ABSTRACT
From the article, ‘Daniel De Foe’, in The Lives of the Poets (1753). The work is attributed on the title-page to ‘Mr. [Theophilus] Cibber’ (1703–58), son of the famous Colley Cibber, and like his father an actor-manager – though an even more eccentric and trouble-prone figure. However, it is now believed that the text was substantially the work of Robert Shiels (d. 1753), a friend of Dr Johnson.
