Scan 50
Researches into the early history of the violin family, 1883
13 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 40. See the scan on archive.org.
1plishments, is still called a crowder. But the violin dates only from the sixteenth century, and is neither identical with the viol nor with the ancient crowd. In the sixteenth century the names crowd and fiddle appear to have been used synonymously, to judge from a sentence recorded by J. Payne Collier, in his edition of Shakespeare's works. A certain John Hogon, in the year 1537, is reprimanded for "singing lewd ballads, with a crowd or fyddyll." Moreover, J. Strutt ("The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England," p. 186, London, 1845) remarks: "The name of fiddlers was applied to the minstrels as early, at least, as the fourteenth century. It occurs in 'The Vision of Pierce the Ploughman,' where we read: 'Not so fare as a fydeler, or a frier, to seke feastes.' It is also used, but not sarcastically, in the poem of Launfel."
3Every musical historian knows that the names of our musical instruments have, in many instances, been transferred from one species to another. It is, therefore, not surprising that much confusion should still prevail among modern writers respecting certain obsolete instruments of remote antiquity.
5The croud mentioned in the following stanza, from "The Palace of Honour," by Gavin Douglas, written about the year 1500, probably designates the viol, or perhaps the rebeck:—
7 In modulation hard I play and sing,
8 Taburdoun, pricson discant, countering;
9 Cant organe figuration and gemmell,
10 On croud, lute, harpe, with monie gudlie spring.
12A representation of an English crowd, dating from the thirteenth century, and shown in the annexed woodcut, is to be found on a bas-relief on the choir in Worcester Cathedral; at any rate, the sculpture depicts an angel who is applying a bow to a sort of fiddle which resembles the Welsh crwth. Its front is, however, oval, while that of the crwth of the eighteenth century known to us is square. It therefore resembles rather the old crwth described in the poem of the fifteenth century, previously quoted. Only five strings are given to it.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.