Books › The history of the violin, and other instruments played on with the bow from …, 1864 › scan 22
Scan 22
The history of the violin, and other instruments played on with the bow from …, 1864
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1power of music, is that related by Howell, in a letter to Sir James Crofts, 6th September, 1624, where he calls it a pleasant tale of Sir Thomas Fairfax, of a soldier with his bagpipes, who, after a weary walk in Ireland, sat down to enjoy his frugal meal of bread and cheese. While so employed, two or three gaunt and hungry wolves approached, and the soldier, somewhat dismayed, first threw them a bit of cheese, and then a bit of bread, till his stock was exhausted, but the fierce animals still seemed unsatisfied, and approached nearer. The soldier then took up his bagpipes in despair, and treated the animals with some choice bits on this ancient instrument, on which they turned tail, and trotted off, howling in unison. "A plague on it," says the soldier; "if I had known you loved music so well, you should have had it before dinner."
3It may seem to those but imperfectly acquainted with the subject that not much can be said respecting the history of the violin. Fiddles were played on, they suppose, some time back, perhaps by the Greeks and Romans; they have heard of Nero playing the fiddle while Rome was burning, and have been told that the best fiddles are called Cremonas, and, indeed, even in the present day, some have asked whether Cremona is the name of a maker or a performer.
5In truth, however, the history of the violin—meaning thereby stringed instruments played on with a bow—is a subject of great difficulty, and the origin, like that of many other well known things, seems lost in obscurity, especially the commencement of the use of the bow. Considerable labour and attention are required to give even a reasonable account; and, though we do not seek to rival the research and perseverance of Father Ocampo, who began his intended history of the emperor Charles V.
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