Colley Cibber Quotes

Colley Cibber was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. His colourful memoir Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber 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.



Wikipedia  

✵ 6. November 1671 – 11. December 1757
Colley Cibber photo

Works

Richard III
Colley Cibber
Love's Last Shift
Colley Cibber
Colley Cibber: 26   quotes 0   likes

Famous Colley Cibber Quotes

“A weak invention of the enemy.”

Act V, scene 3. Similar thought in William Shakespeare, King Richard III.
Richard III (altered) (1700)

“Possession is eleven points in the law.”

Woman's Wit, Act I (1697).

“Now, by St. Paul, the work goes bravely on.”

Act III, scene 1.
Richard III (altered) (1700)

“O say what is this thing call'd Light,
Which I must ne'er enjoy”

The Blind Boy (l. 1-2).

“I don't see it.”

The Careless Husband (1704), Act ii, scene 2.

Colley Cibber Quotes

“This business will never hold water.”

She Wou'd and She Wou'd Not, Act IV (1703).

“Our hours in love have wings; in absence, crutches.”

Xerxes, Act IV, sc. iii (1699).

“Words are but empty thanks.”

Woman's Wit, Act V (1697).

“The aspiring youth that fired the Ephesian dome
Outlives in fame the pious fool that rais'd it.”

Act III, scene 1. Similar thought by Sir Thomas Browne.
Richard III (altered) (1700)

“We shall find no fiend in hell can match the fury of a disappointed woman,—scorned, slighted, dismissed without a parting pang.”

Love's Last Shift, Act IV (1696). Compare: "Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd,
Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd", William Congreve, The Mourning Bride (1697), Act III, scene viii (often paraphrased: "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned").

“And the ripe harvest of the new-mown hay
Gives it a sweet and wholesome odour.”

Act V, scene 3.
Richard III (altered) (1700)

“Prithee don’t screw your wit beyond the compass of good manners.”

Love's Last Shift, Act II, sc. i (1696).

“With clink of hammers closing rivets up.”

Act V, scene 3. Similar thought in William Shakespeare, King Henry V.
Richard III (altered) (1700)

“Persuasion tips his tongue whene'er he talks,
And he has chambers in King's Bench walks.”

A parody on Pope's lines: "Graced as thou art with all the power of words, / So known, so honoured at the House of Lords"; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“Losers must have leave to speak.”

Act I.
The Rival Fools (1709)

“Off with his head—; so much for Buckingham.”

Act IV, scene 3.
Richard III (altered) (1700)

“Old houses mended,
Cost little less than new before they're ended.”

The Double Gallant, prologue (1707).

“The will for the deed.”

Act III.
The Rival Fools (1709)

“Within one of her.”

Act V.
The Rival Fools (1709)

Similar authors

Richard Brinsley Sheridan photo
Richard Brinsley Sheridan 58
Irish-British politician, playwright and writer
Matthias Claudius photo
Matthias Claudius 1
German poet
Samuel Butler (poet) photo
Samuel Butler (poet) 81
poet and satirist
George Herbert photo
George Herbert 216
Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest
Robert Burns photo
Robert Burns 114
Scottish poet and lyricist
Novalis photo
Novalis 102
German poet and writer
John Donne photo
John Donne 115
English poet
Alexander Pope photo
Alexander Pope 158
eighteenth century English poet
Johann Gottfried Herder photo
Johann Gottfried Herder 18
German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield photo
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield 65
British statesman and man of letters