1 | ->''And has not Colly still his Lord, and Whore?'' |
2 | -->--'''Alexander Pope''', "An Epistle to Arbuthnot" |
3 | |
4 | ->''. . . I must own, that I believe I know more of ''your'' whoring than you do of ''mine''; because I don't recollect that ever I made you the least Confidence of ''my'' Amours, though I have been very near an Eye-Witness of ''Yours'' . . .'' |
5 | -->--'''Colley Cibber''', "A Letter from Mr. Cibber to Mr. Pope" |
6 | |
7 | Colley Cibber (6 November 1671 – 11 December 1757) was an 18th-century English playwright and UrExample of the theatrical actor-manager. |
8 | |
9 | Cibber entered the world of theatre in 1690, when RestorationComedy was almost dead and more sentimental and moralistic comedies were coming into fashion. He wrote several such plays -- and acted in them, playing characters with names like [[TheDandy Sir Courtly Nice, Sir Fopling Flutter]], and [[TypeCasting Sir Novelty Fashion (later Lord Foppington)]]. |
10 | |
11 | He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1730, more for his support of Sir UsefulNotes/RobertWalpole than for his poetic output, which even Cibber himself didn't think much of. Creator/AlexanderPope, who had little enough respect for Cibber already, was particularly rankled by the appointment, and fired off a few scathing lines in the 1735 poem quoted above. Cibber retaliated with a claim that he had once stopped Pope from tupping a syphilitic prostitute, thereby saving Pope's life (and his translations of Creator/{{Homer}}). For that, Pope made Cibber the "hero" of the next edition of the ''Dunciad'', which has since become Cibber's main claim to fame. |
12 | |
13 | Cibber's other enduring mark on English letters is his BloodierAndGorier rewrite of Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/RichardIII'', first published in 1700. For almost the next two hundred years, it [[AdaptationDisplacement completely displaced]] the original on the stage. Two of Cibber's additions remain famous: |
14 | |
15 | ->{{Off with his head}}; -- so much for Buckingham. |
16 | -->--''Act IV'' |
17 | |
18 | ->Hence, babbling dreams! you threaten here in vain.\ |
19 | Conscience, avaunt! Richard's himself again! |
20 | -->--''Act V'' |
21 | |
22 | These are sometimes interpolated even into modern productions, including Creator/LaurenceOlivier's 1955 film. Of all of Cibber's original works and adaptations (or as some contemporary critics remarked, "mutilations"), his ''Theatre/RichardIII'' is without doubt his most successful. |
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