In one of his Odes, at which Johnson laughed (Boswell, i. 402) Cibber had the couplet:—
"Perch'd on the eagle's soaring wing,
The lowly linnet loves to sing."
"Ximena; or, the Heroic Daughter," produced on 28th November, 1712, was an adaptation of Corneille's "Cid." We do not know the cast of 1712, but that of 1718 (Drury Lane, 1st November) was the following:—
| Don Ferdinand | Mr. Mills. |
| Don Alvarez | Mr. Cibber. |
| Don Gormaz | Mr. Booth. |
| Don Carlos | Mr. Wilks. |
| Don Sanchez | Mr. Elrington. |
| Don Alonzo | Mr. Thurmond. |
| Don Garcia | Mr. Boman. |
| Ximena | Mrs. Oldfield. |
| Belzara | Mrs. Porter. |
[ [118] A Royal Licence was granted on 18th October, 1714, to Steele, Wilks, Cibber, Dogget, and Booth. The theatre opened before the Licence was granted. The first bill given by Genest is for 21st September, 1714.
[ [119] Christopher Rich died before the theatre was opened, and it was under the management of John Rich, his son, that Lincoln's Inn Fields opened on 18th December, 1714, with "The Recruiting Officer." The company was announced as playing under Letters Patent granted by King Charles the Second.
[ [120] This refers to a riot raised by the supporters of Mrs. Rogers, on Mrs. Oldfield's being cast for the character of Andromache in Philips's tragedy of "The Distressed Mother," produced at Drury Lane on 17th March, 1712.
[ [121] Cibber on one occasion manifested temper to a rather unexpected degree. In 1720, when Dennis published his attacks on Steele, in connection with his being deprived of the Patent, he accused Cibber of impiety and various other crimes and misdemeanours; and Cibber is said in the "Answer to the Character of Sir John Edgar" to have inserted the following advertisement in the "Daily Post": "Ten Pounds will be paid by Mr. Cibber, of the Theatre Royal, to any person who shall (by a legal proof) discover the Author of a Pamphlet, intituled, 'The Characters and Conduct of Sir John Edgar, &c.'" (Nichols, p. 401.)
[ [122] Cibber refers to his remarks (see vol. i. p. 191) on the conduct of the Patentees which caused Betterton's secession in 1694-5.