Colley cibber autobiography samples

English actor-manager, playwright, and poet laureate

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

He regarded himself as first and foremost an actor and had great popular success in comical fop 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, shady business methods, and a social and political opportunism that was thought to have gained him the laureateship over far better poets. He rose to ignominious fame when he became the chief target, the head Dunce, of Alexander Pope's satirical poem The Dunciad.

Cibber's poetical work was derided in his time and has been remembered only for being poor. His importance in British theatre history rests on his being one of the first in a long line of actor-managers, on the interest of two of his comedies as documents of evolving early 18th-century taste and ide

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510 copies printed on this fine deckle-edge demy 8vo paper for England and
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No.

AN APOLOGY FOR THE LIFE OF

MR. COLLEY CIBBER

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF



A NEW EDITION WITH NOTES AND SUPPLEMENT

BY

ROBERT W. LOWE



WITH TWENTY-SIX ORIGINAL MEZZOTINT PORTRAITS BY
R. B. PARKES, AND EIGHTEEN ETCHINGS
BY ADOLPHE LALAUZE




IN TWO VOLUMES

VOLUME THE FIRST




LONDON
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Chiswick Press

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PREFACE.

Colley Cibber's famous Autobiography has always been recognized as one of the most delightful books of its class; but, to students of theatrical history, the charm of its author's ingenuous frankness has been unable altogether to overweigh the inaccuracy and vagueness of his treatment of matters of fact. To remove this cause of complaint is the principal object of the present edition. But correcting errors is only one of an editor's duties, and by no means the most difficult. More exacting, and almost equally important, are the illustration of the circumstances surrounding the author, the elucidation of his references to current events, and the comparison of his statements and theories with those of judicious contemporaries. In all these particulars I have interpreted my duty in the widest sense, and have aimed at giving, as far as in me lies, an exhaustive commentary on the "Apology."

I am fortunate in being able to claim that my work contains much information which has never before been made public. A careful investigationvi of the MSS. in the British Museum, and of the Records of the Lord Chamberlain's Of

Colley Cibber, as can probably be deduced from his portrait shown here, was a flamboyant, often eccentric character whose lifetime ambition was to be a great actor/manager in the London theatres as well as being a well-regarded poet and playwright. He certainly made for himself a theatrical career though it could not always be said that it was a successful one.   His attempts at serious acting often prompted ridicule from his contemporaries. He tried his hand at every form of acting imaginable and received praise more for his comedic roles than those of a more serious nature. He was a playwright and took on the management of other actors (he was one of the first to carry out such a role). His poetry, like his acting, received mixed reviews, most of them not complimentary. Despite this he held the post of Poet Laureate for many years despite being considered inferior to more deserving poets. It was suggested that Cibber’s social and political opportunism were the main reasons that he enjoyed the privilege of the laureateship.

Cibber was born in November 1671 to well off parents living in Bloomsbury, London. His father was of Danish origin, and a sculptor while his mother came from a noble family in the Midlands county of Rutland. He was privately educated in Grantham but did not succeed in his attempt to gain admittance to Winchester College, as his family had expected. He entered the world of the London theatres, securing a number of minor acting roles. Eventually he became established in the profession and decided to try the management of actors as well as performing on stage himself.

He took on the management of a theatre group in Drury Lane in 1710 and made a reasonable living from it. All the time he was writing poetry and was made Poet Laureate in 1730, an appointment that was not popular. Another famous poet, Alexander Pope, wrote a satirical poem called Dunciad and Cibber was openly cited as “the Head Dunce” in the poem. His own poetry was simple, unco