the profession. "The surprise of being commended by one who had been himself so eminent upon the stage, and in so positive a manner, was more than I could support; in a word, it almost took away my breath, and (laugh if you please) fairly drew tears from my eyes. I will still make it a question whether Alexander himself, or Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, when at the head of their first victorious armies, could feel a greater transport in their bosoms than I did then in mine, when but in this rear of the troop of comedians."

As it has been before stated, there was but one theatre open in London. Monopolies, however, usually come to grief, and this was no exception; unparalleled as was the talent of the company, small as were the expenses-Betterton never received more than five pounds a week for himself and wife-the finances, whether from bad management or lack of public support, fell into disorder, salaries were lowered, and not paid even at the reduced ratio. To make amends, free benefits were given to the actors, which was the commencement of a theatrical institution that is only now on the wane. These gave noble and rich admirers the opportunity to present sums of money to their favorites, and Betterton is said to have realized over six hundred pounds by one such benefit. Nevertheless there were murmurings and dissatisfaction at this uncomfortable state of affairs, and the patentees adopted the high-handed course of taking away parts from some of the principals and giving them to inferior artists. Thereupon Betterton and Mrs. Bracegirdle seceded, and, appealing to the king, obtained a license to act stage-plays in the theatre in Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn. This house had been originally a tennis court, and was converted into a theatre by Sir

William Davenant; but upon the amalgamation of the two companies it had reverted to its original use. Betterton refitted and opened it with Congreve's “All for Love," and took in his train many of the best actors. Here was a chance for aspirants to come to the fore; and many did, but not, according to Cibber, very advantageously.

To

There was deadly feud between the two theatres, and each strained every nerve to steal a march upon the other. An announcement being issued that "Hamlet' would be performed at Drury Lane, on the same morning bills appeared, to the effect that the same tragedy would be performed that evening at Lincoln's Inn. The Drury-Lane-ites were struck with consternation. bring their "Hamlet " into competition with Betterton's was not to be thought of; the piece must be changed. The one substituted was Congreve's "Old Batchelor." This choice was made by Powel, who thought to revenge himself by mimicking Betterton in the principal. character. New bills were immediately issued, books of the comedy were sent for, but not two of the company had ever played in the piece, and there were only six hours before the rising of the curtain. In looking through the cast, however, a new difficulty presented itself. Fondlewife, Dogget's great part, had been forgotten. In desperation somebody suggested that Cibber had been heard at different times to express a great desire to play that character. There were head-shakings; but Powel, bent upon his small revenge, adopted the suggestion, with the very ungracious remark, "If the fool has a mind to blow himself up at once, let us e'en give him a clear stage for it." So it was agreed. Colley had so often witnessed Dogget's performance that

he was nearly perfect in the words, and even rehearsed from memory while all the others were obliged to read. Powel had resolved to imitate Betterton, Cibber resolved to reproduce Dogget. "At my first appearance," he says, one might have imagined by the various murmurs of the audience that they were in doubt whether Dogget himself were not returned, or that they could not conceive what strange face it could be that so nearly resembled him, for I had laid the tint of forty years more than my real age upon my features, and to the minute placing of a hair was dressed exactly like him. When I spoke the surprise was still greater, as if I had not only borrowed his clothes, but his voice too." His success was immense. "A much better actor might have been proud of the applause that followed me; after one loud plaudit was ended, and sunk into a general whisper, that seemed still to continue their private approbation, it revived to a second, and again to a third still louder than the former." Dogget himself was in the pit contemplating his double! But not even this triumph could procure his advancement, and he was again dropped back into his former position; indeed it was turned against him, for it was presumed that in no other line could he be successful, and his application for parts was always met with: "It is not in your way." His answer indicates the true artist: "I think anything, naturally written, ought to be in everybody's way that pretends to be an actor." "This," he says, "was looked upon as vain, impracticable conceit of my own." Poor Colley did indeed find Parnassus a hard hill to climb.

These rebuffs, as he says, were "enough, perhaps, to make a young fellow of more modesty despair; but being of a temper not easily disheartened, I resolved to

leave nothing unattempted that might show me in some new rank of distinction. Having then no other resource, I was at last reduced to write a character for myself." The play, upon which he was engaged a year, was "Love's Last Shift; " the part, Sir Novelty Fashion, was a satire upon the fopperies of the day. He induced Southerne to hear him read it, and the veteran dramatist was so well satisfied that he recommended it to the patentees. Yet still there was a strange distrust, considering what he had done, of Cibber's powers; and while he was standing at the wing before the play commenced on the first night, Southerne took him by the hand and said: "Young man! I pronounce thy play a good one; I will answer for its success, if thou dost not spoil it by thy own action." But his fears were misplaced, and the success of both author and actor was so great that people were in doubt to which they should give the preference. The Lord Chamberlain pronounced it to be the best first play that any author in his memory had produced; and that for a young fellow to show himself such an actor and such a writer in one day was something extraordinary.

Yet, even this double success failed to permanently improve his position; another year elapsed, and no fresh part of any importance was intrusted to him, although he had proved his versatility by his admirable rendering of such widely dissimilar characters as the uxorious old Fondlewife and the exquisite fop, Sir Novelty Fashion. But it is said that all things come to the man who waits; and twelve months after the production of his comedy, Vanbrugh wrote a sequel to it-"The Relapse "—in which Sir Novelty, now ennobled as Lord Foppington, was assigned to Cibber. This continued throughout his

life to be one of his most famous parts. "The Relapse " was Vanbrugh's first work, and a few months afterward he brought out "sop," in which Cibber sustained the title role as successfully as he had Lord Foppington. He had by this time arrived at the munificent salary of thirty shillings per week, which Christopher Rich, who had now, by buying up all the shares, become sole manager of the theatre, did not always pay him. "While the actors were in this condition," he says, "I think I may very well be excused in my presuming to write plays, which I was forced to do for the support of my increasing family, my precarious income as an actor being then too scant to supply it with even the necessaries of life. It may be observable, too, that my nurse and my muse were equally prolific; that the one was seldom the mother of a child but in the same year the other made me the father of a play."

His second comedy-"Woman's Wit" (1697)—was a dead failure; "Xerxes," a tragedy (1699), shared the same fate. In 1700 he produced his famous alteration of Shakespeare's "Richard the III."-the Richard of Garrick, Cooke, Kean-which kept the stage, to the exclusion of the original play, until Mr. Irving's recent revival. Although very inferior to the tragedy upon which it was founded, it is a remarkably clever piece of stagecraft, the cleverest of all the Shakespearean alterations, and has outlived them all. "Love Makes a Man" followed in the next year; "She Wou'd and She Wou'd Not," a capital comedy of intrigue of the Spanish school, full of bustle and situation, was produced in 1703. In 1704 he brought out his finest work-"The Careless Husband "—into which he again brought his old favorite, Lord Foppington. This was a great advance upon