COLLEY CIBBER. Born in London in 1671. Made laureate in 1730. Died in 1757. (Reign of George II.) SIR JOHN DENHAM once made this peculiar request of the king: "Please, your Majesty, do not hang George Withers, but spare his life that it may not be said I am the worst poet alive!" Colley Cibber never went so far as that, but he himself laid no claim to being a poet, and in that respect he was the most modest of men. Nevertheless Cibber was a man of real genius. His name has lived, not because he was made poet laureate and was put into the "Dunciad," but because he was one of the best actors of his time, and he added to our literature some comedies of unmistakable power, which tended to elevate the stage; and also wrote a history of his life which contains many criticisms of subtle and discriminating insight. Cibber's father was a Dane, who had studied art in Italy and come to England during the Restoration, and there won fame by his fine works in sculpture. He transmitted to his son that taste for art which determined his career. Cibber's mother belonged to the family of Colley-a family of rank which had become impoverished during the Civil War. Cibber was born in London in 1671. At his first school at Grantham, in Lincolnshire, he distinguished himself both for his quickness and his carelessness. His father was ambitious for him, and wanted him to enter Cambridge, but circumstances shaped themselves differently. On his way from school to join his father, the Revolution broke out, and the father had to take up arms. But he showed so little heart that Cibber offered to become his substitute and join the forces of the Earl of Devonshire. He saw no fighting, but many varied and exciting events impressed his susceptible mind and influenced his future dramatic work. When the Prince of Orange was once firmly established upon the throne, Cibber threw down his musket with joy. By this time thoughts of a college career were forgotten. "I saw no happiness in any other life than that of an actor," he says. Accordingly in spite of parental prejudices and wishes he returned to London and joined the Drury Lane Company, and thus he "found his niche.' His progress was slow, his apprenticeship long and tedious; but amid discouragements, rebuffs, poverty, and toil, his gayety and amiability, his buoyancy of temperament, made him happy and content. At last he became known as a comedian of splendid abilities, and success both as an actor and an author crowned his patient effort. His history of his theatrical life is absorbingly interesting, and the glimpses he gives of the famous actors and dramatists with whom he was connected are charming. He delighted to play with Mrs. Barry, and later with the famous Peg Woffington, and their skill but stimulated his own wonderful power. It is said that he seemed to put on the character he was acting, and every limb and gesture spoke the part as truthfully as the words he uttered. His great rôle was the fop or the man of fashion. But Cibber's success was modified and embittered by the persistent malice of many enemies, who did their best to ruin his reputation by slander and obloquy. His life certainly was not free from error and folly, but the utter profligacy attributed to him is refuted by the whole tenor of his writings. In them he showed a regard for truth and honour, and sobriety of language and of conduct, which could not but have been a reflection of his personal conviction. He did much to reform the stage, to correct prevailing abuses, to counteract its degrading tendencies; he strove in his plays to depict pure and chaste characters, to extol virtue, to cast a slur upon vice, and bring back, also, some of the truth and the dignity and the strength of the Elizabethan drama. Thus Cibber is a fine contrast to Dryden and Shadwell, Wycherley, Etheridge, and Congreve. Cibber's first comedy was "Love's Last Shift." Lord Dorset considered this the best first play that any author in his memory had produced. And the public received it with great applause. Collier in his " Short View" included it among those plays which he condemned; but Cibber's subsequent works would have escaped that censure. Dr. Blair, who in somewhat exaggerated style considered "The Provoked Husband" the best comedy in the English language, also added that it was calculated to expose licentiousness and folly, and would do honour to any stage. Cibber's adaptation of Molière's “Tartuffe,” called the “The Nonjuror," was immensely successful and even now is occasionally acted under another name. But we have no space to even mention Cibber's numerous comedies. His autobiography, of course, deals with the details of his authorship as well as his management of Drury Lane, and of the lawsuit with Steele. This suit showed Cibber to be a man of varied talent—he pleaded his own cause with so much skill, such force of logic, that he won his case without help from the lawyers. Cibber's domestic life contrasted unfavourably with his public career. Gentle and gracious of character in many respects, he yet lacked steadfastness and constancy; he was shallow; had brilliancy but not depth; was amiable without being strong. It is said that he was an inattentive husband, and that he was lacking in love for his children. But it is impossible to determine how true this is, so much has been said of him which is the direct outgrowth of personal envy. Cibber had a large family, but only two of his children grew up. The son led an infamous life and made his wife-the famous actress-very unhappy. Cibber's daughter had a career highly romantic and full of varied adventures. She died in extreme poverty. As a proof of how impossible it is to judge correctly of Cibber's domestic relations, one authority asserts that this daughter died two or three years after her father's death; another that she died in destitution while he was yet alive! One thing is, however, certain, that Cibber repeatedly urged upon his children the charms and duty of virtue, but that his appeals and his warnings were alike in vain. In Cibber's early days a sight of Charles II. had inspired a poem, and he also wrote an ode on James II. But these efforts showed no trace of the sparkle of his subsequent comedies. George I. had been delighted with "The Nonjuror." When Eusden died the queen promised the laurel to Richard Savage, but George II. and his Lord Chamberlain willed otherwise. For twenty-seven years Cibber wrote odes with great patience and industry. In these the vitalising power, the imaginative spirit of true poetry is wholly lacking; and yet they are not contemptible. They are correct in form, and have some eloquence and terseness of phrase and melody of versification. Of course, Cibber was not fitted for the position of laureate, and he should have had the good sense to decline, but being one of the vainest of men he accepted, and so he incurred the ridicule of all the satirists of the day. But he never lost his temper. He would often read to his friends the best things written against his unlucky odes, and would reply in epigrams satirising himself with much wit and spirit. The persistent malice of Pope has become a part of history. Pope's Dunciad" is immortal, and so Cibber's name will always suffer. It is surprising how well Cibber bore Pope's attacks, only once or twice did he even notice them, and then he said that Pope considered a lick at the laureate a sure bait to catch little readers. When Cibber wrote his famous letter of remonstrance to Pope, he showed dignity as well as unanswerable logic, but Pope was unappeasable. All critics, from Johnson to De Quincey, concur in the belief in Pope's inaccuracy. De Quincey even spoke of his radical insincerity of character, of his indifference to truth whenever it stood in the way of pungent satire or any literary effect. Disraeli wrote: "Pope 66 forced a dunce to appear as Cibber, but this was not making Cibber a dunce." But after all the just things are said of Cibber which can be said, the fact remains that "Truth of history goes to wreck under the perversities of Satire." Bentley said to one who threatened to write him down, that no author was ever written down but by himself. But Bentley was wrong. The world at large judges Cibber more by the Dunciad than by his own Autobiography. Cibber's book, however, still retains its charm for its naïveté, its childlike egotism, its many accurate pictures of famous men and women and great events; and as a history of the stage in one of its most interesting epochs it is an important contribution to literature. When Cibber heard that Swift had sat up all night to read his book, he shed tears of joy. Betterton's prophecy, early in Cibber's career, that he would make an actor of decided power, had also brought tears to the eyes of this volatile, mercurial nature, who, in spite of grave defects of character, showed many wise and sagacious traits—traits in marked and favourable contrast to the famous poet who maligned him. Soon after being appointed laureate Cibber retired from the stage, acting only occasionally with his favourite, Peg Woffington. His last days were quiet and peaceful, and he died quite suddenly at the advanced age of eighty-six. SELECTIONS FROM CIBBER. AN ODE TO HIS MAJESTY FOR THE NEW YEAR, 1730-31. ONCE more the ever circling sun Each, to the Winter's want, their stores shall bring Ye grateful Britons, bless the year Your plenty to the skies you owe; Thus bounteous Jove, and George below Turn, happy Britons, to the throne your eyes, How amply bounteous Providence supplies Behold in every face, All native to the race |