Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/16

 three of his pieces were being acted the same night. At Canterbury he wrote ‘The British Raft,’ ridiculing the threatened French invasion, and its one song, ‘The Snug Little Island,’ attained astonishing popularity. It was first sung by ‘Jew’ Davis at Sadler's Wells, on Easter Monday, 1797, while Dibdin was acting at Maidstone, where he himself sang it before Lord Romney, and it gained him the friendship of the Duke of Leeds. For Dowton he wrote a farce, ‘The Jew and the Doctor,’ but it was not produced until 1798, except for Dibdin's benefit, at the time of the state trials of O'Coigley and Arthur O'Conner. Harris wanted the ‘Jew and the Doctor’ for Covent Garden. Rumour arising of Nelson's victory at the Nile, June 1798, [q. v.] advised Dibdin to write a piece on it, with songs, and this was done with wonderful speed and success, as ‘The Mouth of the Nile.’ He was a most devoted son to his mother, allowing her an increased income of 100l., besides another allowance to her aged mother. He was proud of his father's abilities, but resented his cruel neglect of his family, and, from sympathy with his mother, avoided mention of his name. His engagement at Covent Garden lasted seven years, and his wife also joined him there, at a smaller salary. George III honoured Dibdin's ‘Birthday’ several times with a bespeak, as well as attending the performance of ‘The Mouth of the Nile.’ Tom paid fifty guineas, instead of the penalty, 50l., to Sir W. Rawlins to cancel his indenture and make him free. He wrote ‘Tag in Tribulation’ for Knight's benefit. On 16 Sept. 1799 his wife made her first appearance as Aura in ‘The Farm House,’ at the re-opening of Covent Garden. Among other merits she was an excellent under-study, and her versatility was displayed in becoming a substitute for Miss Pope as Clementina Allspice, for Mrs. Litchfield as Millwood, and for Mrs. Jordan as Nell in ‘The Devil to Pay.’ On 7 Oct. 1799 Dibdin produced his musical ‘Naval Pillar,’ in honour of victories at sea, Munden acting a quaker. In December old Mrs. Pitt died, in her seventy-ninth year, at Pentonville. On 19 Feb. one of his farces, ‘True Friends,’ failed, but crawled through five nights. He worked hard at a ballad-farce (two acts), ‘St. David's Day,’ and gained by it a lasting success. ‘Hermione’ followed, and ‘Liberal Opinions,’ a three-act comedy, which brought him 200l., which Harris prevailed on him to enlarge to five acts as ‘The School for Prejudice;’ he also wrote ‘Of Age To-morrow,’ and successful pantomimes each Christmas. ‘Harlequin's Tour,’ two nights before Christmas, pleased the public. His ‘Alonzo and Imogine’ was revived for his wife's benefit. They usually spent summer-time at Richmond, professionally. At Colchester he joined Townsend in a musical entertainment, ‘Something New,’ followed next night by ‘Nothing New,’ with additions. He adapted the story of the old garland, ‘The Golden Bull,’ changing the bull into a wardrobe, and within three weeks composed his first and best opera, ‘The Cabinet;’ it was delayed by Harris, but ran thirty nights at the end of the season 1801–2. ‘Il Bondocani, or the Caliph Robber,’ opened the season September 1802, and brought him 60l. His Jew's song, ‘I courted Miss Levi,’ &c., as sung by Fawcett (which was misunderstood by the Israelites as an attack on Jewesses), raised a riot, but the sale of the song-books brought him in 630l., and it triumphed over opposition. He himself wrote good-humouredly the parody on ‘Norval’—

On 13 Dec. 1803 his opera of ‘The English Fleet in 1342’ appeared, running thirty-five nights, and repaying him with 550l. A comedy, ‘The Will for the Deed,’ brought him 320l., and on Easter Monday 1804 came his ‘Valentine and Orson,’ performed with it, and his ‘Horse and Widow;’ he had the whole playbill to himself. In this year he made 1,515l., of which 200l. was for ‘Guilty or Not Guilty.’ He then began to traffic in risky investments, theatre shares, joining Colman and David Morris in the Haymarket. This fell through, and he recalled his 4,000l. to lose it elsewhere. His opera ‘Thirty Thousand’ brought him 360 guineas in 1805, soon followed by ‘Nelson's Glory,’ an unsuccessful farce, ‘The White Plume,’ and ‘Five Miles Off,’ on 9 July 1806, which last gave him 375l. By evil speculation in a Dublin circus he and his brother Charles lost nearly 2,000l., but this loss inspired the wish to have Grimaldi at Covent Garden in his new pantomime ‘Mother Goose,’ 1807, which brought to the management close on 20,000l. ‘Two Faces under a Hood,’ opera, gave him 360l. On 20 Sept. 1808 Covent Garden Theatre was burnt to the ground; twenty-three lives were lost; but the proprietors opened the opera house with Dibdin's ‘Princess or no Princess,’ and his ‘Mother Goose’ had a third run. On 24 Feb. 1809 Drury Lane Theatre was burnt, while Dibdin was at a ball close by with his wife. The latter now retired from the stage and went to Cheltenham. Dibdin's ‘Lady of the Lake’ came out at the Surrey, which he now managed at 15l. a week and two benefits; he stayed with Elliston for a year, till the autumn, 1812, at which time he