Allusions in Music and Literature
The tune of "Tom Bowling" forms part of the medley of English sea-songs customarily played on the Last Night of the Proms. Mr Verdant Green, eponymous hero of the novel by Cuthbert Bede, learns to row and 'feathers his oars with skill and dexterity' (Part II Chapter VI), borrowing a line from Dibdin's song "The Jolly Young Waterman." The great Victorian baritone Sir Charles Santley made his farewell performance at Covent Garden in 1911 in the role of Tom Tug in Dibdin's opera The Waterman. And in James Joyce's story 'Eveline' (from 'Dubliners'), Frank 'sang about the lass that loves a sailor' from the song of the same name by Dibdin.
Charles Dickens quotes from Dibdin's patriotic song "The Tight 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 little 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 Songs, Naval and National, 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, though it is unlikely Dickens heard the same patriotic message as much of Dibdin's audience.
Read more about this topic: Charles Dibdin
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