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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