Jeremy Diddler is a fictional character in James Kenney's 1803 farce Raising the Wind, based on an amusing importunist named Bibb, or “half-crown Bibb”.1
A needy artful swindler, 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.234
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
References
- "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.
- "Jeremy Diddler". The Star. Vol. IX, no. 197. Victoria, Australia. 18 August 1864. p. 3. Retrieved 4 September 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
- "A Jeremy Diddler". The Weekly Times. No. 532. Victoria, Australia. 15 November 1879. p. 7. Retrieved 4 September 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
- "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). "Diddler, Jeremy". The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne.