Jane Cibber (née Johnson; 1704/1706 — 1733) was a British stage actress.[1]
Life
editShe was born in 1704 or 1706 as Jane Johnson.[2]
Her guardian was the writer Richard Savage. Originally appearing at Drury Lane Theatre as Jane Johnson, in 1725 she married Theophilus Cibber the son of actor-manager Colley Cibber.[3] She had four children with him while continuing to act on the stage in a mixture of comedies and tragedies. When Elizabeth Younger defected to work for the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre company, she took over the roles she had been playing.[3] In 1731, she played the title role in Caelia by Charles Johnson.[citation needed]
She died after childbirth in 1733. Her husband said he would never remarry. He did in 1734.[2]
Selected roles
edit- Polyxena in Hecuba by Richard West (1726)
- Jenny in The Provoked Husband (1728)
- Ianthe in Love in a Riddle (1729)
- Cleone in Timoleon by Benjamin Martyn (1730)
- Maria in The London Merchant (1731)
- Caelia in Caelia (1732)
- Clarissa in The Modish Couple (1732)
- Lady Charlotte Gaywit in The Modern Husband by Henry Fielding (1732)
References
edit- ^ The Routledge Anthology of Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Drama, pg. XIII
- ^ a b "Cibber, Theophilus (1703–1758), actor and playwright". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5418. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 12 March 2021. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ a b Koon p. 109
Bibliography
edit- Highfill, Philip H, Burnim, Kalman A. & Langhans, Edward A. A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800: Garrick to Gyngell. SIU Press, 1978.
- Koon, Helene. Colley Cibber: A Biography. University Press of Kentucky, 2014.
- Straub, Kristina, G. Anderson, Misty and O'Quinn, Daniel . The Routledge Anthology of Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Drama. Taylor & Francis, 2017.