John Cibber

“ Justice is none the less on the side of Cibber. The hostility of Pope is assigned by Cibber to a not very hurtful gag introduced by him as Bayes in the 'Rehearsal,' in which he bantered the 'Three Hours after Marriage,' the ill-starred comedy in which Gay is believed to have had for collaborators Pope and Arbuthnot. ”

“ Colley Cibber’s son, Theophilus Cibber (1703–1758) , also an actor and playwright, was born on the 26th of November 1703. In 1734 he was acting-manager at the Haymarket, and he subsequently played at Drury Lane, Lincoln’s Inn Fields and Covent Garden. His best impersonation was as Pistol, but he also distinguished himself in some of the fine-gentleman parts affected by his father. He was one of the ringleaders in the intrigues against John Highmore, who had bought a share in the patent of Drury Lane from Colley Cibber. ”

“ Cibber's dramas are coarse in incident, and often offensive in suggestion. The language is frequently gross, and even when he writes, or professes to write, with a moral purpose, his method may justly offend a rigid moralist. Moreover his comedy, like that of the dramatists of the Restoration, is of a wholly artificial type. Human nature has comparatively little place in it, and the fine ladies and gentlemen, the fops and fools who play their parts in his scenes, belong to a world which has no existence off the boards of the theatre. ”

“ For Nature formed the Poet for the King!'
Of poetry there is no trace in the five volumes of his dramatic works; there are few touches of nature, and little genuine wit, but these defects are to some extent supplied by sparkling dialogue and lively badinage. Cibber is often sentimental, and when he is sentimental he is odious. ”

“ Considering the time, about 1733, such a greeting had nothing offensive in it. If there had been, Cibber was just the man to resent it, at the sore cost of the offender, whether the latter were Chesterfield or Devonshire, Cholmondeley or Rockingham, Sir John Cope, Mrs. ”

“ John Verbruggen, whose name Downes spells "Vanbruggen," "Vantbrugg," and "Verbruggen," is first recorded as having played Termagant in "The Squire of Alsatia," at the Theatre Royal, in 1688. His name last appears in August, 1707, and he must have died not long after. On 26th April, 1708, a benefit was announced for "a young orphan child of the late Mr. and Mrs. Verbruggen." He seems to have been an actor of great natural power, but inartistic in method. See what Anthony Aston says of him. Cibber unfairly, as we must think, seems carefully to avoid mentioning him as of any importance. ”

“ Cibber, in a letter to Pope, says:—"When you used to pass your hours at Button's, you were even there remarkable for your satirical itch of provocation; scarce was there a gentleman of any pretension to wit, whom your unguarded temper had not fallen upon in some biting epigram, among which you once caught a pastoral Tartar, whose resentment, that your punishment might be proportionate to the smart of your poetry, had stuck up a birchen rod in the room, to be ready whenever you might come within reach of it ”

“ CIBBER or CIBERT, CAIUS GABRIEL (1630–1700) , sculptor, was born at Flensborg in Holstein, in 1630. He was the son of the king of Denmark's cabinet-maker, who, on discovering in the youth a talent for modelling, sent him to Rome, and supported him there in the prosecution of his studies. John Stone, the sculptor, going to Holland, was seized with palsy, and Ciboer, being his foreman, was sent to conduct him home. This occurred during the time of the Commonwealth. When in England, Stone gave Cibber employment for some years. ”

“ After which, Sir John was agen at liberty to repeat his Civilities to his Friend Sir Thomas, and about the same time, or not long after, gave us the Comedy of Æsop, for his Inclination always led him to serve Sir Thomas. Besides, our Company about this time began to be look'd upon in another Light; the late Contempt we had lain under was now wearing off, and from the Success of two or three new Plays, our Actors, by being Originals in a few good Parts where they had not the Disadvantage of Comparison against them, sometimes found new Favour in those old Plays where others had exceeded them. ”

“ Genest (ii. 430) has the following outspoken character of Rich: "He seems in his public capacity of Patentee and Manager to have been a despicable character—without spirit to bring the power of the Lord Chamberlain to a legal test—without honesty to account to the other proprietors for the receipts of the theatre—without any feeling for his actors—and without the least judgment as to players and plays."
[75] Rich's Patent was revived, as Cibber states (p. 78) , in 1714, when it was the property of his son, John Rich. ”

“ The living proudly would exclude his lays,
And to the buried bard resign the praise.
Sir John indeed appears to have been often sensible of the immorality of his scenes; for in the year 1725 when the company of comedians was called upon, in a manner that could not be resisted, to revive the Provok'd Wife, the author, who was conscious how justly it was exposed to censure, thought proper to substitute a new scene in the fourth act, in place of another, in which, in the wantonness of his wit and humour, he had made a Rake talk like a Rake, in the habit of a Clergyman. ”

“ Ward's favourable judgment of The Careless Husband, [54] which, if it be one of the cleverest of Cibber's dramas, is also one of the most conspicuous for this defect. Here, as elsewhere, Cibber should have left sentiment alone. Imagine a lover exclaiming to a relenting mistress, 'Oh, let my soul thus bending to your power, adore this soft descending goodness!' or a man conversing in the following strain with a wife who has discovered and forgiven his infidelities ”

“ It is manifest, this truffing beginning put an end to Pope's friendship for Cibber [220] if he realy had any; and the continuance of his enmity, for near thirty years, is no mark of humanity. It is accounted unmanly and mean, to give a person repeated strokes, when he has not spirit enough to resent the first; and yet that excellent poet, had so much bitterness in his sweet wit, (if we may be allowed to say so,) that to many it palls the taste. The reader in this supplement, will not find Cibber's name once mentioned: The reason is apparent ”

“ There is certainly nature excellently represented in his manner of action, in which he ever avoided that general fault in players of doing too much.’ Cibber speaks of Underhill as being at the time he (Cibber) joined the company at the Theatre Royal one of the principal actors who ‘were all original masters in their different stile, not mere auricular imitators of one another, which commonly is the highest merit of the middle rank, but self-judges of nature from whose various lights they only took their true instruction’ (Apology, ed. Lowe, i. 99) . ”

“ It seems clear that prior to the play's première there was no rift between the management at Drury Lane and the authors. Parker says that they were constantly in attendance at rehearsals, and our Letter (p. 216) avers that they were more than satisfied with what Cibber was doing with their work. It rings true; the line attributed to Gay, "We dug the ore, but he [Cibber] refined the gold" exaggerates greatly no doubt, but seems beyond the powers of our female informant to have contrived in support of a thesis. An atmosphere of happy optimism prevailed ”

“ After the death of Steele, a Patent was granted to Cibber, Wilks, and Booth, empowering them to give plays at Drury Lane, or elsewhere, for a period of twenty-one years from 1st September, 1732. [200] Just after it came into operation Wilks died, and his share in the Patent became the property of his wife. Booth, shortly before his death, which occurred in May, 1733, sold half of his share for £2,500, to258 John Highmore, a gentleman who seems to have been a typical amateur manager, being possessed of some money, no judgment, and unbounded vanity. ”

“ Estcourt, Richard, i. 166, i. 237. i. 332. i. 334, note 1; a marvellous mimic, i. 114; yet not a good actor, i. 115; said to be unfairly treated by Cibber, i. 115, note 2; could not mimic Nokes, i. 142; his "gag" on the Union of the Companies in, 1708, i. 301; his first coming to London, i. 304; made Deputy-manager by Brett, ii. 56, note 1; advertisement regarding his salary, 1709, ii. 78, note 1; his Falstaff, ii. 300; Bellchambers's memoir of, ii. 331. Eusden, Laurence, poet laureate, his death, i. 32, note 1. Evans, John, his visit to Drury Lane in 1714, ii. ”

“ It was hissed by Cibber's enemies and converted into (24) 'Damon and Phillida,' a ballad opera, 8to, 1729, which was published anonymously, was acted successfully at Drury Lane, and kept possession of the stage. 25. 'Papal Tyranny in the Reign of King John,' tragedy, 8vo, 1746, acted at Covent Garden on 15 Feb. 1746. This tragedy, founded on 'King John,' was written and rehearsed nine years previously. Cibber, having been rebuked for meddling with Shakespeare, withdrew it. Pope refers to this in the 'Dunciad:' 'King John in silence modestly expires.' Cibber also wrote: 26. ”

“ Dennis, John, i. 41, note 2, ii. 361; abuses Cibber for his loyalty, i. 66, note 1; accuses Cibber of stealing his "Love's Last Shift," i. 215; his attacks on Steele and Cibber, ii. 168, note 1, ii. 176, note 1; attacks Wilks, ii. 226, note 2; abuses one of the actors of his "Comic Gallant," ii. 252, note 1. "Deserving Favourite, The," i. xxv. 390 Devonshire, Duke of, ii. 305; his quarrel with James II., i. 72; Cibber presents a petition to, i. 73. Diderot, Denis, his "Paradoxe sur le Comédien," i. 103, note 1. Dillworth, W. H., his "Life of Pope," ii. ”

“ His personal character predominates indeed over the inventiveness of his muse; but so far from being dull, he is every where light, fluttering, and airy. We could wish we had a few more such dull fellows; they would contribute to make the world pass away more pleasantly! Cibber, in short, though his name has been handed down to us as a bye-word of impudent pretension by the classical pen of his rival, who did not admit of any merit beyond the narrow circle of wit and friendship in which he moved, was a 360gentleman and a scholar of the old school; a man of wit and pleasantry in conversation ”

“ The women lack heart and natural affection; the men are unrefined [221] and uncivil, and both converse too much after the intolerable mode which was not yet to be driven from the sadly-abused stage. Sentiment there is, indeed, after a sort; but when it is not smart and epigrammatic, it is repulsively low and selfish. Amid the intrigues of the piece, there stands glitteringly prominent the first of the brilliant series of Cibber's fops, Sir Novelty Fashion. This character he wrote for his own acting, and his success in it established him as an actor of the first rank. ”

“ E. S. Willard mentioned as famous for representing, i. 135, note 1; on the acting of, i. 222. Vizard-masks (women of the town) , i. xxvii. See also Masks. Voltaire, his "Zaïre," ii. 248. 414 Walker, Obadiah, his change of religion, ii. 134. Waller, Edmund, altered the last act of the "Maid's Tragedy," ii. 12. Walpole, Horace, and Cibber, ii. 284. Warburton, Bishop, mentioned, i. 106, note 1, ii. 281. Ward, Professor A. W., his "English Dramatic Literature," i. 187, note 1. Warwick, Earl of, his frolic with Pope and Cibber, ii. 278. Weaver, John, his "Loves of Mars and Venus," ii. ”

“ Some time after she had tasted liberty, she began to be weary of that continued attendance upon the great; and therefore was resolved, if ever she was again favoured with a competent sum, to turn it into trade, and quit the precarious life of a poetical mendicant. Mr. Cibber had five guineas in reserve for her, which, with ten more she received from the duke of Marlborough, enabled her to take a shop in St. James's Street, which she filled with pamphlets and prints, as being a business better suited to her taste and abilities, than any other. ”

“ It was mere spleen in Pope; and the provocation to it seems to have been an excess of flippant vivacity in the constitution of Cibber. That Cibber’s Birth-day Odes were dull, seems to have been the common fault of the subject, rather than a particular objection to the poet. In his Apology for his own Life, he is one of the most amusing of coxcombs; happy in conscious vanity, teeming with animal spirits, uniting the self-sufficiency of youth with the garrulity of age; and in his plays he is not less entertaining and agreeably familiar with the audience. ”

“ But I lay in my Claim to you, to Testify for me, that if he should chance to die before a New & Improved Edition of the Dunciad comes out, I have already, actually written (before, & not after his death) all I shall ever say about him. [19]
A Cibber-baiting campaign was undertaken by the poet’s friends, and the actor responded with The egoist, in which he defended himself, as in his Apology, by freely admitting his flaws with infuriating complacency. ”

“ Probably he is, for Cibber says that though he spent some time at the Temple, "he so little followed the Law there that his neglect of it made the Law (like some of his fair and frail admirers) very often follow him." As he had an uncommon share of social wit and a handsome person, with a sanguine bloom in his complexion, no wonder they persuaded him that he might have a better chance of fortune by throwing such accomplishments into the gayer world than by shutting them up in a study. ”

“ Cibber is so perfect as a critic, he so thoroughly understands the office and so intelligibly conveys his opinions, that it were well if all gentlemen who may hereafter aspire to exercise the critical art, were compelled to study his Apology as medical students are to become acquainted with their Celsus. No one should be admitted to practise theatrical criticism who has not got by heart Cibber's descriptions of Betterton and Mrs. Oldfield; or who fail on their being examined as to their proficiency in the Canons of Colley. ”