Jeremy Diddler

Jeremy Diddler is a fictional character in James Kenney's 1803 farce Raising the Wind, and is said to have been based on an amusing importunist named Bibb, dubbed "half-crown Bibb".[1]

A needy, artful swindler, "Jeremy Diddler" became a stock character in farce; the word "diddle" may be derived from him, or vice versa, and was a very common expression in the 19th and early 20th centuries.[2][3][4]

The character of Jeremy Diddler is discussed in some detail in Herman Melville's The Confidence Man: His Masquerade.

He appears in Thomas Haynes Bayly's novel David Dumps (chapter XV).

References
  1. "The Original Jeremy Diddler". The Gundagai Times and Tumut, Adelong and Murrumbidgee District Advertiser. Vol. XIV, no. 1081. New South Wales, Australia. 17 August 1872. p. 4. Retrieved 3 September 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. "Jeremy Diddler". The Star. Vol. IX, no. 197. Victoria, Australia. 18 August 1864. p. 3. Retrieved 4 September 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. "A Jeremy Diddler". The Weekly Times. No. 532. Victoria, Australia. 15 November 1879. p. 7. Retrieved 4 September 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. "A Jeremy Diddler". The Launceston Examiner. Vol. XLIX, no. 149. Tasmania, Australia. 24 June 1889. p. 3. Retrieved 4 September 2021 – via National Library of Australia.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). "Jeremy Diddler". The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne.


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