"Their Majesties' Servants." Annals of the English Stage (Volume 2 of 3)Doran, Dr. (John)
History
"Their Majesties' Servants." Annals of the English Stage (Volume 2 of 3)
Doran, Dr. (John)
Actors -- Great Britain; Theater -- Great Britain -- History
Beauty soon overcame the elder Cibber's antipathy. Colley could
not withstand the new magic to which he was subjected; and when
it was first proposed that the brilliant vocalist should become a
regular actress, Colley, however much he may have shaken his head
at first, favoured the design, and gave all necessary instructions
to his winning, beautiful, and docile daughter-in-law. Can you
not see the pair in that first floor in Russell Street? Half the
morning, she has been repeating Zara, never wearied by Cibber's
frequent interruptions. Perseverance was ever one of her great
characteristics; and she carries herself, and sweeps by with her
train, and speaks meltingly or sternly, in grief or in anger, her
voice silvery and, with its modulation, under command,--a voice
in the very sound of which there were smiles or tears, sunshine
or storm;--all this she does, or exercises, at Colley's sole
suggestions, you suppose. Not a bit of it! Susanna Cibber has a
little will of her own; and she is quite right, for she has as much
intellect as will, and docile as she is when she sees the value of
Colley's teaching, she supports her own views when she is satisfied
that these are superior to the ideas of the elderly gentleman who,
standing in an attitude for imitation, to which she opposes one of
her own, lets the frown on his brow pass off into a smile, as he
protests, "fore-gad!" that the saucy thing could impart instruction
to himself.
On the 12th of January 1736, the great attempt was made, and Mrs.
Cibber came out as Zara, to the Lusignan of Milward, the Nerestan
of her husband, and the Selima of Mrs. Pritchard, who had not yet
reached the position which this young actress occupied at a bound,
but beyond which Mrs. Pritchard was destined yet to go.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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