eded a public one;
for all people of sense would know what truth or falsehood
there was in what you said of me, without my wisely
pointing it out to them. Nor did I choose to follow your
example, of being so much a self-tormentor, as to be
concerned at whatever opinion of me any published invective
might infuse into people unknown to me. Even the malicious,
though they may like the libel, don't always believe it."
His reason for reply is, that his silence should not be
farther reproached "as a plain confession of my being a
bankrupt in wit, if I don't immediately answer those bills
of discredit you have drawn upon me." There is no doubt that
Cibber perpetually found instigators to encourage these
attacks; and one forcible argument he says was, that "a
disgrace, from such a pen, would stick upon me to posterity."
He seems to be aware that his acquaintance cheer him to the
lists "for their particular amusement."

[214] "His edition of Shakspeare proved no better than a foil to set
off the superiority of Theobald's; and Cibber bore away the
palm from him in the drama. We have an account of two attempts
of Pope's, one in each of the two principal branches of this
species of poetry, and both unsuccessful. The fate of the
comedy has been already mentioned (in page 300), and the
tragedy was saved from the like fate by one not less
ignominious, being condemned and burnt by his own hands. It
was called _Cleone_, and formed upon the same story as a late
one wrote and published by Mr. Dodsley with the same title in
1759. See Dodsley's Preface."--_Biographia Britannica_, 1760.

[215] Armstrong, who was a keen observer of man, has expressed his
uncommon delight in the company of Cibber. "Beside his
abilities as a writer (as a writer of comedies, Armstrong
means), and the singular variety of his powers as an
actor, he was to the last one of the most agreeable,
cheerful, and best-humoured men you would ever wish to
converse with."--Warton's _Pope_, vol. iv. 160.

Cibber was one of those rare beings whose dispositions Hume
describes "as preferable to an inheritance of 10,000_l._ a
year."

[216] Dr. Aikin, in his Biographical Dictionary, has thus writ