Books › The violin : some account of that leading instrument and its most eminent professors, from its earliest date to the present time : with hints to amateurs, anecdotes, etc., 1852 › scan 411
Scan 411
The violin : some account of that leading instrument and its most eminent professors, from its earliest date to the present time : with hints to amateurs, anecdotes, etc., 1852
25 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 395. See the scan on archive.org.
1niment, to the appropriate burden of "Heigh ho! fiddle de dee!" and a very wry face at each recurrence of this peculiar interjection. He much affected Knightsbridge and Hyde Park Corner, but was likewise visible at other points of the metropolis. His wife, a diminutive body, with a small whine by way of voice, helped to make "variety of wretchedness" in the exhibition. They looked as if familiar with none but the copper coinage of the realm. Yet they had generally their coterie around them—their "assistance admirable." To be musical, any how, passes for a talent!
3I will not suppose my readers so oblivious of an elderly joke, as not to recognize the face of that which is about to greet them; but, having found a version of it "turned to numbers," I present it—a little "rubbed up" for the occasion—to the indulgent attention of those who have only met with it in prosaic statement:
5A blind man, fed by fiddling,
6 Was known through many a street;
7His "style," far short of "middling,"
8 With some did pass for sweet.
9He priz'd his fiddle greatly;
10 The case had fainter praise—
11The case by "wife" made lately,
12 With half a yard of baize.
13One day, when, led by Rover,
14 He had a bridge to pass,
15His fiddle tumbled over,
16 Stick, case, and all, alas!
17He straight set up a roaring,
18 And added such grimace,
19That folks around came pouring,
20 And pitied his sad case.
21"Sad case! Psha! twiddle diddle!"
22 Cried he, with scornful face;
23"Could I but get my fiddle
24 D'ye think I'd mind the case?"
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