Colley Cibber

Colley Cibber (June 11, 1671 – November 12, 1757) was an English actor-manager, playwright, and Poet Laureate. His colorful Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber (1740) started a British tradition of personal, anecdotal, and even rambling autobiography. He wrote some plays for performance by his own company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and adapted many more from various sources, receiving frequent criticism for his "miserable mutilation" (Robert Lowe) of "hapless Shakespeare, and crucify'd Molière" (Alexander Pope). 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, 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 fame when he became the chief target, the head Dunce, of Alexander Pope's satirical poem The Dunciad.

Life

Cibber was born in London, his father being Caius Gabriel Cibber, a distinguished originally Danish sculptor. 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 theatre, 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 (see Dictionary of Actors). Most certainly received short shrift in his will. His only son to reach adulthood Theophilus Cibber became an actor at Drury Lane, and was an embarrassment to his father because of his scandalous private life. Colley's youngest daughter Charlotte Charke 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.

Related Topics:
London - Caius Gabriel Cibber - Danish - 1690 - Drury Lane theatre - 1693 - Theophilus Cibber - Charlotte Charke

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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 Laureate, an appointment which attracted widespread scorn, particularly from Alexander Pope and other Tory satirists.

Related Topics:
1710 - 1730 - Poet Laureate - Alexander Pope - Tory

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