Charles Dibdin
Encyclopedia
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
musician, dramatist, novelist, actor and songwriter. The son of a parish clerk, he was born in Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
on or before 4 March 1745, and was the youngest of a family of 18.
Early life and early successes
His parents designing him for the church, he was sent to Winchester; but his love of music early diverted his thoughts from the clerical profession. After receiving some instruction from the organist of Winchester CathedralWinchester Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral at Winchester in Hampshire is one of the largest cathedrals in England, with the longest nave and overall length of any Gothic cathedral in Europe...
, where he was a chorister from 1756 to 1759, he went to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
at the age of fifteen. Here he was placed in a music warehouse in Cheapside
Cheapside
Cheapside is a street in the City of London that links Newgate Street with the junction of Queen Victoria Street and Mansion House Street. To the east is Mansion House, the Bank of England, and the major road junction above Bank tube station. To the west is St. Paul's Cathedral, St...
, but he soon abandoned this employment to become a singing actor at Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. On 21 May 1762 his first work, an operetta entitled The Shepherd's Artifice, with words and music by himself, was produced at this theatre. He appeared successfully as Ralph in The Maid of the Mill, for which he wrote the music: for Isaac Bickerstaffe
Isaac Bickerstaffe
Isaac Bickerstaffe or Bickerstaff was an Irish playwright and Librettist.-Early life:Isaac John Bickerstaff was born in Dublin, on 26 September 1733, where his father John Bickerstaff held a government position overseeing the construction and management of sports fields including bowls and tennis...
he wrote songs and music for Love in the City, Love in a Village, etc.
Drury Lane with Garrick
Other works followed, his reputation being firmly established by the music to the play of The PadlockThe Padlock
The Padlock is a two-act 'afterpiece' opera by Charles Dibdin. The text was by Isaac Bickerstaffe. It debuted in 1768 at the Drury Lane Theatre in London, England, as a companion piece to The Earl of Warwick. It partnered other plays before a run of six performances in tandem with "The Fatal...
, produced at Drury Lane
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....
under Garrick
David Garrick
David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson...
's management in 1768, the composer himself taking the part of Mungo with conspicuous success. He continued for some years to be connected with Drury Lane, both as composer and as actor, and produced during this period two of his best known works, The Waterman (1774) and The Quaker (1775). A quarrel with Garrick led to the termination of his engagement. In The Comic Mirror he ridiculed prominent contemporary figures through the medium of a puppet show.
In 1782 he became joint manager of the Royal Circus, afterwards known as the Surrey Theatre
Surrey Theatre
The Surrey Theatre began life in 1782 as the Royal Circus and Equestrian Philharmonic Academy, one of the many circuses that provided contemporary London entertainment of both horsemanship and drama...
. In three years he lost this position owing to a quarrel with his partner. His opera Liberty Hall, containing the successful songs "Jock Ratlin", "The Highmettled Racer", and "The Bells of Aberdovey
Aberdyfi
Aberdyfi , or Aberdovey is a village on the north side of the estuary of the River Dyfi in Gwynedd, on the west coast of Wales....
", was produced at the Drury Lane theatre
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
on 8 February 1785. Dibdin also produced many entertainments at the Lyceum Theatre.WOHOO.
Monodramatic entertainments at King Street and Leicester Place
In 1788 he dissolved his connection with the existing theatres. Having set sail for the East IndiesEast Indies
East Indies is a term used by Europeans from the 16th century onwards to identify what is now known as Indian subcontinent or South Asia, Southeastern Asia, and the islands of Oceania, including the Malay Archipelago and the Philippines...
, when the vessel put in to Torbay
Torbay
Torbay is an east-facing bay and natural harbour, at the western most end of Lyme Bay in the south-west of England, situated roughly midway between the cities of Exeter and Plymouth. Part of the ceremonial county of Devon, Torbay was made a unitary authority on 1 April 1998...
in stress of weather, he changed his mind and returned to London. He then commenced a new kind of one-man-show, musical variety entertainments called The Oddities and The Whim of the Moment, at Fisher's Auction Room in King Street (Covent Garden). In these he introduced many songs of marked popularity, including "Poor Jack," "'Twas in the good ship 'Rover'," "Saturday Night at Sea," and "I sailed from the Downs in the 'Nancy.'" The immortal "Tom Bowling" was written on the death of his eldest brother, Captain Thomas Dibdin, at whose invitation he had planned his visit to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. His monodramatic entertainments continued at a theatre which he built, the Sans Souci Theatre
Sans Souci Theatre
The Sans Souci Theatre was a 500-seat theatre located on Leicester Place, just off Leicester Square in the City of Westminster. It was built in 1796 by Charles Dibdin, and replaced eponymous former music rooms he had leased for performances, off the Strand....
in Leicester Place
Leicester Square
Leicester Square is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. The Square lies within an area bound by Lisle Street, to the north; Charing Cross Road, to the east; Orange Street, to the south; and Whitcomb Street, to the west...
. His songs, music and recitations here permanently established his fame as a lyric poet.
War songs and later years
Dibdin's patriotic sea-songs (painting the simple loyalty and manly courage of the British sailor) and their melodious refrains powerfully influenced the national spirit and were officially appropriated to the use of the British navy during the war with France. In 1803 he was induced by Pitt's government, with a pension of £200 a year, to abandon provincial engagements in order to compose and sing 'War Songs' in order to keep up the ferment of popular feeling against France. This was withdrawn for a time under the administration of Lord Grenville, but afterwards partly restored.During this period he opened a music shop in the Strand (opposite the Lyceum), but the venture was a failure. He retired from public life in 1805, disposing of his stock (including the copyright of 360 songs) to a firm in Oxford Street for £1,800, with £100 a year for the next three years in consideration of whatever songs he might write. He took up residence in Camden Town, where he suffered a paralytic stroke. In 1810 a subscription dinner and concert was held for his benefit. This raised £640, of which £560 was invested in Long Annuities for himself and his family. He died on 25 July 1814 in comparative poverty, and was buried in St Martin's churchyard there. His widow placed a stone over his grave inscribed with a quatrain from Tom Bowling.
There is a memorial plaque to Dibdin on the tower of Holyrood Church, Southampton
Holyrood Church, Southampton
Holyrood Church was one of the original five churches serving the old walled town of Southampton, England. Built in 1320, the church was destroyed by enemy bombing during the blitz in November 1940...
.
Dibdin's families and other writings
Dibdin had married early in life, but deserted his first wife and left her destitute. He then formed an illicit connection with Mrs Davenet (née Pitt), a chorus-singer at Covent Garden Theatre, and had some children by her. In time he deserted Mrs Davenet also in favour of Miss Wyld, with whom he remained and had several further children during his wife's lifetime, and finally married Miss Wyld when his first wife died. She and one daughter only (of that union) survived him. His two sons Charles and Thomas John DibdinThomas John Dibdin
Thomas John Dibdin was an English dramatist and song-writer.Dibdin was the son of Charles Dibdin, a song-writer and theatre manager, and of Mrs Davenet, an actress whose real name was Harriet Pitt. He was apprenticed to his maternal uncle, a London upholsterer, and later to William Rawlins,...
, whose works are often confused with those of their father, were also popular dramatists in their day.
Besides his Musical Tour through England (1788), his Professional Life, an autobiography published in 1803, a History of the Stage (1795), and several smaller works, he wrote upwards of 1400 songs and about thirty dramatic pieces. He also wrote the following novels: The Devil (1785); Hannah Hewitt (1792); The Younger Brother (1793). An edition of his songs by G Hogarth (1843) contains a memoir of his life.
Allusions in music and literature
The tune of "Tom Bowling" forms part of the medley of English sea-songs customarily played on the Last Night of the Proms. Mr Verdant Green, eponymous hero of the novel by Cuthbert Bede, learns to row and 'feathers his oars with skill and dexterity' (Part II Chapter VI), borrowing a line from Dibdin's song "The Jolly Young Waterman." The great Victorian baritone Sir Charles SantleyCharles Santley
Sir Charles Santley was an English-born opera and oratorio star with a bravuraFrom the Italian verb bravare, to show off. A florid, ostentatious style or a passage of music requiring technical skill technique who became the most eminent English baritone and male concert singer of the Victorian era...
made his farewell performance at Covent Garden in 1911 in the role of Tom Tug in Dibdin's opera The Waterman. And in James Joyce's story 'Eveline' (from 'Dubliners'), Frank 'sang about the lass that loves a sailor' from the song of the same name by Dibdin.
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
quotes from Dibdin's patriotic song "The Tight Little Island" in Little Dorrit
Little Dorrit
Little Dorrit is a serial novel by Charles Dickens published originally between 1855 and 1857. It is a work of satire on the shortcomings of the government and society of the period....
:
Daddy Neptune one day to Freedom did say,
"If ever I lived upon dry land.
The spot I should hit on would be little Britain!"
Says Freedom, "Why that's my own little island!"
Oh, it's a snug little island!
A right little, tight little island,
Search the globe round, none can be found
So happy as this little island.
The song was published posthumously in 1841 in Songs, Naval and National, of the Late Charles Dibdin, a collection arranged by Thomas Dibdin with sketches by George Cruikshank
George Cruikshank
George Cruikshank was a British caricaturist and book illustrator, praised as the "modern Hogarth" during his life. His book illustrations for his friend Charles Dickens, and many other authors, reached an international audience.-Early life:Cruikshank was born in London...
. A copy was found in Dickens's library after his death, though it is unlikely Dickens heard the same patriotic message as much of Dibdin's audience.
Two public memorials
Seven years after his death a subscription to raise a monument to Dibdin was set in train under the patronage of the Duke of Clarence and Admiral Sir George York. At a public dinner and concert a large sum was raised, but insufficient to complete the project. A second grand musical entertainment, The Feast of Neptune, raised a further £400 and the monument was eventually raised in the Veterans' Library at the Royal Hospital, GreenwichGreenwich
Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...
.
British policitian Michael Heseltine
Michael Heseltine
Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, CH, PC is a British businessman, Conservative politician and patron of the Tory Reform Group. He was a Member of Parliament from 1966 to 2001 and was a prominent figure in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major...
is a distant descendant of Dibdin, having 'Dibdin' as one of his middle names. He is a fan of Dibdin's works, and was responsible for the government's erection of a statue of Dibdin in Greenwich.
Selected works
- 1767: Love in the City (BickerstaffeIsaac BickerstaffeIsaac Bickerstaffe or Bickerstaff was an Irish playwright and Librettist.-Early life:Isaac John Bickerstaff was born in Dublin, on 26 September 1733, where his father John Bickerstaff held a government position overseeing the construction and management of sports fields including bowls and tennis...
) - 1768: Lionel and Clarissa (Bickerstaffe)
- 1768: The PadlockThe PadlockThe Padlock is a two-act 'afterpiece' opera by Charles Dibdin. The text was by Isaac Bickerstaffe. It debuted in 1768 at the Drury Lane Theatre in London, England, as a companion piece to The Earl of Warwick. It partnered other plays before a run of six performances in tandem with "The Fatal...
(Bickerstaffe) - 1770: The Recruiting SerjeantThe Recruiting SerjeantThe Recruiting Serjeant is a burletta by composer Charles Dibdin and playwright Isaac Bickerstaff. It premièred on 20 July 1770 at Ranelagh Gardens, London.-Roles:-Synopsis:...
(Bickerstaffe) - 1774: The Waterman (Dibdin)
- 1775: The Quaker