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| 100 Years Too Late |
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James Fenton
copyright © 2006
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Originally published
in The Guardian
4 February 2006
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Colley Cibber, the actor-manager and hapless
poet laureate who became a by-word for doltishness among the
likes of Fielding, Johnson and Pope, has one remarkable and
durable achievement to his name. He was the first English actor
to write his autobiography, which appeared in 1740 under the
title An Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber, Comedian,
and Late Patentee of the Theatre Royal, With an Historical View
of the Stage During His Own Time. Written by Himself
A blizzard of pamphlets and counter-pamphlets
ensued, in the manner of the time, and especially because Cibber
had set down a great deal of information - and gossip - about
the way the theatres had been run from the Restoration on, but
also because what Cibber had done, in writing his own life,
was exceedingly unusual, so the feeling would be that he had
no right to make a display of himself in such a way, as he flourishingly
puts it "to print off this chiaroscuro of my mind".
He was born in 1671, and died in 1757; he can
remember Charles II feeding his ducks and playing with his dogs
in St James's Park. Although he did not tread the boards until
after the Glorious Revolution (during which he had rallied to
the flag of King William), he had been an attentive theatre-goer
and knew all the actors from the time of the Restoration proper,
which is included in his historical overview. One cannot, when
reading this book, fight off the thought: what if we had had
a Cibber born 100 years earlier? What if this were Shakespeare
and Johnson we were hearing about, rather than Dryden, Vanbrugh
and Congreve? In fact, although the differences between the
Jacobean and the Restoration theatres are well known, the similarities
are striking. This is a period in which London can still only
support one or two theatres at a time, which means that when
there are two companies, they tend to be at each others' throats,
mounting last-minute productions of Hamlet as spoilers for their
rivals.
Although women began to work on stage after
the Restoration, it was a while before there were enough to
meet requirements, so the handsomest young men were still being
put into petticoats. Cibber tells of an occasion when Charles
II, arriving at a tragedy earlier than expected, found the actors
not ready to begin, and sent to know the meaning of it, "upon
which, the Master of the Company came to the Box, and rightly
judging, that the best Excuse for their Default, would be the
true one, fairly told his Majesty, that the Queen was not shav'd
yet. The King, whose good Humour lov'd to laugh at a Jest, as
well as to make one, accept the excuse, which serv'd to divert
him, till the male Queen cou'd be effeminated."
Edward Kynaston, who played female roles, "was
so beautiful a Youth, that the Ladies of Quality prided themselves
in taking him with them in their Coaches, to Hyde-Park, in his
Theatrical Habit, after the Play." Plays in those days
began at four o'clock.
We can go wrong if we think of acting in the
early theatre as being somewhat broad in its effects; it is
true that Cibber lets us understand that a tragedian had to
have a large and beautiful voice even to begin. But in his description
of Betterton's acting we are told that in "the just Delivery
of Poetical Numbers, particularly where the Sentiments are pathetick,
it is scarce credible, upon how minute an Article of Sound depends
their greatest Beauty or Inaffection. The Voice of a Singer
is not more strictly ty'd to Time and Tune, than that of an
Actor in Theatrical Elocution. The least Syllable too long,
or to slightly dwelt upon, in a Period, depreciates it to nothing;
which very Syllable, if rightly touch'd, shall, like the heightening
Stroke of Light from a Master's Pencil [= Paintbrush], give
life and spirit to the whole."
And here is a description of the intimate acoustics
of the Haymarket theatre, before a desire to maximise profits
had ruined its design. "But when the Actors were in Possession
of that forwarder Space, to advance upon, the Voice was then
more in the Centre of the House, so that the most distant Ear
had scarce the least Doubt, or Difficulty in hearing what fell
from the weakest Utterance: All Objects were thus drawn nearer
to the Sense; every painted Scene was stronger; every Grand
Scene and Dance more extended; every rich, or fine-coloured
Habit had a more lively Lustre ..."
It goes on. We have nothing like this for the
Globe or the Rose, and we have nothing to tell us what it was
like to play before Elizabeth. We should value Cibber highly.
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