Bow & Bridge Violin and bow makers, as the old books printed them

Books › the history of the violin, 1864 › scan 170

Scan 170

the history of the violin, 1864

4 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 148. See the scan on archive.org.

1B.A. and Gent. Com. of Mert. Coll., who played on the bass-viol, Joh. Nap, of Trinity, on the citerne; and George Mason of the said Coll. on another wyer instrument, but could do nothing. They disguised themselves in poor habits, like country fiddlers, and went about to the country places, receiving drink and money for their performances. On one occasion they were met by some soldiers, who made them play in the open field, and then left them without giving them a penny. Other players named were Charles Perot, Christopher Harrison, John Vincent, Sylvanus Taylor, Henry Langley, Samuel Woodford, and Francis Parry, violists; and Kenelm Digby, violinist. Mr. Sherard, an apothecary, was a fine player on the violin, and Capt'n Marcellus Laroon on the violoncello. Lord Keeper North and Sir Roger L'Estrange were both fine players on the viol. Much interesting information relating to music will be found in Dr. Rimbault's edition of "North's Memoirs of Musick."
3The lyra-viol, on which Proctor excelled, and which is frequently mentioned among the instruments of this time (the leero-viole in Hume's work lately referred to), and on which Pepys says his brother played so as to show that he had "a love to musique and a spirit for it," was a viol da gamba tuned differently from the common six-stringed bass, and the notation for it was written in tablature, like that of the lute. Playford says, this way of playing the viol was of recent invention, and an imitation of the old English lute or bandora. John Jenkyns, the master of Proctor, was the best performer on it then known. There would appear, however, to be some allusion to such an instrument or mode of playing, quite in the beginning of the century, as in "Lingua," by Anthony Brewer, about the end of Elizabeth, Tactus

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