Cibber, Colley
Cibber, Colley ( 1671 – 1757 ),son of Caius Cibber the sculptor, educated at Grantham School; he became an actor in 1690 . His first play, Love's Last Shift ( 1696 ), of which Congreve said that ‘it has only in it a great many things that were like wit, that in reality were not wit’, introduced the character of Sir Novelty Fashion, who was transformed into Lord Foppington in Vanbrugh's The Relapse . Cibber wrote in his varied theatrical career many plays and adaptations, notably She Would and She Would Not ( 1702 ), The Careless Husband ( 1704 ), both comedies, and a successful adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard III ( 1700 ). The Non-juror ( 1717 ), a comedy based on Molière's Tartuffe , was ridiculed by Pope in a pamphlet, and Cibber became the hero of Pope's Dunciad in its final edition, after becoming poet laureate in 1730 . He...
[The entire page is 306 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Oxford University Press Titles
