Previous entries for March 4th are here: Antonio Vivaldi (2019), Antonio Vivaldi (2020), Paul Mauriat; Antonio Vivaldi (2021), Antonio Vivaldi; Mario Davidovsky (2022), Antonio Vivaldi; Egbert Van Alstyne (2023), Antonio Vivaldi (2024), and Antonio Vivaldi; Nicolai von Wilm (2025)
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Charles Dibdin (bapt. 4 March 1745 – 25 July 1814) was an English composer, musician, dramatist, novelist, singer and actor.
No Dibs
Dozens of [Dibdin's] songs had the same sort of cultural currency as the Beatles’ songs do now. -- heavily adapted from "Charles Dibdin and Popular Song in the Romantic Period" at www.bars.ac.uk
'No actor now, or actress, longs
To entertain with Dibdin's songs.
The comic songs of yesteryears
Fall flat when heard by modern ears,
And songs once sure to get a laugh
Now languish silent on the staff;
When every joke and cheeky pun
Must be explained, they've lost their fun.
And songs of faded party schisms
Or patriotic jingoisms
Are apt to lose their salty sting,
And may not be the thing to sing
When erstwhile foes become our friends,
And parties work to different ends.
And songs of beaus and yielding lasses,
Which once amused the middle classes,
Have lost their cool erotic kick,
And strike us now as sexist ick.
No actor now, or actress, longs
To entertain with Dibdin's songs.
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