1756 An Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber

Description

Leather Binding, With Slipcase

Inscribed by Jeffery Amherst.

The complete two volume fourth edition of the autobiography of English actor, playwright and Poet Laureate Colley Cibber. The final edition published in Cibber's lifetime.

Illustrated with a portrait frontispiece of Cibber to volume I.

First published in 1840, this colourful memoir is the work Cibber is best remembered for, notable for its conversational, rambling and anecdotal tone, and deliberate narrative inaccuracies. The text focuses on Cibber's life as a young actor in Drury Lane in the 1690s, and discusses the actors and managers he associated with.

ESTC reference no. T73426

With an armorial bookplate to the front pastedowns, and the contemporary owner's inscription of Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, to each front pastedown. Amherst was Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in the British Army, credited as the architect of Britain's successful campaign to conquer New France during the Seven Years' War.

Housed in a custom cloth slip case, with Thomas Gainsborough's portrait of Amherst to the front board.

A memorable work, praised by the usually critical Samuel Johnson as 'very entertaining and very well done'.