Description: Ridiculed by Johnson and Fielding, immortalized by Pope in The Dunciad as "King of the Dunces", Colley Cibber was nevertheless one of the most influential members of the London theater in the 18th century -- as actor, manager, and playwright. In this book, he not only defended himself, but produced one of the most important and indispensable accounts of a vital period in English theatrical history. The book is a crucial document in that it accurately chonicles the plays, playwrights, and actors and actresses of the day in unstinting detail, affording theater lovers and historians an incomparable glimpse of the "complicated beginnings of modern theater". And despite the ridicule heaped on Cibber himself, his book received higher encomiums: Walpole declared it inimitable, and thought it "deserved immortality"; Johnson described it as "very entertaining", and Swift is said to have sat up all night reading it. Now available in this inexpensive edition, Cibber's Apology will be welcomed by writers, actors, producers, directors, and anyone interested in the history of theater.

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