As in the case of Richard III, he added a first act to the Cid in order that the audience might understand the situation of the various characters at the outset; a most important and necessary thing if the audience is not familiar with the story and the situation beforehand. In his alterations of Shakspere he followed the English method and presented this information to his audience by action; in his alteration of Corneille he followed the French method by having his characters tell each other about it for the benefit of the audience.
Cibber has discussed at length the changes he has made in the Cid, and his reasons for them, in the prefatory “examen.” The main reason seems to have been his desire to make the play less “romantic” and the action more probable and reasonable from the point of view of the eighteenth century Englishman, whose ideals of honor and whose general characteristics were very different from those of the seventeenth century Frenchman. Indeed, Cibber explains in relation to one of these changes: “Here they seem too declamatory and romantic, which I have endeavored to avoid, by giving a more spirited tone to the passions, and reducing them nearer to common life.”
Ximena, because of its source, would naturally have the general characteristics of French tragedy, in which almost everything happens off the stage, and in which the characters appear before the audience only to tell it what they think or what has been done. It violates the French canons by having a sub-action, though this sub-action is not sufficiently important to distract the attention materially from the main action, and is bound very closely to it. The blow which Don Gormaz gives Alvarez constitutes the nearest approach to violent action; but this blow, however, appears in the original play.
Besides the anonymity of Cinna’s Conspiracy, the closeness with which it follows Corneille’s Cinna and the difference in its tone from the rest of Cibber’s work have led to doubt as to his authorship.[24] To see that Cibber was not always sprightly and inconsequential, however, as he is usually supposed to be, one has but to read his Cicero and his poems. The play was presented less than three months after Ximena, and to bring out another French tragedy translated by the same hand in so short a time might have subjected Cibber to the charge of hasty work. Though Ximena apparently had a run of eight nights, it did not receive critical approbation, and Cinna’s Conspiracy, if known to be by Cibber, was likely to bring further critical disapproval, so that Cibber may have thought it would have better chance of success if his authorship were not known. Cibber was ambitious to be thought wise and serious, as his prefaces and Cicero show, and the lack of success of the play together with its nearness to Ximena in time of presentation would sufficiently explain his failure to claim the authorship.
But there is external proof which would seem to be convincing in support of his authorship. Defoe, according to the Biographia Dramatica,[25] in a pamphlet written about 1713 ascribed the play to Cibber; and Nichols, in Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century,[26] gives an extract from a memorandum book of Lintot, entitled Copies when purchased, according to which Cibber, on March 16, 1712 (O.S.), was paid thirteen pounds for Cinna’s Conspiracy. The play was first acted at Drury Lane, February 19, 1713, about a month before the purchase by Lintot. The fact that Cibber was paid for the play so short a time after its presentation would seem to be sufficient proof that it is by Cibber, even though he apparently made no public claim to its authorship.
In the alteration of Corneille’s Cinna, Cibber has made remarkably few changes. There is only one of any moment, the account of the meeting of the conspirators in the second scene of the first act. Corneille has had Cinna give an account of this meeting to Emilie, while Cibber presents the meeting itself. This involves the omission of some narration and the creation of some new characters who have a few short speeches. Cibber throughout his adaptation seeks to gain vividness and clearness, and his handling of this incident is probably the best example of his method in this respect. The other changes consist merely in the omission and shortening of speeches. On the whole Cinna’s Conspiracy is almost a literal translation, though a little free here and there.
The testimony of the critics concerning the source of Caesar in Egypt, acted at Drury Lane,[27] December 9, 1724, published in 1725, is somewhat confusing. The Biographia Dramatica finds its source in Beaumont and Fletcher’s The False One; Genest[28] says: “The plan of this tragedy is chiefly borrowed from The False One—that part of it which concerns Cornelia is said to be taken from Corneille’s Pompée.” Stoye,[29] while apparently oblivious of Corneille’s play, mentions Lucan’s Pharsalia in addition to The False One; and Miss Canfield says:[30] “Taking Beaumont and Fletcher’s False One, Corneille’s Pompée, and one or two ideas of his own, he stirred them all together with such vigor, and so disguised them with his wonderful versification, that it is an almost impossible task to distinguish the different elements in the dish.... The general plan and construction of the play are undoubtedly Corneille’s, many of the best speeches are literally translated, especially some of the famous ones between Cornelia and Caesar; and the description of Pompey’s death is taken verbatim from the French.” This last statement of Miss Canfield’s comes nearest to the truth, but it leaves out of account the slight indebtedness to Lucan.[31]
An examination of these three plays shows, in fact, how little Cibber used The False One in the construction of Caesar in Egypt. He was no doubt familiar with the Beaumont and Fletcher play and used some things from it, though very little in comparison with what he has used from Pompée. He used it for hints in some particulars[32] just as he did the Pharsalia, from which he apparently took the idea of having one scene occur before the tomb of Alexander, and from which he obtained the burning of Pharos.
One incident, the display of Pompey’s head, well illustrates the change that had come since the days of Beaumont and Fletcher. In The False One, the head was actually brought on the stage; but in neither Cibber nor Corneille was the head actually displayed. The actual appearance of the head would probably have been almost as distasteful to Cibber’s audience as to Corneille’s.
His method of adaptation here is more like that in his alteration of Shakspere than his method in Ximena or Cinna’s Conspiracy. He has crowded the incidents, has expanded the action and increased its liveliness, has enhanced the value of the piece as a stage play, without, however, improving its literary quality. He has a good deal happen in one day, but manages to satisfy the technical demands of the unity of time.