An Apology for the Life of MR Colley Cibber, Comedian and Late Patentee of the Theatre Royal

A Modernized Text
Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-1-009-09836-6
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 460 Seiten, Format (B × H): 150 mm x 230 mm, Gewicht: 771 g

Colley Cibber was one of the most derided men in eighteenth-century London. Mocked for his work in the theatre and as Poet Laureate, he was nevertheless a prolific actor and playwright, and co-managed the Theatre Royal Drury Lane for 24 years. His response to his critics, An Apology for the Life of Mr Colley Cibber, is often described as the first theatrical autobiography, and even as the first secular autobiography in English. But what kind of text is it – intimate confession or cunning pose? History of the stage or political polemic? Rambling or purposeful? Or perhaps, even, the first celebrity memoir? Including comprehensive notes and a detailed scholarly introduction, this modernised text makes Cibber's enigmatic literary landmark accessible to a wide readership for the first time and allows both specialists and general readers to explore Cibber's extraordinary career against the rich, turbulent background of London theatre in the eighteenth century.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Roberts, David

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Theaterwissenschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

An Apology for the Life of Mr Colley Cibber.

Über Autor(innen)

Roberts, David
David Roberts is Professor of English at Birmingham City University. His book Thomas Betterton (Cambridge University Press, 2010) was a finalist for the Freedley Award. His other scholarly editions include Lord Chesterfield's Letters (1992) and William Congreve's The Way of the World (2019). His essay on Beethoven and Shakespeare was Editor's Choice in the June 2019 issue of The Cambridge Quarterly.