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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
7Colley Cibber (6 November 1671 – 11 December 1757) was an 18th-century English playwright and UrExample of the theatrical actor-manager.
8
9Cibber 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)]].
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11He 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
13Cibber'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:
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15->{{Off with his head}}; -- so much for Buckingham.
16-->--''Act IV''
17
18->Hence, babbling dreams! you threaten here in vain.\
19Conscience, avaunt! Richard's himself again!
20-->--''Act V''
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22These 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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