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
The Maiden Queen "Ibrahim, ou l'Illustre Bassa" (for the subplot). (Dryden returned to Scudéry's "Ibrahim" for inspiration for another play, "An Evening's Love", the following year, 1668 — though that venture proved much less successful.) Dryden also borrowed material from Shirley's "Love in a Maze". By Dryden's own testimony, the unheroic Philocles was inspired by Magnus de la Garide, the royal favorite of Queen Christina of Sweden. The drama was revived in an adapted form in 1707; Colley Cibber mixed it with materials from "Marriage à la mode". The play remained in the repertory throughout the eighteenth century in various forms; a shortened