Scan 48
Researches into the early history of the violin family, 1883
19 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 38. See the scan on archive.org.
1writers which indicate an early popularity of the crowd, and which deserve the attention of musical historians. Charles Richardson especially gives suggestive examples from the works of Chaucer, Wiclif and others. As regards Wiclif, a sentence from his translation of St. Luke, chap. xv., dating from the fourteenth century, alludes to the crowd as follows:—
3But his eldre son was in the feeld, and when he cam and neighede to the hous, he herde a symfonye and a croude.
5Perhaps the word in question is here meant to signify a dance, or a cheerful assemblage; the authorised version has "music and dancing." At all events, even if Wiclif refers to a musical instrument popular in his time, and generally played in England on occasions of rejoicing and festivities, we cannot be sure whether he refers to an instrument played with the bow.
7The following example, which is not given in the dictionaries, appears to me especially noteworthy:—
9Thomas of Erceldoune ("Sir Tristrem;" thirteenth century): "His harp, his croude was rike." This is, as far as I am aware, the earliest of the known poems in which the crowd is mentioned. The way in which it is spoken of rather makes it appear as if its strings were twanged like those of the harp.
11Dating from the fourteenth century we possess several examples. The following is from a Cornish sacred drama supposed to have been written in the fourteenth century. It has been published with an English translation by Edwin Norris (Oxford, 1859). It must be remembered that the Cornish language, which has now become obsolete, was a dialect of the Welsh. In this poem the crowd is enumerated with other instruments, thus:—
13Wethong, menstrels ha tabours!
14Trey-hans harpes ha trompours,
15Cythol, crowd, fylh, ha savtry,
16Psalmus, gyttrens, ha nakrys,
17Organs, in weth cymbalys,
18Recordys ha symphony.
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