"£100 & a butt of sack yearly"

Laurence Eusden & Colley Cibber

View large (377 Kb)

At 30, Laurence Eusden (1688-1730) was the youngest poet laureate appointed. His sycophantic poem on the forthcoming marriage of Lady Henrietta Godolphin and the Duke of Newcastle, soon to be Lord Chamberlain, secured attention. Rowe's death, combined with Joseph Addison's recommendation, secured the post. The Duke of Buckingham, Jonathan Swift, and Pope did not like him; the latter claiming in The Dunciad: 'Know, Eusden thirsts no more for sack or praise,/He sleeps among the dull of ancient days'. No matter how dull, Eusden churned out Birthday and New Year Odes for twelve years.

___________________________________________________________
Original Poems and Translations. By Mr. Hill, Mr. Eusden, Mr. Broome, Dr. King, &c. London: Printed for E. Curll, 1714.
DeB. Eb 1714 H

View large (215 Kb)

The future poet laureate had an inauspicious beginning. In his first acting job in Thomas Betterton's company at the Theatre Royal, Colley Cibber (1671-1757) was fined 5s for a poor and clumsy performance. On being told that he had no salary, Betterton gave him 10s and promptly deducted five. His induction into the post was described thus: 'On Thursday (Dec 4) Coller Cibbey Esq., the famous comedian and comic author, was at court, and had the honour to kiss His Majesty's hand (on his being appointed Poet Laureat in the room of the Rev. Mr Laurence Eusden, deceased) and was graciously received.' (Appleton's Weekly Journal, 5 December 1730). Cibber was sixty at the time. His satire The Non-Juror (1718) ran for 16 nights and according to his own memoirs, he wrote: 'that part of the bread I now eat, was given to me, for having writ the Nonjuror.'

___________________________________________________________
Colley Cibber, The Non-juror in Plays written by Mr. Cibber. London: Printed for Jacob Tonson; Bernard Lintot; William Mears; and William Chetwood, 1721.
DeB. Ec 1721 C

View large (185 Kb)

In his successful 'warts and all' memoir An Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber (1740), Cibber acknowledged Pope's attacks: 'My face and name are …known, (and) right or wrong, a lick at the laureate will always be a sure bait… to catch him little readers.' Pope's reply was to insert new references to Cibber in his New Dunciad of 1742. Cibber's restrained (and famed) response was the item on display: A Letter from Mr Cibber (1742). In an echo of Pope's own epigram 'I am his highness's dog at Kew;/ Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?', Cibber responded: 'And so, if I am the King's Fool, now, sir, whose Fool are you?' Like Eusden before him, Cibber produced odes for some 13 years, before dying on 11 December 1757. He was buried in Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley Street.

___________________________________________________________
Colley Cibber, A Letter from Mr. Cibber, to Mr. Pope, inquiring into the motives that might induce him in his satyrical works. London: Printed: and sold by W. Lewis, 1742.
DeB. Eb 1742 C