Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/9

 Drury Lane theatre, enabled Dibdin to make his ‘greatest hit’ as Mungo, after Moody had rehearsed and resigned the part. Twenty-eight thousand copies of the ‘Padlock’ were sold; whereby Bickerstaffe, as author of the words, realised fully 1,700l. by 1779 ; but Dibdin received only 43l. for having composed the music. His brother Thomas had been released from imprisonment, and got an appointment for India through Sir William Young; Charles having crippled himself to pay his brother's debts and assist his outfit. He secured good terms at Ranelagh Gardens, 100l., each season, for the music of ‘The Maid and Mistress,’ ‘Recruiting Sergeant,’ and ‘Ephesian Matron.’ In September 1769 Garrick's Shakespeare Jubilee at Stratford gave him employment in setting and resetting music to the songs. Before the celebration came off Dibdin and Garrick had quarrelled; Garrick, quoting Othello, threatened the composer, ‘I can take down the pegs that make this music!’ Dibdin capped the Othello verse by the happy rejoinder, ‘Yes, as honest as you are!’ The breach was widened when Dibdin praised as Garrick's best work the rondeau ‘Sisters of the Tuneful Strain,’ which proved to have been borrowed from Jerningham. The quarrel wellnigh interrupted the Stratford music, but Dibdin repented, composed ‘Let Beauty with the Sun arise!’ hastened after Garrick, and caused the performers to serenade him with the piece, when all was considered hopeless. A reconciliation followed, Dibdin receiving a reward of twenty guineas, having expended twenty-six in travelling. This is Dibdin's unsupported account.

Dibdin got 50l. for music to ‘Dr. Ballardo,’ but no more than 15l. for copyright from the Thompsons for resetting ‘Damon and Phillida.’ When Bickerstaffe absconded in 1772, Dibdin publicly rebuked Dr. Kenrick, author of the scurrilous libel on Garrick, ‘Roscius's Lamentation.’ He now composed an opera, ‘The Wedding Ring,’ 1773, but concealed the authorship. This led to a legal squabble with Newbery, publisher of the ‘Public Ledger,’ Dibdin having avowed himself the writer, to the anger of Garrick, after surmises that it was a work of Bickerstaffe. For King, purchaser of the Sadler's Wells, Dibdin had composed two interludes, ‘The Palace of Mirth’ and ‘The Brickdust Man,’ and ‘The Ladle’ and ‘The Mischance’ among other pieces of 1772. A pantomime, ‘The Pigmy Revels’ (26 Oct. 1772), and a trifle on the installation of new Garter knights (26 Oct. 1771), were produced at Drury Lane. He wrote songs for ‘The Deserter,’ 1773, and was ordered to set music to Garrick's ‘Christmas Tale,’ 1774; but met increased animosity from him, chiefly on account of Dibdin's ill-usage of Miss Pitt, whom, with the three children he had by her, he deserted about this time. Garrick felt so indignant that he discharged him. He had transferred himself and his truant affections to a Miss Anne Maria Wylde, of Portsea, probably a relation of James Wild, the prompter, but was unable to marry her until long afterwards, when his neglected first wife died. Garrick rejected contemptuously Dibdin's ‘Waterman,’ and Foote accepted it for the Haymarket, where it became instantly and lastingly popular. ‘The Cobler’ followed, memorable for the song of ‘'Twas in a Village near Castlebury,’ but a clique secured its removal on the tenth night. ‘The Quaker’ was sold to Brereton for 70l. for his benefit; and ultimately Garrick purchased it, but kept it back. Dibdin then spitefully wrote a pamphlet against him as ‘David Little,’ advertised it, but withdrew it from publication in time. He satirised Garrick, nevertheless, in a puppet-play, ‘The Comic Mirror,’ at Exeter Change (Prof. Life, i. 153). Entangled in debt, and with angry creditors threatening imprisonment, he sought flight to France, to stay two years, ‘to expand my ideas and store myself with theatrical materials,’ as he himself declared. Sheridan avowed the impossibility of Dibdin's reinstatement at Drury Lane, where Linley now ruled, but affected to have prevailed on T. Harris to engage him at Covent Garden. Harris declined, saying, ‘Surely Mr. Sheridan is mad.’ Harris produced Dibdin's ‘Seraglio’ in November 1776, which was favourably received, after Dibdin had left England. In it was sung ‘Blow high, blow low,’ an early example of Dibdin's sea songs. It was written in a gale of wind, during a thirteen-hours' passage from Calais. ‘Poor Vulcan’ was altered beyond recognition, and produced successfully 4 Feb. 1778, yielding the author above 200l. He disparaged Calais, but confessed that he ‘muddled away five months there,’ before moving with his irregular family to Nancy, the journey taking ten days. He felt happier at Nancy, often visiting Le Chartreux, two miles distant. He remained in France twenty-two months, but disliked the French with stubborn prejudice. Impending war caused Englishmen to be ordered out of the country. Early in June 1778 he returned from Calais to Dover, narrowly escaping an American frigate. Harris engaged him at 10l.. a week. To his after-piece, ‘The Gipsies,’ written while in France, Thomas Arnold had set the music. Of six interludes which he had prepared abroad, his ‘Rose and Colin’ and ‘The Wives Revenged’ were injudiciously but