Dibdin was the son of
Charles Dibdin, a songwriter and theatre manager, and of "Mrs Davenet", an actress whose real name was
Harriett Pitt. He was introduced to the stage at five years old, in his godfather David Garrick’s pageant of ‘’Jubilee of Shakespeare’’. Mrs Siddons was The Venus and the Young Tom Cupid. He was apprenticed to his maternal uncle, a
London upholsterer, and later to William Rawlins, afterwards
sheriff of London. He summoned his second master unsuccessfully for rough treatment; and after a few years of service he ran away to join a company of country players. From 1789 to 1795 he played all sorts of parts; he worked as a scene painter at
Liverpool in 1791; and during this period he composed more than 1,000 songs. His first work as a dramatist was
Something New, followed by
The Mad Guardian in 1795. He returned to
London in 1795, having married two years before; and in the winter of 1798–99
The Jew and the Doctor was produced at
Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. From this time he contributed a very large number of
comedies,
operas,
farces, etc., to the public entertainment, including (in 1802) the comic opera
Family Quarrels. Some of these brought immense popularity to the writer and immense profits to the theatres. It is stated that the
pantomime of
Mother Goose (1807) produced more than £20,000 for the management at Covent Garden theatre, and the
High-mettled Racer, adapted as a pantomime from his father's play, £18,000 at Astley's. Dibdin was
prompter and pantomime writer at
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane until 1816, when he took over the
Surrey Theatre. This venture proved disastrous, and he became bankrupt. After this, he was manager of the
Haymarket Theatre, but without his old success, and his last years were passed in comparative poverty. In 1827 he published two volumes of
Reminiscences; and at the time of his death he was preparing an edition of his father's sea songs, for which a small sum was allowed him weekly by the
Lords of the Admiralty. Of his own songs, "The Oak Table" and "The Snug Little Island" were popular at the time. He died leaving a widow (second wife) and young family.
Charles Dickens quotes from Dibdin's patriotic song "The Snug Little Island" in
Little Dorrit: 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 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 the Addenda (containing songs of T. Dibdin) to
Songs of the Late Charles Dibdin, a collection arranged by Thomas Dibdin with sketches by
George Cruikshank. A copy was found in Dickens's library after his death. ==Family==