respect adapted to the talents of Cibber. He was equally out of his element in an "Essay on the Character and Conduct of Cicero," 4to. which he published in 1747. It was never much attended to, and rapidly reached oblivion. He survived to his eighty-seventh year; during which time his lively manners and companionable qualities caused his society to be courted by a large and opulent circle, including even many families of rank. His death took place suddenly on the 12th of December 1757, on which morning his man servant, who had conversed with him at six o'clock, found him, with his face reclining on the pillow, quite dead at the hour of nine. Colley Cibber had a large family; but of the children who lived to become adults, two have been unfor tunately better known for their vices and eccentricity. than their talents and good conduct. Theophilus Cibber, like his father, was a writer and performer in the same caste of comedy, but with far inferior abilities and reputation. He was born in 1703, and regularly educated; but his indolence and extravagance involved him in difficulties, in which he showed so little principle, that his character was irretrievably ruined. He was the husband of the celebrated tragic actress, Mrs Susanna Maria Cibber, whose talents were discovered and cultivated by her father-in-law, with a confident expectation of great success, in which it is well-known that he was not disappointed. Her mean and dissolute husband entrapped this amiable woman into an illicit intercourse with a gentleman of fortune, with a view to gain damages; but his intentions being detected, he utterly failed, and gained nothing but ten pounds and universal contempt. A separation of course took place; and Mrs Cibber, being regarded as the victim of her profligate husband, obtained both countenance and respect. This wretched man lost his life on his passage to Ireland, where he was engaged as a performer: the packet in which he embarked being cast away, he was drowned, with almost every person on board, in the winter of the year 1757, the same which terminated the life of his father. He was author of "The Lover," a comedy; of "Pattie and Peggy," a ballad opera; and also assisted in and superintended the collection entitled "Cibber's Lives." Charlotte, the youngest daughter of Colley Cibber, was also a very extraordinary person. At eight years of age she was put to school, but by some curious neglect or caprice was brought up more like a boy than a girl. As she grew up, her masculine propensities took a still more decided direction: she was much more frequently in the stable than the parlour, and handled a currycomb much better than a needle. Shooting, hunting, riding races, and digging in a garden, formed her principal amusements. This wildness did not however prevent her obtaining a husband in the person of Richard Charke, a famous player on the violin. Misconduct on both sides soon produced a separation, and Mrs Charke obtained an engagement at Drury-lane theatre as a second rate actress, with a decent salary; where she might have looked to the gradual acquirement of reputation, had not her ungovernable temper induced her to quarrel with the manager Fleetwood, against whom she wrote a farce entitled "The Art of Management." He notwithstanding forgave and re-engaged her; but she soon left him a second time, and was reduced to the pitiable condition of a strolling actress, in which she more frequently appeared as a male than a female. In 1755 she came to London, and published a narrative of her life, the profits of which, it is supposed, enabled her to pass the remainder of her days in a hut by herself, in a state of squalid misery which baffles description. She lived in this abject condition, which in its most disgusting features appears to have been voluntary, until 1759, when death terminated a course of folly, suffering, and imprudence, which it is charitable to suppose must have been in soine degree the result of disturbed or injured intellects. The autobiography of this unhappy woman, although much less meritorious, 340 SEQUEL TO THE LIFE OF CIBBER. may possibly, in the way of singularity, be entitled to as much attention as that of her father. It may be as well to observe in conclusion, that Cibber's dramatic works are published in five volumes 12mo. His other productions, except his " Apology," are obsolete, and likely to remain so. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Page. The introduction.-The author's birth.-Various for- tune at school.-Not liked by those he loved there.- Why.-A digression upon raillery. The use and CHAPTER II. He that writes of himself, not easily tired.-Boys may give men lessons. The author's preferment at school attended with misfortunes.-The danger of merit among equals.-Of satirists and backbiters.What CHAPTER III. The author's several chances for the church, the court, and the army.-Going to the university, met the re- volution at Nottingham.-Took arms on that side. What he saw of it.-A few political thoughts.-For- tune willing to do for him. His neglect of her.-The stage preferred to all her favours.-The profession of CHAPTER IV. Page. CHAPTER V. CHAPTER VI. The author's first step upon the stage.-His discourage- ments. The best actors in Europe ill used.-A revolu- tion in their favour.-King William grants them a li- cense to act in Lincoln's-inn-fields. The author's dis- tress, in being thought a worse actor than a poet.- CHAPTER VII. The state of the stage continued.-The occasion of Wilks commencing actor.-His success.-Facts relat- CHAPTER VIII. The patentee of Drury-lane wiser than his actors.-His particular management.-The author continues to write plays. Why.-The best dramatic poets censured by Jeremy Collier in his "Short View of the Stage.' -It has a good effect.-The master of the revels from that time cautious in his licensing new plays.-A complaint against him.-His authority founded upon CHAPTER IX. A small apology for writing on.-The different state of Her character.-The great theatre in the Haymarket built for Betterton's company.-It answers not their |