Books › The History of the Violin and Other Instruments Played on with the Bow from the Remotest Times to the Present by William Sandys and Andrew Forster, 1864 › scan 44
Scan 44
The History of the Violin and Other Instruments Played on with the Bow from the Remotest Times to the Present by William Sandys and Andrew Forster, 1864
16 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1"The Old Law," by Middleton, fiddlers are introduced to play at an expected wedding, a ceremony where they were always in requisition: Gnatho, the servant, says: "Fiddlers, crowd on, crowd on; let no man lay a block in your way; crowd on, I say!" The wedding being broken off, the unlucky fiddlers are sent off without their fee: "Case up your fruitless strings, no penny, no wedding." In Marston's "What you will" they are mentioned in a somewhat disparaging way:—
3"—— Now the musicians
4Hover with nimble sticks o'er squeaking crowds,
5Tickling the dried guts of a mewing cat."
7Their constant resort to convivial meetings is frequently alluded to, as—
9"The fiddler's croud now squeaks aloud,
10 His fidlinge stringes begin to trole;
11He loves a wake and a wedding cake,
12 A bride-house and a brave May-pole."
13 Cupid's Banishment, 1617.
15Ben Jonson and Drayton each name the crowd, as an instrument to dance to; and Sir W. Leighton, in "Teares or Lamentations of a Sorrowfull Soule" (1613), where a curious list of musical instruments is given to sound the praises of the Almighty, mentions crowdes and vialls. In the "Diary of John Richards," printed in the "Retrospective Review," published by Mr. J. Russell Smith, there is an entry on 5th July, 1699, of Mr. Mallerd coming to finish Jack's crowd, and taking away his own bass-viol to mend. This crowd was no doubt a fiddle, as part of Jack's outfit in 1700, on going to Wimborne School, was "1 violin." We are inclined to think that during our Westminster æra, a fiddle would have led a sad life amongst our three hundred companions; we have heard, however, of one or two now of distinguished
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