Books › The heart of music; the story of the violin, 1906 › scan 151
Scan 151
The heart of music; the story of the violin, 1906
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1The Troubadour's Fiddle
3castle to castle, jesting, singing, and making love indiscriminately to the innkeeper's daughter and the wife of the feudal lord. The two classes of minstrels were very definitely divided,—the high-born troubadour and the ragged jongleur,—but they were both adventurers, depending on their musical skill and their mother wit for their next meal and a night's lodging. Their audacity was their stock in trade, whether directed against priest or baron, comrade or sweetheart.
5"My nag is a better Christian than you, and I will prove it," declared a merry jongleur to one of the heretic sect of Albigensians, the while he scraped his rebeck diligently for the monk's distraction. "You drink no wine; neither does he. You eat no meat; neither does he. He does not even eat bread. You are badly lodged; he is worse. You deny the articles of faith; my nag, on the contrary, though he does not believe, does not oppose the faith nor deny the truth; so you see he has the advantage of you both as to faith and as to works!" And he ended with a flourish of notes and a wave of his bow.
7Even such a gentle singer as Raimbaut de Vaqueiras had to be reproved by the lady of his adoration with the following quaintly recorded remonstrance: "Mountebank, your effrontery
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.