Page:Lives of Poets-Laureate.djvu/271

Rh excited throughout, to a degree which evidences the hand of a master.

In 1706 he again attempted a tragedy, and brought out his "Perolla and Isadore," which ran a week and then sank into oblivion. His two comedies, "The Double Gallant, or the Sick Lady's Cure," and "The Lady's Last Stake, or the Wife's Resentment," followed during the subsequent year.

The former of these two plays, through caprice or mismanagement, was not a favourite on its first appearance; but on its revival two years afterwards, its merits were better appreciated, and it became a stock play. The latter showed talent, but this perpetual harping on the same string began to tire. The follies of fashionable life admitted not of much variety, and Cibber detecting the changing sentiments of his auditors, turned to other sources of interest.

Owen Swiney had now taken the theatre in the Haymarket, upon some understanding with Rich, the most influential of the patentees of Drury Lane. Rich had excepted to his engaging Cibber, but without avail, as, on some dispute between the two, Cibber, thinking himself ill-used, left Rich and joined Swiney. The two theatres, however, coalesced in the following year, when as his friend, Colonel Brett, had obtained a share in the patent, Cibber returned to Drury Lane. This was the Brett who married the Countess of Macclesfield, the reputed mother of Savage. In 1709, on the suspension of the privileges of the patent by the Lord Chamberlain, Cibber, in conjunction with Wilks, Dogget, and Mrs. Oldfield, returned to the Haymarket, where two years afterwards he obtained a share in the management; and his vanity, his most prominent characteristic through life, was in a flutter of excitement on the occasion. He became joint patentee of Drury Lane, being associated with Collier, Wilks, and Dogget. S