[Footnote 186: Wilks first played Othello in this country on June 22nd, 1710, for Cibber's benefit. Steele draws attention to the event in "Tatler," No. 187, and in No. 188 states his intention of stealing out to see it, "out of Curiosity to observe how _Wilks_ and _Cibber_ touch those Places where _Betterton_ and _Sandford_ so very highly excelled." Cibber was the Iago on this occasion. Steele probably found little to praise in either.]
[Footnote 187: The Earl of Essex, in Banks's "Unhappy Favourite," was one of Wilks's good parts, in which Steele ("Tatler," No. 14) specially praises him. Booth acted the part at Drury Lane on November 25th, 1709.]
[Footnote 188: See Cibber on Betterton's Hamlet and on Wilks's mistakes in the part, vol. i. page 100.]
[Footnote 189: In the Theatre Français a similar arrangement holds to this day, Tuesday being now the fashionable night. M. Perrin, the late manager, was accused of a too great attention to his _Abonnés du Mardi_, to the detriment of the theatre and of the general public.]
[Footnote 190: See _ante,_ vol. i. page 234.]
[Footnote 191: Arcangelo Corelli, a famous Italian musician, born 1653, died 1713, who has been called the father of modern instrumental music.]
[Footnote 192: Jeanne Catherine Gaussin, a very celebrated actress of the Comédie Française, was the original representative of Zaïre, in Voltaire's tragedy, to which Cibber refers. She made her first Parisian appearance in 1731; she retired in 1763, and died on 9th June, 1767. Voltaire's "Zaïre" owed much of its success to her extraordinary ability.]
[Footnote 193: Cibber has been strongly censured for his treatment of authors. "The Laureat" gives the following account of an author's experiences: "_The Court sitting, Chancellor Cibber_ (for the other two, like M----rs in _Chancery_, sat only for Form sake, and did not presume to judge) nodded to the Author to open his Manuscript. The Author begins to read, in which if he failed to please the _Corrector_, he wou'd condescend sometimes to read it for him: When, if the play strook him very warmly, as it wou'd if he found any Thing new in it, in which he conceived he cou'd particularly shine as an Actor, he would lay down his Pipe, (for the _Chancellor_ always smoaked when he made a Decree) and cry, _By G--d there is something in this: I do not know but it may do; but I will play such a Part_. Well, when the Reading was finished, he made his proper Corrections and sometimes without any Propriety; nay, frequently he very much and very hastily maimed what he pretended to mend" (p. 95). The author also accuses Cibber of delighting in repulsing dramatic writers, which he called "Choaking of Singing birds." However, in Cibber's defence, Genest's opinion may be quoted (iii. 346): "After all that has been said against Chancellor Cibber, it does not appear that he often made a wrong decree: most of the good plays came out at Drury Lane--nor am I aware that Cibber is much to be blamed for rejecting any play, except the Siege of Damascus in the first instance."]