Colley Cibber

Colley Cibber
Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom
In office 3 December 1730 – 12 December 1757
Monarch	George II
Preceded by	Laurence Eusden
Succeeded by	William Whitehead
Personal details
Born	(1671-11-06)6 November 1671 Southampton Street, London, England
Died	11 December 1757(1757-12-11) (aged 86) Berkeley Square, London, England
Parent	Caius Gabriel Cibber (father)
Occupation	Actor, theatre manager, playwright, poet
Known for	Works include his autobiography and several comedies of historical interest Appointed Poet Laureate in 1730

Colley Cibber (6 November 1671 – 11 December 1757^[1]) was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. His colourful memoir An Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber (1740) describes his life in a personal, anecdotal and even rambling style. He wrote 25 plays for his own company at Drury Lane, half of which were adapted from various sources, which led Robert Lowe and Alexander Pope, among others, to criticise his "miserable mutilation" of "crucified Molière [and] hapless Shakespeare".

He regarded himself as first and foremost an actor and had great popular success in comical fop parts, while as a tragic actor he was persistent but much ridiculed. Cibber's brash, extroverted personality did not sit well with his contemporaries, and he was frequently accused of tasteless theatrical productions, shady business methods, and a social and political opportunism that was thought to have gained him the laureateship over far better poets. He rose to ignominious fame when he became the chief target, the head Dunce, of Alexander Pope's satirical poem The Dunciad.

Cibber's poetical work was derided in his time and has been remembered only for being poor. His importance in British theatre history rests on his being one of the first in a long line of actor-managers, on the interest of two of his comedies as documents of evolving early 18th-century taste and ideology, and on the value of his autobiography as a historical source.