Books › The Violin: A concise exposition of the general principles of construction.., 1871 › scan 29
Scan 29
The Violin: A concise exposition of the general principles of construction.., 1871
14 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Islands. From a quaint author in 1634,* we cite the following referring to country wakes—"They hate the laurell, which is the reason they have no poets amongst them, so as if there be any that seeme to have a smatch in that generous science, he arrives no higher than the style of a ballet, wherein they have a reasonable facultie, especially at a wake, when they assemble themselves together at a towne green, for then they sing their ballets and lay out such throats as the country fiddlers cannot be heard." A contemporary author† relates the following on marriage feasts:—"Some cannot be merrie without the noise of fiddlers, who scrape acquaintance at the first sight; nor sing, unless the divell himself come in for a part," &c. And from another author, about the same date,‡ we learn the following:—"Next morning come the fiddlers, and scrape him a wicked reveillez. The drums rattle, the shaumers tote, the trumpets sound tan ta ra, ra, ra, and the whole street rings with the benedictions and good wishes of fiddlers, pipers, and trumpetters."
3Shirley, in his Lady of Pleasure, written about 1635, makes one of the characters say:—
5"The case is alter'd since we lived i' the country;
6We do not now invite the poor o' the parish
7To dinner, keep a table for the tenants;
8Our kitchen does not smell of beef; the cellar
9Defies the price of malt and hops; the footmen
11* A strange Metamorphosis of Man transformed into a Wilderness deciphered in Characters. 1634.
12† Griffith's Bethel, or a Forme of Families. 1634.
13‡ Comforts of Wooing.
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