Dibdin, Charles (1745–1814)

English singer, author, and composer. He began his career as a singing actor at Covent Garden, London, where his pastoral The Shepherd's Artifice was produced in 1764. Over 100 dramatic works followed. In 1789 he began his series of ‘Table Entertainments’, in which he was author, composer, narrator, singer, and accompanist. One of the most successful, The Oddities (1789), contained the song ‘Tom Bowling’. Many other sea songs achieved great popularity.

He began singing as a chorister at Winchester Cathedral, went to London at the age of 15, and made his stage debut in 1762. In 1778 he was appointed composer to Covent Garden Theatre, and during the 1780s dabbled in theatrical management with variable success. A projected journey to India came to nothing, but the fundraising travels which were to have financed it provided material for his Musical Tour (1788). Towards the end of his life a publishing venture made him bankrupt, and he was saved from destitution by a public subscription. He wrote an account of his professional life and other literary works.

Works over 100 dramatic pieces, including Lionel and Clarissa (1768), The Padlock, The Ephesian Matron, The Captive, The Ladle (1773), The Trip to Portsmouth, The Seraglio (1776), Rose and Colin, The Touchstone, The Milkmaid, Tom Thumb, Harvest Home (1787); over 30 ‘Table Entertainments’ containing innumerable songs.