Colley Cibber
Colley Cibber (1671-1757) was a British actor-manager, dramatist and Poet Laureate of Britain.
He was born in London, his father being Caius Gabriel Cibber, a Danish sculptor living in England. Cibber began his career as an actor at Drury Lane Theatre in 1690. He quickly became popular as a comedy performer, playing parts such as Lord Foppington in Vanbrugh's play, The Relapse. As a playwright, his first work, Love's Last Shift (1696), made his name, and he followed it up with a popular adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard III, which was the standard version from 1700 until the mid-Victorian era and featured Richard's immortal line: "Off with his head! So much for Buckhingham!" In 1710, he became manager of the Drury Lane theatre, but was generally unpopular. In 1730, he was made Poet Laureate, an appointment which attracted widespread scorn particularly from Alexander Pope who despised Cibber's altered Shakespeare.
Cibber was the author of the invaluable 'Apology for the Life of an Actor' which is full of anecdotes about his time in the theatre. Because he worked with many from the early days of Restoration theatre (albeit at the end of their careers) and lived to see the ultra-modern David Garrick perform he is a fascinating bridge between a mannered and a more naturalistic style of performance.
Cibber had a large number of children but only two seem to have survived him and these barely. His son, Theophilus Cibber, married the singer Susannah Maria Arne (sister of composer Thomas Arne). His daughter Charlotte Charke became a celebrated cross-dresser.
Principal Works
Produced Drury Lane Theatre unless otherwise stated, 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, 26th October 1702)
- She Would and She would Not (Comedy, 26th November 1702)
- The Careless Husband (Comedy, 7th December, 1704)
- Perolla and Izadora (Tragedy, 3rd December, 1705)
- The Comical Lovers (Comedy, Haymarket, 4th February, 1707)
- The Double Gallant (Comedy, Haymarket, 1st November, 1707)
- The Lady's Last Stake (Comedy, Haymarket, 13th December 1707)
- The Rival Fools (Comedy, 11th January, 1709)
- The Rival Queans (Comical-Tragedy, Haymarket, 29th June 1710)
- Ximena (Tragedy, 28th November, 1712)
- Venus and Adonis (Masque, 1715)
- Bulls and Bears (Farce, 1st December, 1715)
- The Refusal (Comedy, 14th February, 1721)
- Cæsar in Egypt (Tragedy, 9th December, 1724)
- The Provoked Husband (with Vanbrugh, comedy, 10th January 1728)
- Love in a Riddle (Pastoral, 7th January, 1729)
- Damon and Phillida (Pastoral Farce, Haymarket, 1729)
He also adapted Shakespeare's Richard III (1700), King John (1745) as 'Papal Tyranny in the Reign of King John' and Moliere's Tartuffe as 'The Nonjuror' in 1717.
