Charles Dibdin the younger

Charles Isaac Mungo Dibdin (27 October 1768 – 15 January 1833), or Charles Pitt or Charles Dibdin the younger, as he was professionally known, was an English dramatist, composer, writer and theatre proprietor. He was perhaps best known for his proprietorship of the Sadler's Wells Theatre and for the pantomimes and satirical farces that he wrote, and which were staged at many theatres across London. He employed Joseph Grimaldi at Sadler's Wells where Grimaldi appeared in many of his most successful pantomimes. He was the son of Charles Dibdin, brother of Thomas John Dibdin and godson of David Garrick.

Born in Russell Court, Covent Garden, London, as the illegitimate son of composer Charles Dibdin and the actress Harriett Pitt, Dibdin was named after his father's friend and librettist Isaac Bickerstaffe and their character Mungo in an afterpiece entitled The Padlock. Dibdin made his theatrical debut opposite his elder brother Thomas John Dibdin in his godfather David Garrick'sThe Jubilee in 1775. Soon after this performance, his parents separated, and Dibdin changed his surname to his mother's maiden name, Pitt.

Dibdin's mother was initially against her son following a theatrical career and so arranged for him to start an apprenticeship for his uncle Cecil Pitt, a furniture-maker, who worked in central London. Dibdin commenced his schooling in Hackney, then moved to County Durham where, at the age of nine, he enrolled at a boarding-school at Barnard Castle, remaining there until the age of 14, without a holiday. When he was 14, Dibdin returned to London and began an apprenticeship for a pawnbroker, which he continued for several years. Keen to realise a literary ambition, Dibdin published a collection of verse, Poetical Attempts: by a Young Man in 1792 and along with his brother Thomas, wrote the Christmas pantomime The Talisman; or, Harlequin Made Happy in 1796.

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