Papal Tyranny in the Reign of King John (Covent Garden, 15 February 1745), a miserable paraphrase of Shakespeare's play. He died in 1757.
Cibber's autobiography
Cibber's colourful autobiography,
An Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber (1740), pioneered the truly personal
autobiographyAn autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, and inaugurated a distinctive British tradition of chatty, meandering, anecdotal memoirs. At the time of writing the word "apology" meant an
apologia, a statement in defence of one's actions rather than a statement of regret for having transgressed.
Cibber wrote in detail about his time in the theatre, especially his early years as a young actor at Drury Lane in the 1690s, giving a vivid account of the cutthroat theatre company rivalries and chicanery of the time, as well as providing pen portraits of the actors he knew. The
Apology is notoriously vain and self-serving, as both contemporaries and posterity have enjoyed pointing out (see Barker). For the early part of Cibber's career, it is also unreliable in respect of chronology and other hard facts, understandably, since he was writing down his recollections fifty years after the events, apparently without the help of any journal or notes. Nevertheless, it is an invaluable source for the theatre history of the
RestorationThe English Restoration, often shortened to the Restoration, began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Commonwealth of England that followed the English Civil War...
and early 18th-century period, for which documentation is otherwise scanty. Because he worked with many actors from the early days of Restoration theatre, such as
Thomas BettertonThomas Patrick Betterton , English actor, son of an under-cook to King Charles I, was born in London.-Apprentice and actor:...
and
Elizabeth BarryElizabeth Barry was an English actress of the Restoration period.She worked in big, prestigious London theatre companies throughout her successful career: from 1675 in the Duke's Company, 1682 – 1695 in the monopoly United Company, and from 1695 onwards as a member of the actors' cooperative...
(albeit at the end of their careers) and lived to see the ultra-modern
David GarrickDavid Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson...
perform, he is a fascinating bridge between a mannered and a more naturalistic style of performance.
The self-complacency of Cibber's
Apology infuriated some of his contemporaries, notably Pope. However, generations of readers have found it an amusing and engaging read, projecting an author always "happy in his own good opinion, the best of all others; teeming with animal spirits, and uniting the self-sufficiency of youth with the garrulity of age."
Cibber as actor
Cibber began his career as an actor at Drury Lane in 1690, with little success for several years. "The first Thing that enters into the Head of a young Actor", he wrote in his autobiography half a century later, "is that of being a Hero: In this Ambition I was soon snubb'd by the Insufficiency of my Voice; to which might be added an uninform'd meagre Person… with a dismal pale Complexion. Under these Disadvantages, I had but a melancholy Prospect of ever playing a Lover with
Mrs. BracegirdleAnne Bracegirdle, , was an English actress.Little is known of Bracegirdle's early life. Her precise date of birth is a source of great dispute due to conflicting records of her life. She was baptised in Northampton on 15 November 1671, although her tombstone says that she died at the age of 85...
, which I had flatter'd my Hopes that my Youth might one Day have recommended me to."
At this time the London stage was in something of a slump after the glories of the early
RestorationThe English Restoration, often shortened to the Restoration, began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Commonwealth of England that followed the English Civil War...
period, and the two theatre companies had been merged into a
monopolyIn economics, a monopoly exists when a specific individual or an enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it...
, leaving actors in a weak negotiating position and basically at the mercy of the dictatorial manager
Christopher RichChristopher Rich was a lawyer and theatrical manager in London in the late 17th and early 18th century, and the father of the important impresario John Rich...
. When the senior actors rebelled and established a cooperative company of their own in 1695, Cibber "wisely", as the
Biographical Dictionary of Actors puts it, stayed with the remnants of the old company, "where the competition was less keen". He had still after five years not been very successful in his chosen profession, and there had been no heroic parts and no love scenes. However, the return of two-company rivalry created a sudden demand for new plays, and Cibber seized this opportunity to launch his career by writing a
comedyComedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in Ancient Greece...
with a big, flamboyant part for himself to play. He scored a double triumph: his comedy
Love's Last Shift, or Virtue RewardedLove's Last Shift, or The Fool in Fashion is an English Restoration comedy by Colley Cibber from 1696.The play is regarded as an early herald of a shift in audience tastes away from the intellectualism and sexual frankness of Restoration comedy and towards the conservative certainties and gender...
(1696) was a great success, and his own uninhibited performance as the Frenchified
fopFop became a pejorative term for a foolish man over-concerned with his appearance and clothes in 17th century England. Some of the very many similar alternative terms are: "coxcomb," fribble, "popinjay" , fashion-monger, and "ninny." "Macaroni" was another term, of the 18th century, more...
Sir Novelty Fashion delighted the audiences. His name was made, both as playwright and as comedian.
Later in life, when Cibber himself had the last word in casting at Drury Lane, he wrote, or patched together, several tragedies that were tailored to fit his continuing hankering after playing "a Hero". But his performances of such parts never pleased audiences, which wanted to see him typecast as an affected fop, a kind of character that fitted both his private reputation as a vain man, his exaggerated, mannered acting style, and his habit of ad libbing.
His tragic efforts were consistently ridiculed by contemporaries: when Cibber in the role of
Richard IIIRichard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591, depicting the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified as...
makes love to Lady Anne, wrote the
Grub Street JournalPublished from 1730 to 1737, The Grub-Street Journal was a satire on popular journalism and hack-writing as it was conducted in Grub Street in London. It was largely edited by Richard Russel and the botanist John Martyn. Alexander Pope was one of its contributors, continuing his satire which he had...
, "he looks like a pickpocket, with his shrugs and grimaces, that has more a design on her purse than her heart". His most famous part for the rest of his career remained that of Lord Foppington in
The RelapseThe Relapse, or, Virtue in Danger is a Restoration comedy from 1696 written by John Vanbrugh. The play is a sequel to Colley Cibber's Love's Last Shift, or, Virtue Rewarded....
, a
sequelA sequel is a work in literature, film, or other media that chronologically portrays events following those of a previous work.In many cases, the sequel continues elements of the original story, often with the same characters and settings. A sequel can lead to a series, in which key elements appear...
to Cibber's own
Love's Last Shift but written by
John VanbrughSir John Vanbrugh was an English architect and dramatist, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard...
. Pope mentions the audience jubilation that always used to greet the small-framed Cibber's donning of Lord Foppington's enormous wig, which would be ceremoniously carried on stage in its own sedan chair.
Cibber loved to act. After he had sold his interest in Drury Lane in the mid-1730s (see below) and was a wealthy man of sixty-five, he still returned to the stage a number of times to play the classic fop parts of
Restoration comedyRestoration comedy refers to English comedies written and performed in the Restoration period from 1660 to 1710. After public stage performances had been banned for 18 years by the Puritan regime, the re-opening of the theatres in 1660 signalled a renaissance of English drama...
that audiences appreciated him in. His Lord Foppington in Vanbrugh's
Relapse, Sir Courtly Nice in
John CrowneJohn Crowne was a British dramatist and a native of Nova Scotia.His father "Colonel" William Crowne, accompanied the earl of Arundel on a diplomatic mission to Vienna in 1637, and wrote an account of his journey...
's
Sir Courtly Nice, and Sir Fopling Flutter in
George EtheregeSir George Etherege was an English dramatist. He wrote the plays The Comical Revenge or, Love in a Tub in 1664, She Would if She Could in 1668, and The Man of Mode or, Sir Fopling Flutter in 1676.-Early life:George Etherege was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire, around 1635, to George Etherege and...
's
Man of Mode were legendary. These were the kind of comic parts where affectation and mannerism were positively desirable. But in tragedy, audiences were at this time being entranced by the innovatively naturalistic acting of the rising star
David GarrickDavid Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson...
, and wanted less than ever to see Cibber play a hero.
Richard III
Neither Cibber's adaptations nor his own original plays have stood the test of time, and hardly any of them have been staged or reprinted after the early 18th century. An exception is his popular adaptation of
ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's
Richard IIIRichard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591, depicting the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified as...
, which remained the standard stage version for 150 years. The American actor George Berrell (1849–1933), speaking of
Edwin BoothEdwin Thomas Booth was a famous 19th century American actor. He was born near Bel Air, Maryland into the English American theatrical Booth family. Booth toured throughout America and to the major capitals of Europe, performing Shakespeare; in 1869 he founded Booth's Theatre in New York, a...
's rendition of
Richard III in St. Louis in the 1870s, wrote of Cibber's work:
"Hamlet was followed by Shakespeare’s Richard III, not the version generally played—a hodge-podge concocted by Colley Cibber, who cut and transposed the original version, and added to it speeches from four or five other of Shakespeare’s plays, and several really fine speeches of his own. The speech to Buckingham: “I tell thee, coz, I’ve lately had two spiders crawling o’er my startled hopes”—the well-known line “Off with his head! So much for Buckingham!" the speech ending with “Conscience, avaunt! Richard’s himself again!"— and other lines of power and effect were written by Cibber, who, with all due respect to the 'divine bard,' improved upon the original, for acting purposes."
Love's Last Shift
Cibber's comedies
Love's Last Shift (1696) and
The Careless Husband (1704) are early heralds of a massive shift in audience taste, away from the
intellectualismIntellectualism is any of a number of views regarding the use or development of the intellect or the practice of being an intellectual. In non-specialized contexts, the term "intellectualism" is often used to describe an attitude of devotion or high regard for intellectual pursuits...
and sexual frankness of
Restoration comedyRestoration comedy refers to English comedies written and performed in the Restoration period from 1660 to 1710. After public stage performances had been banned for 18 years by the Puritan regime, the re-opening of the theatres in 1660 signalled a renaissance of English drama...
and towards the conservative certainties and
genderGender commonly refers to the set of characteristics that humans perceive as distinguishing between male and female entities, extending from one's biological sex to, in humans, one's social role or gender identity. As a term, "gender" has more than one valid definition...
role
backlashA "backlash" is a popular negative reaction to something which has gained popularity, prominence, or influence. Although it can sometimes represent a categorical rejection of the idea, aesthetic, product, or fad in question, it is usually a reflection of a collective resentment of that thing's...
of exemplary or sentimental comedy. In particular, according to Parnell,
Love's Last Shift illustrates Cibber's opportunism at a moment in time before the change was assured: fearless of self-contradiction, he puts something for everybody into his first play, combining the old outspokenness with the new preachiness.
The central action of
Love's Last ShiftLove's Last Shift, or The Fool in Fashion is an English Restoration comedy by Colley Cibber from 1696.The play is regarded as an early herald of a shift in audience tastes away from the intellectualism and sexual frankness of Restoration comedy and towards the conservative certainties and gender...
is a celebration of the power of a good woman, Amanda, to reform a
rakishA rake is defined as a man that is habituated to immoral conduct. Rakes are frequently stock characters in novels. Often a rake is a man who wastes his fortune on gambling, wine, women and song, incurring lavish debts in the process...
husband, Loveless, by means of sweet patience and a daring bed-trick. She masquerades as a prostitute ("Enter Amanda, in an undress") and seduces Loveless without being recognized by him, and then confronts him with logical argument. Since he did enjoy the night with her while taking her for a stranger, it has been proved that a wife can be as good in bed as an illicit mistress. Loveless is convinced and stricken, and a rich choreography of mutual kneelings, risings and prostrations follows, generated by Loveless' penitence and Amanda's "submissive eloquence". She kneels down while he stands "amazed", then she falls in a swoon, he supports her, he "turns from her" (ashamed), she kneels again, he begs her to rise, he embraces her, she weeps, he kneels;
she begs
him to rise. The première audience is said to have wept at this climactic scene (Davies, 1783–1784|84). The play was a great box-office success and was for a time the talk of the town, in both a positive and a negative sense. Some contemporaries regarded it as moving and amusing, others as a sentimental tear-jerker, incongruously interspersed with sexually explicit
Restoration comedyRestoration comedy refers to English comedies written and performed in the Restoration period from 1660 to 1710. After public stage performances had been banned for 18 years by the Puritan regime, the re-opening of the theatres in 1660 signalled a renaissance of English drama...
jokes and semi-nude bedroom scenes.
Love's Last Shift is today read only by the most dedicated scholars, and mainly for gaining a perspective on Vanbrugh's sequel
The Relapse, which has by contrast remained a stage favorite. Modern scholars often endorse the criticism that was leveled at
Love's Last Shift from the first, namely that it is a blatantly commercial combination of sex scenes and drawn-out sentimental reconciliations (see Hume).
The Careless Husband
The comedy
The Careless Husband (1704), generally considered to be Cibber's best play, is another example of the retrieval of a straying husband by means of outstanding wifely tact, this time in a more domestic and genteel register. The easy-going Sir Charles Easy is chronically unfaithful to his wife, seducing both
ladies of qualityA lady is the female equivalent of a lord, the counterpart of a gentleman, or any adult woman, though this usage is constrained.- Etymology and usage :...
and his own female servants with insouciant charm. The turning point of the action, famous in the annals of British theatre history as "the Steinkirk scene", comes when his wife finds him and a maidservant asleep together in a chair, "as close an approximation to actual
adulteryAdultery is referred to as extramarital sex, philandery, or infidelity, but does not include fornication. The term "adultery" for many people carries a moral or religious association, while the term "extramarital sex" is morally or judgmentally neutral....
as could be presented on the 18th-century stage" (Parnell, 291). His periwig has fallen off, an obvious suggestion of intimacy and abandon on the 18th-century stage, and an opening for Lady Easy's tact.
SoliloquizingA soliloquy is a literary device often used in drama characterized by a character's divulgence of his or her thoughts or emotions to the audience...
to herself about how sad it would be if he caught cold, she "takes a Steinkirk off her Neck, and lays it gently on his Head" (V.i.21). (A "steinkirk" was a loosely tied lace collar or scarf, named after the way the officers wore their
cravatThe cravat is a neckband, the forerunner of the modern tailored necktie and bow tie, originating from 16th century Croatia...
s at the
Battle of SteenkirkThe Battle of Steenkerque was fought on August 3 1692, as a part of the Nine Years' War. It resulted in the victory of the French under Marshal François-Henri de Montmorency, duc de Luxembourg against a joint British-Dutch-German army under Prince William of Orange...
in 1692.) She steals away, Sir Charles wakes, notices the steinkirk on his head, marvels that his wife did not wake him and make a scene, and realizes how wonderful she is. The Easys go on to have a reconciliation scene which is much more low-keyed and tasteful than that in
Love's Last Shift, without kneelings and risings, and with Lady Easy shrinking with feminine delicacy from the coarse subjects that Amanda had broached without blinking. Paul Parnell has analyzed the manipulative nature of Lady Easy's lines in this exchange, showing how they are directed towards the sentimentalist's goal of "ecstatic self-approval" (Parnell, 294).
The Careless Husband was a great success on the stage and remained a
repertoryRepertory or rep, also called stock in the United States, is a term used in Western theatre and opera.A repertory theatre can be a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation...
play throughout the 18th century. Although it has now joined
Love's Last Shift as a forgotten curiosity, it kept a respectable critical reputation into the 20th century, coming in for serious discussion both as an interesting example of
doublethinkDoublethink is a word described in the fictional language of Newspeak and the act of simultaneously accepting as correct two mutually contradictory beliefs...
(Parnell), and as somewhat morally or emotionally insightful (Kenny). As late as 1929, the well-known critic
F. W. BatesonFrederick Wilse Bateson was an English literary scholar and critic.Bateson was born in Cheshire, and educated at Charterhouse and at Trinity College, Oxford, where he took a BA in English , and then the B.Litt., which he completed in 1927...
described the play's psychology as "mature", "plausible", "subtle", "natural", and "affecting".
Other plays
Cibber wrote two other original comedies.
Woman's Wit (1697) was produced under unpropitious circumstances and had no discernible theme (see Barker, 30–31); Cibber, not usually shy about any play of his, even elided its existence in the
Apology.
The Lady's Last Stake (1707) is a rather bad-tempered reply to female critics of Lady Easy's wifely patience in
The Careless Husband. It was coldly received, and its main interest lies in the glimpse the prologue gives of angry female reactions to
The Careless Husband, of which we would otherwise have known nothing (since all contemporary published reviews of
The Careless Husband approve and endorse its message). Some women, says Cibber sarcastically in the prologue, seem to think Lady Easy ought rather to have strangled her husband with her steinkirk:
- "Yet some there are, who still arraign the Play,
- At her tame Temper shock'd, as who should say—
- The Price, for a dull Husband, was too much to pay,
- Had he been strangled sleeping, Who shou'd hurt ye?
- When so provok'd—Revenge had been a Virtue."
Most of Cibber's plays, listed below, were hastily cobbled together from borrowings, or drastically adapted from Shakespeare. His last play,
Papal Tyranny in the Reign of King John, may serve as an example: it was "a miserable mutilation of Shakespeare's
King John," heavily politicized, and caused such a storm of ridicule during its 1736–37 rehearsal that Cibber withdrew it. During the 1745 crisis, when the nation was in fear of yet another Popish pretender, it was finally acted, and this time accepted for patriotic reasons.
On February 18, 1735,
Charleston, South CarolinaCharleston is a city in Charleston County, South Carolina in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It is the largest city and county seat of Charleston County. The city was founded as Charlestown or Charles Towne, Carolina in 1670, and moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of...
, hosted the first performance of a
ballad operaThe term ballad opera is used to refer to a genre of English stage entertainment originating in the 18th century and continuing to develop in the following century and later. There are many types of ballad opera...
,
Flora: Or Hob in the Well, in the United States, at the New World Theatre.
Cibber as manager
Cibber's creation of the combined actor-manager role is important in the history of the British stage because he was the first in a long and illustrious line that would include such luminaries as Garrick,
Henry IrvingSir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility for season after season at the Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as...
, and
Herbert Beerbohm TreeSir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was an English actor-manager.-Life and career:Born in Kensington, London as Herbert Draper Beerbohm, Tree was the second son of Julius Ewald Edward Beerbohm , of Dutch, Lithuanian, and German origin, who had come to England in about 1830 and set up as a prosperous corn...
. Rising from actor at Drury Lane to advisor and spy (see
Dictionary of Actors) on behalf of the manager Christopher Rich, Cibber worked himself by degrees into a position to take over the company. With two other actors,
Thomas DoggettThomas Doggett , , was an Irish actor.Doggett was born in Dublin, and made his first stage appearance in London in 1691 as Nincompoop in Thomas D'Urfey's Love for Money. In this part, and as Solon in the same author's Marriage-Hater Matched, he became popular...
and
Robert WilksRobert Wilks was a British actor and theatrical manager who was one of the leading managers of Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in its hey day of the 1710's...
, he was able to buy the company outright around 1710. The events are well documented, but the three actors' maneuvering to squeeze out previous owners was so lengthy and complex that an approximate date must suffice here. After a few stormy years of power-struggle with Doggett and Wilks, Cibber became in practice sole manager of Drury Lane. He wrote no more original plays, though he continued producing adaptations and patchwork plays from "the frippery of crucified Molière" and "hapless Shakespeare" for the company, and to act on the stage. He thus set a pattern for the line of more charismatic and successful actors that were to succeed him in this combination of roles. His near-contemporary Garrick, as well as the 19th century actor-managers Irving and Tree, would later structure their careers, writing, and manager identity around their own striking stage personalities. Cibber's
forte as actor-manager was, by contrast, the manager side. He was a clever, innovative, and unscrupulous businessman who retained all his life a love of appearing on the stage. His triumph was that he rose to a position where, in consequence of his sole power over production and casting at Drury Lane, London audiences had to put up with him as an actor.
Cibber had learned from the bad example of Rich to be a careful and approachable employer for his actors, and was not unpopular with them, but made enemies in the literary world by his obvious enjoyment of the power he wielded over authors. Many were outraged by his sharp business methods, which may be exemplified by the characteristic way he abdicated as manager in the mid-1730s. First selling his share for over 3,000 pounds, he immediately encouraged his scapegrace son Theophilus to lead the actors in a walkout to set up for themselves in the
HaymarketThe Theatre Royal Haymarket or Haymarket Theatre or the Little Theatre is a West End theatre in The Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...
, rendering worthless the commodity he had sold. Cibber's application on behalf of his son for a
patentLetters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of an open letter issued by a monarch or government, granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or to some entity such as a corporation. The opposite of letters patent are letters close , which are personal in nature...
to perform at the Haymarket was, however, refused by the
Lord ChamberlainThe Lord Chamberlain or Lord Chamberlain of the Household is one of the chief officers of the Royal Household in the United Kingdom and is to be distinguished from the Lord Great Chamberlain, one of the Great Officers of State....
, who was "disgusted at Cibber's conduct."
Cibber as poet
Cibber's appointment as Poet Laureate in 1730 was widely assumed to be a political rather than artistic honor, and a reward for his untiring support of the controversial
WhigThe Whigs are often described as one of the two original political parties in England and later the United Kingdom from the late 17th to the mid-19th centuries. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...
Prime Minister
Robert WalpoleRobert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, KG, KB, PC and known before 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British statesman who is generally regarded as having been the first Prime Minister of Great Britain....
. His verses had no admirers even in his own time, and Cibber acknowledges quite cheerfully in the
Apology that he does not himself think much of them. His birthday odes for the Royal family and other duty pieces incumbent on him as Poet Laureate came in for particular scorn, and these offerings would regularly be followed by a flurry of anonymous
parodiesA parody , in contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
. In the 20th century,
D. B. Wyndham-LewisDominic Bevan Wyndham-Lewis FRSL was a British writer best known for his humorous contributions to newspapers and for biographies. His family were originally from Wales, but he was born in Liverpool and brought up in Cardiff...
and
Charles LeeCharles Lee was born in London. He published five novels in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in addition to many short stories and plays about the working people of Cornwall.-Works:*Our Little Town*Paul Carah Cornishman...
considered some of Cibber's laureate poems funny enough to be included in their classic "anthology of bad verse",
The Stuffed Owl (1930).
Pamphlet wars
From the very beginning of the 18th century, when Cibber first rose to being Rich's right-hand man and spy at Drury Lane, his opportunism and his brash, thick-skinned personality gave rise to many barbs in print, especially against his patchwork plays. The early attacks were mostly anonymous, but some have been ascribed to
Daniel DefoeDaniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained enduring fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain, and is even referred to by some as one...
and
Tom BrownTom Brown was an English translator and writer of satire, largely forgotten today save for a four-line gibe he wrote concerning Dr John Fell....
(see Lowe). Later,
Jonathan SwiftJonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
,
John GayJohn Gay was an English poet and dramatist. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera , set to music by Johann Christoph Pepusch...
, James Thomson,
Richard BlackmoreSir Richard Blackmore, , English poet and physician, is remembered primarily as the object of satire and as an example of a dull poet. He was, however, a respected physician and religious writer....
,
John DennisJohn Dennis , was an English critic and dramatist, born in Harrow, London, the son of a saddler.He was educated at Harrow School and Caius College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. degree in 1679. In the next year he was fined and dismissed from his college for having wounded a fellow-student with...
and
Henry FieldingHenry Fielding was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones....
all lambasted Cibber in print. The most famous conflict Cibber had was with
Alexander PopeAlexander Pope is a famous eighteenth century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson. Pope is famous for his use of the heroic couplet.-...
, the greatest poet of the age. In the first version of his landmark literary satire
The DunciadThe Dunciad is a landmark literary satire by Alexander Pope published in three different versions at different times. The first version was published in 1728 anonymously. The second version, the Dunciad Variorum was published anonymously in 1729. The New Dunciad, in four books and with a...
(1728), Pope referred contemptuously to Cibber's "past, vamp'd, future, old, reviv'd, new" plays, produced with "less human genius than God gives an ape", and Cibber's elevation to laureateship in 1730 further inflamed Pope against him. The selection of Cibber for this honor was widely seen as outlandish, at a time when Pope,
John GayJohn Gay was an English poet and dramatist. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera , set to music by Johann Christoph Pepusch...
, Thomson,
Ambrose PhilipsAmbrose Philips , was an English poet and politician.He was born in Shropshire of a Leicestershire family. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and St John's College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow in 1699. He seems to have lived chiefly at Cambridge until he resigned his fellowship in...
, and
Edward YoungEdward Young was an English poet, best remembered for Night Thoughts.-Early life:...
were all in their prime. As one
epigramAn Epigram is a brief, clever, and usually memorable statement. Derived from the "to write on - inscribe", the literary device has been employed for over two millennia....
of the time put it:
- "In merry old England it once was a rule,
- The King had his Poet, and also his Fool:
- But now we're so frugal, I'd have you to know it,
- That Cibber can serve both for Fool and for Poet." (Recorded by Pope in the 1743 Dunciad).
That he was selected immediately after a change in the government from Tory to Whig was also noticeable. Further, Cibber associated himself with
Robert WalpoleRobert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, KG, KB, PC and known before 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British statesman who is generally regarded as having been the first Prime Minister of Great Britain....
, the highly divisive "first Prime Minister."
Pope, mortified by the elevation of Cibber to laureatehood and incredulous at the vainglory of his
Apology (1740), took every opportunity to attack him in his poetry, and easily got the laughers on his side. Mostly Cibber replied quite good-humoredly to Pope's aspersions ("some of which are in conspicuously bad taste", as Lowe points out), but in 1742 he snapped and hit below the belt in an angry and damaging pamphlet,
A Letter from Mr. Cibber, to Mr. Pope, inquiring into the motives that might induce him in his Satyrical Works, to be so frequently fond of Mr. Cibber's name. In this pamphlet, Cibber's most effective ammunition came from a reference in Pope's
Epistle to Arbuthnot (1735) to Cibber's "whore", which gave Cibber a pretext for retorting in kind with a scandalous anecdote about Pope in a
brothelA brothel, also known as a bordello, cathouse, whorehouse, sporting house and various other euphemisms, is an establishment specifically dedicated to prostitution, providing the prostitutes a place to meet and to have sexual intercourse with clients.-Legality:Today, brothels are illegal in the vast...
. "I must own", wrote Cibber, "that I believe I know more of your whoring than you do of mine; because I don't recollect that ever I made you the least Confidence of my Amours, though I have been very near an Eye-Witness of Yours." Since Pope was around four and a half feet tall and hunchbacked due to a
tubercularTuberculosis is a common and often deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria...
infection of the spine he contracted when young, Cibber regarded the prospect of Pope with a woman as something humorous, and he speaks mockingly of the "little-tiny manhood" of Pope. For once the laughers were on Cibber's side, and the story "raised a universal shout of merriment at Pope's expense." Pope made no direct reply, but took one of the most famous revenges in literary history. In the revised
Dunciad that appeared in 1743, he changed his hero, the King of Dunces, from
Lewis TheobaldLewis Theobald , British textual editor and author, was a landmark figure both in the history of Shakespearean editing and in literary satire...
to Colley Cibber.
The King of Dunces
The derogatory allusions to Cibber in consecutive versions of Pope's
mock-heroicMock-heroic, mock-epic or heroi-comic works are typically satires or parodies that mock common Classical stereotypes of heroes and heroic literature...
Dunciad, from 1728 to 1743, became more elaborate as the conflict between the two men escalated, until, in the final version of the poem, Pope crowned Cibber King of Dunces. From being merely one symptom of the artistic decay of
BritainThe Kingdom of Great Britain, also known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain, was a sovereign state in northwest Europe, in existence from 1707 to 1801...
, he was transformed into the demigod of stupidity, the true son of the goddess Dulness. Apart from the personal quarrel, Pope had reasons of literary appropriateness for letting Cibber take the place of his first choice of King, Lewis Theobald. Theobald, who had embarrassed Pope by contrasting Pope's impressionistic Shakespeare edition (1725) with Theobald's own scholarly edition (1726), also wrote Whig propaganda for hire, as well as dramatic productions which were to Pope abominations for their mixing of
tragedyTragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that, paradoxically, offers its audience pleasure...
and
comedyComedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in Ancient Greece...
and for their "low"
pantomimePantomime is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in Great Britain, Canada, Jamaica, Australia, South Africa, Japan, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is usually performed during the Christmas and New Year season.-History:A pantomimos in Greece was...
and
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
. However, Cibber was an even better King in these respects, more high-profile both as a political opportunist and as the powerful manager of Drury Lane, and with the crowning circumstance that his political allegiances and theatrical successes had gained him the laureateship. To Pope this made him an epitome of all that was wrong with British letters. Pope explains in the "Hyper-critics of Ricardus Aristarchus" prefatory to the 1743
Dunciad that Cibber is the perfect hero for a
mock-heroicMock-heroic, mock-epic or heroi-comic works are typically satires or parodies that mock common Classical stereotypes of heroes and heroic literature...
parodyA parody , in contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
, since his
Apology exhibits every trait necessary for the inversion of an
epicAn epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
heroA hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...
. An epic hero must have wisdom, courage, and
chivalric lovePlatonic love, in its modern popular sense, is a non-sexual affectionaterelationship. A simple example of Platonic relationships is a deep, non-sexual friendship, not subject to gender pairings and including close relatives....
, says Pope, and the perfect hero for an anti-epic therefore should have vanity, impudence, and debauchery. As wisdom, courage, and love combine to create
magnanimityMagnanimity is the virtue of being great of mind and heart. It encompasses, usually, a refusal to be petty, a willingness to face danger, and actions for noble purposes. Its antithesis is pusillanimity...
in a hero, so vanity, impudence, and debauchery combine to make buffoonery for the satiric hero.
Writing about the degradation of taste brought on by theatrical effects, Pope quotes Cibber's own
confessio in the
Apology":
- "Of that Succession of monstrous Medlies that have so long infested the Stage, and which arose upon one another alternately, at both Houses (London's two playhouses, Cibber's Drury Lane and John Rich
John Rich was an important director and theatre manager in 18th century London. He opened the New Theatre at Lincoln's Inn Fields and then the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden and began putting on ever more lavish productions...
's domain Lincoln's Inn's Fields)... If I am ask'd (after my condemning these Fooleries myself) how I came to assent or continue my Share of Expence to them? I have no better Excuse for my Error than confessing it. I did it against my Conscience! and had not Virtue enough to starve."
Pope's notes call Cibber a hypocrite, and in general the attacks on Cibber are conducted in the notes added to the
Dunciad, and not in the body of the poem. As hero of the
Dunciad, Cibber merely watches the events of Book II, dreams Book III, and sleeps through Book IV.
Once Pope struck, Cibber became an easy target for other satirists. He was attacked as the epitome of morally and aesthetically bad writing, largely for the sins of his autobiography. In the
Apology, Cibber speaks daringly in the first person and in his own praise. Although the major figures of the day were jealous of their fame, self-promotion of such an overt sort was shocking, and Cibber offended
Christian humilityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
as well as
gentlemanlyChivalry is a term related to the medieval institution of knighthood. It is usually associated with ideals of knightly virtues, honor and courtly love. The word is derived from the French word chevalier, indicating one who rides a horse Chivalry is a term related to the medieval institution of...
modesty. Additionally, Cibber consistently fails to see any faults in his own character, praises his vices, and makes no apology for his misdeeds, so it was not merely the fact of the autobiography, but the manner of it that shocked contemporaries. His rather diffuse and chatty writing style, conventional in poetry and sometimes incoherent in prose, was bound to look even worse than it was when he squared up to a master of style like Pope. The contrast caused
Henry FieldingHenry Fielding was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones....
, who was a
Justice of the PeaceA justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice and deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
, to issue a bench warrant for the arrest of Colley Cibber on a charge of "murder" of "the English language". The Tory wits were altogether so successful in their satire of Cibber that the historical image of the man himself was almost obliterated, and it is as the King of Dunces that he has come down to posterity.
Plays
The plays below were produced at the
Theatre Royal, Drury LaneThe Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
unless otherwise stated. The dates given are of first known performance.
- Love's Last Shift (Comedy, 1696)
- Woman's Wit (Comedy, 1697)
- Xerxes (Tragedy, Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1699)
- Love Makes a Man (Comedy, 1701)
- The School Boy (Comedy, 26 October 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 Double Gallant (Comedy, Haymarket, 1 November 1707)
- The Lady's Last Stake (Comedy, Haymarket, 13 December 1707)
- The Rival Fools (Comedy, 11 January 1709)
- The Rival Queans (Comical-Tragedy, Haymarket, 29 June 1710)
- Ximena (Tragedy, 28 November 1712)
- Venus and Adonis (Masque, 1715)
- Bulls and Bears (Farce, 1 December 1715)
- The Refusal (Comedy, 14 February 1721)
- Cæsar in Egypt (Tragedy, 9 December 1724)
- The Provoked Husband (with Vanbrugh
Sir John Vanbrugh was an English architect and dramatist, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard...
, comedy, 10 January 1728)
- Love in a Riddle (Pastoral, 7 January 1729)
- Damon and Phillida (Pastoral Farce, Haymarket, 1729)
Cibber also adapted
ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's
Richard IIIRichard III is an adapted version of Shakespeare's history play of the same name , reworked for Williamite or Orange audiences by British Poet Laureate Colley Cibber....
(1699),
King John as
Papal Tyranny in the Reign of King John (1745) and
MolièreJean-Baptiste Poquelin, mostly known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
's
TartuffeTartuffe is a comedy by Molière. It is his most famous play.As the play begins, the well-off Orgon is convinced that Tartuffe is a man of great religious zeal and fervor. In fact, Tartuffe is a scheming hypocrite...
as
The Nonjuror in 1717.
In popular culture
Cibber is a character in the play
Masks and Faces (and its prose adaptation
Peg Woffington). In the silent film adaptation he is portrayed by
Dion Boucicault Jr.Dion Boucicault Jr. , born Dionysius George Boucicault, was an actor and stage director.-Early life:Boucicault was born in New York, the first child of Dionysius Lardner Bourcicault, the well-known actor and dramatist, and his wife, Agnes Kelly née Robertson , who was also well known on the stage...
"
Kolley KibberKolley Kibber is a fictional character from Graham Greene's 1938 novel Brighton Rock. He was portrayed by Alan Wheatley in the 1947 film adaptation. His name is a reference to Colley Cibber, the English playwright....
" is the newspaper nom de plume for Fred Hale, a former gangster, who returns to Brighton to anonymously distribute cards for a newspaper competition and disappears, presumably murdered, at the end of the first chapter of the novel
Brighton Rock by
Graham GreeneHenry Graham Greene OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
.