ic pieces.
He also wrote the following novels:--_The Devil_ (1785); _Hannah Hewitt_
(1792); _The Younger Brother_ (1793). An edition of his songs by G.
Hogarth (1843) contains a memoir of his life. His two sons, Charles and
Thomas John Dibdin (q.v.), whose works are often confused with those of
their father, were also popular dramatists in their day.

DIBDIN, THOMAS FROGNALL (1776-1847), English bibliographer, born at
Calcutta in 1776, was the son of Thomas Dibdin, the sailor brother of
Charles Dibdin. His father and mother both died on the way home to
England in 1780, and Thomas was brought up by a maternal uncle. He was
educated at St John's College, Oxford, and studied for a time at
Lincoln's Inn. After an unsuccessful attempt to obtain practice as a
provincial counsel at Worcester, he was ordained a clergyman at the
close of 1804, being appointed to a curacy at Kensington. It was not
until 1823 that he received the living of Exning in Sussex. Soon
afterwards he was appointed by Lord Liverpool to the rectory of St
Mary's, Bryanston Square, which he held until his death on the 18th of
November 1847. The first of his numerous bibliographical works was his
_Introduction to the Knowledge of Editions of the Classics_ (1802),
which brought him under the notice of the third Earl Spencer, to whom he
owed much important aid in his bibliographical pursuits. The rich
library at Althorp was thrown open to him; he spent much of his time in
it, and in 1814-1815 published his _Bibliotheca Spenceriana_. As the
library was not open to the general public, the information given in the
_Bibliotheca_ was found very useful, but since its author was unable
even to read the characters in which the books he described were
written, the work was marred by the errors which more or less
characterize all his productions. This fault of inaccuracy however was
less obtrusive in his series of playful, discursive works in the form of
dialogues on his favourite subject, the first of which, _Bibliomania_
(1809), was republished with large additions in 1811, and was very
popular, passing through numerous editions. To the same class belonged
the _Bibliographical Decameron_, a larger work, which appeared in 1817.
In 1810 he began the publication of a new and much extended edition of
Ames's _Typographical Antiquities_. The first volume was a great
success, but the publication was checked by the failure of the fourth
volume, and was never completed. In