Mr. Editor,--No doubt most of your readers are well acquainted with
Colley Cibber's _Apology for his Life_, &c., first printed, I believe,
in 1740, 4to, with a portrait of himself, painted by Vanloo, and
engraved by Vandergucht. Chapters IV. and V. contain the celebrated
characters he drew of the principal performers, male and female, in, and
just before, his time, viz. Betterton, Montfort, Kynaston, &c. Upon
these characters I have two questions to put, which I hope some of your
contributors may be able to answer. The first is, "Were these characters
of actors reprinted in the same words, and without additions, in the
subsequent impressions of Cibber's _Apology_ in 8vo?" Secondly, "Had
they ever appeared in any shape before they were inserted in the copy of
Cibber's _Apology_ now before me, in 1740, 4to?" To this may be added,
if convenient, some account of the work in which these fine criticisms
originally appeared, supposing they did not first come out in the
_Apology_. I am especially interested in the history of the Stage about
the period when the publication of these characters formed an epoch.