Cibber, Colley

(1671-1757)

   Cibber's father was Caius Cibber, the sculptor. Although his parents hoped he would be a clergyman, he turned to the stage in 1690 and became a popular comedian, wrote or adapted some thirty plays, and became manager of Drury Lane Theatre. His appointment as poet laureate in 1730 was not a popular choice. Alexander Pope satirized him as the "Dunce" in his mock-epic poem Dunciad (1743). Cibber's first play, Love's Last Shift (1696), is regarded as the first sentimental comedy. In 1700 he produced his popular adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard III. His final stage appearance was in his own adaptation of Shakespeare's King John in 1745. His autobiography, An Apolog y for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber, was published in 1740. His poem "The Blind Boy" was set to music by Schubert. It paints the picture of a boy, though asking "What is light," also says that he will not bemoan what he cannot have, yet when he sings he is a king.

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition, 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Great Books Online (www.bartleby.com). Colley Cibber, Texts Set to Music (http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/c/cibber). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The New Oxford Book of Eighteenth-Century Verse. Roger Lonsdale, ed. Oxford University Press, 1984. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.