Scan 102
Researches into the early history of the violin family, 1883
15 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 92. See the scan on archive.org.
1is generally supposed to designate a diminutive rebec; however, the expression "a small ribible" does not exactly agree with this conjecture, since the adjective appears unnecessary:—
3G. Chaucer ("Canterbury Tales;" fourteenth century:—
5 In twentie maner coud he trippe and daunce,
6 After the schole of Oxenforde tho,
7 And with his legges casten to and fro,
8 And plaie songes on a smale ribible.
10In all likelihood, ribible is a diminutive of rebel, which occurs, as we have seen, in a poem by Thibaut of Navarre, a century earlier than Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales." The substitution of nubelle for rebel by most of our musical historians who quote Thibaut's poem is unwarranted. This has been already pointed out by A. W. Ambros, in his "Geschichte der Musik," Vol. ii., p. 507. It would not have happened, were not most of our writers on musical subjects mere compilers.
12Joseph Strutt, in his "Sports and Pastimes of the People of England," Book iii., chap. 3, narrates an anecdote recorded in a manuscript of the fourteenth century, in which the ribible is alluded to. The manuscript, which is supposed to have been written in the reign of Edward III., is in the British Museum (Harl. MS., 1764). The minstrels at that time wore a peculiar garment, described as "a coat bardy, cut short in the German fashion." A vain young gentleman, dressed in a similar garb, makes his appearance at a feast where many of the nobility are present, and is asked by an elderly knight to whom he is well known: "Where, my friend, is your fiddle, your ribible, or such like instrument belonging to a minstrel?"
14Mutatis mutandis, the same scene may occur again in the present century. R. Nares, in his "Glossary," expresses the opinion that the English term rebec is a derivation from the Italian ribeca, or ribeba, and he refers the reader to a statement in Hawkins's "History of Music," vol. ii., p. 86, according to which the rebec came to England from Spain, through Italy. However, it may have been obtained direct
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