Colley Cibber was an English actor, playwright, and Poet Laureate. He wrote 25 plays for his own company at Drury Lane, half of which were adapted from various sources, which led Alexander Pope, among others, to criticize his “miserable mutilation” and “hapless Shakespeare.” He regarded himself first as an actor and he had great success in comical parts, while he was much ridiculed for his tragic parts.
