caption death_date death_place birth_place birth_date known_for image article_title name occupation
colley national portrait gallery , london cibber c. 1740 , painted plaster bust , 11 december 1757 berkeley square , london , england southampton street , london , england 6 november 1671 works interest appointed poet laureate in 1730 include his autobiography and several comedies of historical colley national portrait gallery , london.jpg cibber c. 1740 , painted plaster bust , colley cibber
 colley cibber actor , theatre manager , playwright , poet
colley cibber

colley cibber -lrb- 6 november 1671 -- 11 december 1757 -rrb- was an english actor-manager , playwright and poet laureate .
his colourful memoir `` apology for the life of colley cibber '' -lrb- 1740 -rrb- 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 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 .
