Thomas John Dibdin

The illegitimate son of the dramatist Charles Dibdin (1745-1814) and brother of the songwriter Charles Dibdin (1768-1833), Thomas John Dibdin began as a scene-painter, before writing for Sadler's Wells in 1796. He is said to have composed 200 plays, pantomimes and operas, and 2000 songs.

TEXT RECORDS:

1813Introduction to A Metrical History of England.

PUBLICATIONS:

The mouth of the Nile, or the glorious first of August: a musical entertainment. 1798.
The Jew and the doctor. 1800.
Il Bondocani: or the caliph robber. 1801.
Valentine and Orson. 1804.
The cabinet. 1802.
Two faces under a hood. 1807.
Harlequin harper: or a jump from Japan. 1813.
A metrical history of England. 2 vols, 1813.
Ivanhoe: or the Jew's daughter. 1820.
The fate of Calais. 1820.
The lady of the lake: a drama. 1822.
The reminiscences of Thomas Dibdin. 2 vols, 1827, 1837.
A ryghte sorroweful tragyke lamentacyonne. 1830.
Thomas Dibdin's penny trumpet. 1832.
The last lays of the last of the three Dibdins. 1833.
Bunyan's Pilgrim's progress metrically condensed. 1834.
Harlequin and mother goose: or the golden egg! a comic pantomime. 1862.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English

no formal education

actor
dramatist
poet

Alfred Bunn
George Colman the Younger
Charles Dibdin
Lord Byron
Anna Maria Porter

REFERENCE:

DNB; CBEL (3rd ed).

"Sketch of Mr. Thomas Dibdin" Monthly Mirror 14 (December 1802) 363-67 [portrait]; "Mr. Thomas Dibdin" Weekly Visitor or Ladies' Miscellany [New York] 2 (10 March 1804) 178-80; "Biographical Sketches: Mr. Thomas Dibdin" Flowers of Literature for 1805 (1806) 49-54 [portrait]; Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816); "Memoir of Thomas Dibdin" European Magazine 71 (March 1817) 189-92 [portrait[; "Mr. T. Dibdin" British Stage and Literary Cabinet 1 (May 1817) 116-17; A New Biographical Dictionary of 3000 Cotemporary Public Characters (1825); Reminiscences of Thomas Dibdin (1827, 1837); obituary in Gentleman's Magazine NS 17 (January 1842) 110; Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature 3rd ed. (1876); J. Sandoe, "Some Notes on the Plays of Dibdin" University of Colorado Studies (1940); "Master of Melodrama" TLS (20 September 1941).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Thomas John Dibdin:

1.	1803  Anonymous, "Parody" The Times (7 January 1803).
2.	1809  Lord Byron, in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809); Poetical Works, ed. E. H. Coleridge (1898-1904) 1:345-46.
3.	1813  Francis Hodgson, Review of Dibdin, A Metrical History of England; The Monthly Review 71 (August 1813) 436-37.
4.	1817  I. K., "Mr. T. Dibdin" British Stage and Literary Cabinet 1 (May 1817) 117.
5.	1829  John Wilson, Note to "Letter from Thomas Dibdin, Esq." Blackwood's Magazine 26 (December 1829) 912-13n.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Thomas John Dibdin:

1.	1806  Francis William Blagdon, "Biographical Sketches: Mr. Thomas Dibdin" Flowers of Literature for 1805 (1806) 49-54.
2.	1816  Anonymous, in Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816) 93-94.
3.	1817  Anonymous, "Memoir of Thomas Dibdin" European Magazine 71 (March 1817) 189-92.
4.	1842  Anonymous, Obituary in Gentleman's Magazine NS 17 (January 1842) 110.
5.	1876  Robert Carruthers, in Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature, 3rd ed. (1876; 1879) 5:299.