“It met, however, with bad success. There happened to be a circumstance in it, which, being in itself rather ridiculous, gave a part of the audience an opportunity of venting their spleen on the author; viz: a man in one of the earlier scenes on the stage, with a long angling rod in his hand, going to fish for Miller’s Thumbs; on which account some of the spectators took occasion whenever Mr. Cibber appeared, who himself played the character, to cry out continually, ‘Miller’s Thumbs.’” Cibber has followed the original quite closely so far as the plot is concerned, much more closely than would be inferred from the first lines of the prologue: “From sprightly Fletcher’s loose confed’rat muse, Th’ unfinish’d Hints of these light Scenes we chuse, For with such careless haste his Play was writ, So unpersued each thought of started Wit; Each Weapon of his Wit so lamely fought That ’twou’d as scanty on our Stage be thought, As for a modern Belle my Grannum’s Petticoat. So that from th’ old we may with Justice say, We scarce could cull the Trimming of a play.” In spite of this statement by Cibber himself, he adds practically nothing to the plot, and in the dialogue adds merely a touch here and there. As was customary in altering these old comedies written in verse, the verse of the original is changed into prose, and as is also customary in all of Cibber’s alterations, the long speeches are broken into dialogue. The character of Pompey Doodle is somewhat enlarged in its transformation into Samuel Simple, and is one of the most amusing elements in the play. The treatment is distinctly Jacobean in its exaggeration of character, and the reception by the audience must be attributed either to the alteration of taste on the part of the public, or to the personal unpopularity of Cibber, for the rôle is well written and Cibber was particularly well fitted to act the part, both by temperament and by physical qualities. _The Non-Juror_ was acted at Drury Lane on December 6, 1717, with a prologue by Nicholas Rowe, poet laureate, and was published in 1718. At the time of its first presentation it had the comparatively long run of twenty-three performances, and was revived at Drury Lane and Covent Garden in 1745, when its political meaning was again pertinent.