Susannah Cibber, "the Priestess of Sensibility"

Susannah Marie Arne, "the Celebrated Mrs. Cibber" (born 14 February 1714)

Susannah Marie Arne, born in Covent Garden, was the daughter and granddaughter of members of the Worshipful Company of Upholsterers. Her father and grandfather both held numerous offices in the guild and in their parish, St. Paul's. But, while members of the Arnes family were at times quite successful tradesmen, they also gambled, suffered from bankruptcy, and found themselves in debtors' prison.

Susannah's father was Thomas Arne, described as "a wily naive man with a taste for the exotic." Although he had followed in his father's profession, there does not seem to have been much family feeling--in her biography of Susannah Cibber, Mary Nash notes that, while Thomas Arne "kept a rich Christmas" with his wife and small son (named Thomas Arne) in 1713, Arne's own father--another Thomas Arne--was "dying of cold and hunger nearby, a debtor in Marshalsea prison."

An ivory medallion (c. 1729)
with a portrait of Susannah Arne,
about age fifteen 
(National Portrait Gallery, London)

Susannah's mother, born Anne Wheeler, was a midwife. Less than two months after the death of the elder Thomas Arne died in debtors' prison, Anne would give birth to his granddaughter. Susannah was born on 14 February 1714. (Anne Wheeler Arne gave birth to eight children between 1710 and 1718--or, at least, eight babies were baptised during these years. Only three survived: Susannah, her elder brother, Thomas, and a younger brother, Richard.)

Despite Thomas Arne's status as a man of trade, he had "audacious and visionary" plans for his children--for his son, another Thomas Arne, he planned a university education and a career in law, for his daughter, education as a gentlewoman and a "brilliant marriage" that would be made possible by the "huge dowry" he would be able to provide.

While her older brother went to Eton, Susannah was educated at home, where she was instructed in French, drawing, penmanship, and music. More surprisingly, she was also instructed in Latin. And Susannah was reared by her mother in the Catholic faith. 

By 1729, her father's finances were faltering. The younger Thomas Arne had to leave Eton, and instead of the university education his father had planned, he was apprenticed to a lawyer. But the younger man did not see his future in law for himself--he preferred music and set about cobbling together a musical education that would lead to a different life. 

With a rich dowry no longer a possibility for Susannah--and seeing his son's successes as he pursued a career in music--Thomas Arne seemed to regard his daughter's musical talents as the best means not necessarily to a successful career but to a successful marriage. 

With the musical and theatrical contacts the younger Thomas Arne had developed--and some funding from his father--Susannah's brother and his new associates, John Frederick Lampe and Henry Carey, rented the New Theatre in Haymarket in 1732 and set about presenting their own "New English opera," Amelia, featuring Lampe's music and Carey's libretto. Thomas Arne arranged for his sister's professional debut, with the eighteen-year-old Susannah playing the title role in the production--set in a Turkish harem, the opera tells the story of a faithful Christian woman who saves her husband, somehow, by pretending to sacrifice her virtue to the sultan who has captured and enslaved him. 

Detail from the playbill for Amelia

Although a critical notice described Amelia as a production "by a set of Performers that never appeared before upon any Stage," it was a success. In Nash's words, Amelia "exceeded anything its composers or even old Arne could have foreseen." 

Most important to Amelia's success was Susannah Arne's voice. Her technique as a singer would later be much criticized, but the noted composer and musician Charles Burney was able to articulate her particular effectiveness as a performer. Her voice was, he said, a "mere thread," and her "knowledge of Musick" was "inconsiderable," but "by a natural pathos, and perfect conception of the words, she often penetrated the heart, when others, with infinitely greater voice and skill, could only reach the ear." And she was also, in his estimation, "the most enchanting actress of her day": 

he considered [Susannah] as a pattern of perfection in the tragic art, from her magnetizing powers of harrowing and winning at once every feeling of the mind, by the eloquent sensibility with which she portrayed, or, rather, personified, Tenderness, Grief, Horror, or Distraction.

Such success was yet to come. After Amelia, Susannah Arne appeared in her brother's "pirated version" of Handel's Acis and Galatea.* This seemed to be taken as something of a betrayal for Lampe and Carey. They continued presenting works in the Haymarket theater, while the younger Thomas Arne, with his father's support and his sister on stage, moved to Lincoln's Inn Fields. He staged two English operas; the first, Teraminta, closed after three nights, the second, Britannia, after four. Undaunted, Thomas Arne proclaimed himself "Proprietor of English Opera" and began staging his own work, beginning with Rosamond, a setting of Joseph Addison's 1707 libretto, and then his Opera of Operas and Dido and Aeneas.

By 1733, Susannah Arne had met George Frederick Handel, and she performed the role of Jael in his English oratorio, Deborah. She had also met the actor and theater manager Theophilus Cibber, son of the remarkable actor-manager, playwright, and poet laureate, Colley Cibber. Handel and the Cibbers would play significant roles in Susannah's life and career.

A long friendship and musical relationship developed between Susannah and Handel, who took great pains with the young woman. Susannah did not read music, so he instructed her in every note. Their partnership would continue for many years--she performed in his Acis and Galatea, Esther, and Alexander's Feast. She also sang solos at the premiere Messiah on 13 April 1742. She would perform the role of Jael in Deborah, the role of Micah in Samson, and various roles in Hercules, Saul, and L'Allegro. 

Susannah would marry Theophilus Cibber, but their partnership was much less successful. As manager of the Drury Lane theater, he would seem to have been an attractive match for Susannah Arne--it was certainly one her father promoted. But the younger Cibber's physical presence--in Nash's words, his "pitted cheeks, skewed nose, cabriole legs, squints, grimaces, eye-poppings, and sour ambiance of last night's debauchery"--all "horrified her."

By all accounts, Theophilus Cibber was as horrible a man as his unfortunate physical appearance suggests. He was cruel and debauched, but he pursued Susannah Arne, and her father pressured her to become Cibber's (second) wife. In an extraordinary act of foresight, Susannah's mother, Anne, and her brother, Charles Wheeler, had pre-nuptial articles drawn up that would protect Susannah and her earnings. Her uncle would act as Susannah's executor, her salary paid into a trust in her name that he would invest for her. If she predeceased her husband, the trust would pass to her children and be administered for them; if she had no children, it would go to her family. And Cibber signed them. The two were married when Susannah Arne was just twenty years old. (Theophilus Cibber had been born in 1703, so he was only a decade older than Susannah, as objectionable as their pairing might have been otherwise.)

John Faber the Younger's drawing
of Susannah Cibber, c. 1736?
(British Museum)

Now performing under the name of "Mrs. Cibber," Susannah found in her husband's father another mentor. Colley Cibber saw in her "the makings of a great tragic actress" (Donnelly); with his training and support, she had "one of the most famous careers as a tragedienne in the 18th century." She made her debut as a tragic heroine at the Theater Royal, Drury Lane in 1736, under her father-in-law's tutelage. (And, happily for her brother, he became the house composer there.)

A scandalous disruption in her personal life soon overshadowed Susannah Cibber's success and popularity on stage. There are various accounts of her relationship with a wealthy (and married) man named William Sloper. Did her husband, Theophilus, "pimp his wife" to Sloper? (Cibber was known to encourage his wife to be "more friendly" to "gentlemen-admirers" like Sloper who helped support his household.) Were the three engaged in some sort of ménage à trois? (At some point, they seemed to have lived in the same house, though William may have taken rooms there as a kind of border, since Theophilus Cibber needed the money--during this period he was in and out of debtors' prison.) Or did Sloper, "a friend of the family and a man of good position," sympathise with a desperate Susannah Cibber, and things just happen? (Sloper had asked Cibber's permission to teach Susannah backgammon, and Susannah was supposedly his wife Catherine's favorite actress.) 

Whatever brought the pair together initially, Theophilus Cibber sued William Sloper in 1738, accusing him of "Assaulting, Ravishing and carnally knowing Susannah Maria Cibber, the plaintiff's Wife." Because of Sloper, Cibber had "lost the Company, Comfort, Society, Assistance, & etc. of his Wife." In her biography of Susannah Cibber, Mary Nash offers an extended account of the relationship between Susannah, Sloper, and Theophilus Cibber as well as a thorough analysis of the court case (click here). You can also read the documents in the case for yourself, The Tryal of a Cause for Criminal Conversation between Theophilus Cibber, Gent., Plaintiff, and William Sloper, Esq., Defendant (this account was published soon after the verdict was delivered, but it continued to be republished for decades; click here for an edition from 1749). 

Cibber was "successful" in his case--but awarded only the paltry sum of £10 instead of the £5000 he had sought. Because Susannah Cibber would neither leave Sloper nor return to the stage, Theophilus sued again, nine months later, this time seeking £10,000--again, he "won" his case, but was awarded only £500. 

In the mean time, Susannah Cibber had given birth to Sloper's child. Susannah and Sloper eloped with their daughter, Susannah Maria, withdrawing from society. In Nash's words, "Susannah, Sloper, and their child had disappeared for two years." 

Susannah Cibber, 1749
portrait by Thomas Hudson

Susannah Cibber made a triumphant return in November 1741--in Dublin. There, at his invitation, she joined Handel. In December, she appeared on stage in a production of The Conscious Lovers--and over the course of the next few months, appeared in fifteen productions. 

More important, though, she began rehearsals with Handel. His Messiah would premiere in Dublin--and Susannah Cibber's performance of "He Was Despised" seemed to have been so powerful as to begin the restorationn of her reputation. One listener, a clergyman, is said to have exclaimed, "Woman, for this thy sins be forgiven thee." As Nash notes, the "soloists" in the Messiah "are not given identities," but "everyone" who heard Cibber sing identified her with Mary Magdalene. Handel had "put the account of Christ's degradation and physical suffering into the mouth of a fallen woman."

By 1742, Susannah Cibber was back in London and once more on stage. Theater historian Elaine McGirr claims that Cibber carefully crafted her return, by the roles she chose to perform, playing characters "designed to strengthen public opinion in her favour," roles that would "reinforce her reputation as a woman more sinned against than sinning." 

She marked her return to the stage on 22 September playing Desdemona. Her career from that point on was a success, and she made something of a specialty in playing wronged wives. From 1744 through 1765, Susannah Cibber was, after actor-producer-writer David Garrick, the highest paid actor in London (Donnolly). And on 17 March 1752, she presented her own work, an adaptation of Germain-François Poullain de Saint-Foix's one-act comedy, L'Oracle. on a benefit night at Covent Garden. (During the two years that she was "out of sight," Susannah and Sloper may have been in Paris--that's Saint-Foix's play debuted there in 1740-41.)

After the season that ended in 1763, Garrick left the Drury Lane theater for a respite, and Susannah Cibber retired with William Sloper and their daughter to West Woodhay, Sloper's estate. Garrick returned to England and the Theatre Royal in 1765. He endeavored to get Cibber to return, even visiting her and Sloper at West Woodhay. Promising to return to the theater, she left West Woodhay on 29 November and reached her London home the next day. 

On 5 December, Susannah Cibber played opposite Garrick in John van Bruh's The Provoked Wife. An old friend saw her performance that night: "it was the last, and I am sorry to say, the worst performance in her life." 

After the end of the play, she returned to her home. She died there on 30 January 1766 and was buried in the cloisters of Westminster, not far from Aphra Behn. 

After Susannah's death, William Sloper returned to West Woodhay with their daughter. Although many sources have nothing to say about Susannah's daughter, Susannah Maria, called Molly, Nash notes that the young woman inherited her mother's fortune and, at age twenty-eight, married a clergyman. She died in 1768.

As for William Sloper. He was elected to parliament in 1747 and again in 1754. He resigned in 1756 when he was appointed Lord of Trade, a position he held until 1761. He died three years after his daughter, in July 1768. 

By the way, William Sloper's wife, Catherine, was still alive when he died. After her husband's death, as his widow, she moved back to West Woodhay. Along with her daughter-in-law (married to William and Catherine's's son, Robert), Catherine "destroyed every letter, picture, every momento, every piece of evidence of the thirty-year incumbency of Susannah Cibber." She lived until she was ninety years old, dying in 1792. Can't say I blame her for this . . . But then she had William Sloper's grave opened and buried herself at his side. That's creepy.

There are many sources, printed and electronic, for Susannah Cibber's life and work. I've linked to some of them here, including Mary Nash's biography, The Provoked Wife: The Life and Times of Susannah Cibber. 

*Through my university, I have access to Molly Donnelly's biographical essay on Susannah Cibber in Grove Music Online, quoted here. Published in 1977, is is available for eading via the Internet Archive.