Books › Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883 › scan 215
Scan 215
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
7 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 201. See the scan on archive.org.
1of James V., and governed the kingdom more like the Viceroy of the French monarch than as a Scottish ruler. He would, undoubtedly, have influence in attracting to Scotland those usages to which he had been accustomed in France, where, only twenty years afterwards, the violin was actually in use, as is evident from the description of the Rouen fêtes which have already been referred to as occurring in 1550. That Hume was a maker of violins and viols, as well as lutes, is, I think, therefore, not improbable, especially as English lutes had, at that time and later, a European celebrity, for Galileo, the father of the renowned astronomer, says that in his time (1583) the best lutes were made in England, and it is unlikely that such celebrated lute makers would be unacquainted with the manufacture of such bowed instruments as were then in use, the father of "the great Ferabosco" notwithstanding. Indeed, if Dr. Schebek's theory that the two trades were always united, be correct, the probability that Hume made both kinds of bow instruments is greatly enhanced. The earliest reference to the "fiddle" which, for the moment, I remember to have met in British literature, occurs in a Scottish poem called "The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy," which was published during its author's lifetime by the old printers, Chepman and Myllar, of Edinburgh, in the year 1508. Only a fragment of this edition is known to exist, but it contains the allusion to which I refer, and which is as follows:
3Ane Benefice quha wald gif sic ane beist,
4 Bot gif it war to jyngill Judass bellis;
5Tak thé ane fidill, or a floyt to jeist,
6 Undocht, thow art ordanit to nocht ellis!
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.