Colley Cibber was not well received. In the middle of the play, he whispered to fellow actor Benjamin Victor that he wanted to go home, perhaps realising he was too old for the part and its physical demands. Cibber also essayed tragic parts in plays by Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, John Dryden and others, but with less success. By the end of his acting career, audiences were being entranced by the innovatively naturalistic acting of the rising star David Garrick, who made his London debut in the title part in a production of Cibber's adaptation of "Richard III" in 1741. He returned to
Scottish literature in the eighteenth century of Baillie is now seen as particularly significant, although it was more often anonymously published rather than in performance for much of her lifetime. Baillie's first volume of "Plays on the Passions" was published in 1798 consisted of "Count Basil", a tragedy on love, "The Tryal", a comedy on love, and "De Monfort", a tragedy on hatred. "De Monfort" was successfully performed in Drury Lane, London before knowledge of her identity emerged and the prejudice against women playwrights began to effect her career. The novel in its modern form developed rapidly in the eighteenth century and was soon a major