Scan 373
The violin, its famous makers and their imitators, 1887
19 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1fended the cause of Fiddling against the attacks of Hudibras—
3"When civil fury first grew high,
4And men fell out, they knew not why;
5When hard words, jealousies, and fears
6Set folks together by the ears,
7And made them fight, like mad or drunk.
9Then did Sir Knight abandon dwelling,
10And out he rode a-colonelling."
12The absurdities into which the genius of Cervantes hurried Don Quixote and Sancho served to allay the extravagances of knight-errantry. The adventures of Hudibras and Ralpho, undertaken to extinguish the sports and pastimes of the people, aided greatly in staying the hand of fanaticism, which had suppressed all stage plays and interludes as "condemned by ancient heathens, and by no means to be tolerated among professors of the Christian religion."
14With Crowdero we are taken back upwards of two centuries in the history of the Violin; from times wherein it is held in the highest esteem and admiration, to days when it was regarded with contempt and ridicule. Crowdero (so called from crowd, a Fiddle) was the fictitious name for one Jackson, a milliner, who lived in the New Exchange, in the Strand. He had served with the Roundheads, and lost a leg, which brought him into reduced circumstances, until he was obliged to Fiddle from one alehouse to another for his existence. Hudibras—
16"On stirrup-side, he gaz'd about
17Portending blood, like blazing star,
18The beacon of approaching war."
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