play. He died on the 11th of December 1757.

Cibber's reputation has suffered unduly from the depreciation of Pope
and Johnson. "I could not bear such nonsense," said Johnson of one of
Cibber's odes, "and I would not let him read it to the end." Fielding
attacked Cibber's style and language more than once in _Joseph Andrews_
and elsewhere. Nevertheless, Cibber possessed wit, unusual good sense
and tact; and in the _Apology_ he showed himself the most delicate and
subtle critic of acting of his time. He was frequently accused of
plagiarism, and did not scruple to make use of old plays, but he is said
to have been ashamed of his Shakespearian adaptations, one of which,
however, _Richard III._ (Drury Lane, 1700), kept its place as the acting
version until 1821. Cibber is rebuked for his mutilation of Shakespeare
by Fielding in the _Historical Register for 1736_, where he figures as
Ground Ivy.

If Cibber had not as much wit as his predecessors, he displayed in his
best plays abundant animation and spirit, free from the extreme
coarseness of many of his contemporaries, and a thorough knowledge of
the requirements of the stage. His most successful comedies kept their
place in the acting repertory for a long time. He was an excellent
actor, especially in the role of the fashionable coxcomb. Horace Walpole
said that as Bayes in _The Rehearsal_ he made the part what it was
intended to be, the burlesque of a great poet, whereas David Garrick
degraded him to a "garretteer."

The _Apology_ was edited in 1822 by E. Bellchambers and in 1889 by
R.W. Lowe, who printed with it other valuable theatrical books and
pamphlets. It is also included in Hunt and Clarke's _Autobiographies_
(1826, &c). Cibber's _Dramatic Works_ were published in 1760, with an
account of the life and writings of the author, and again in 1777.
Besides the plays already mentioned, he wrote _Woman's Wit, or the
Lady in Fashion_ (1697), which was altered later (1707) into _The
Schoolboy, or the Comical Rivals_; _Xerxes_ (1699), a tragedy acted
only once; _The Provoked Husband_ (acted 1728), completed from
Vanbrugh's unfinished _Journey to London_; _The Rival Queens, with the
Humours of Alexander the Great_ (acted 1710), a comical tragedy;
_Damon and Phyllida_ (acted 1729), a ballad opera; and adaptations
from Beaumont and Fletcher, Dryden, Moliere and Corneille. A
bibliography of the numerous skits on Cibber is to be found in Lowe's
_