VIOLONO VIRGIL. 



S27 



do, only an octave deeper. Its notes are written 

 in the F or bass clef; and it generally accompanies 

 the double bass ; but modern composers, as Cheru- 

 bini, Beethoven, Weber and Spontini, often let the 

 violoncello take an independent part. For tones 



above ~d and e, the tenor clef is generally used, or 

 the violin clef, the latter especially for the highest 

 notes in concertos, &c. But in this case the notes 

 must always be written an octave higher, as the 

 violoncello is a whole octave lower than the violin. 

 The violoncello, properly, is but a modification of 

 the old viola di gamba (see Ft'o/a), and has but 

 lately been used as a solo instrument. The inven- 

 tor of it was Tardieu, a clergyman of Tarascon, at 

 the beginning of the eighteenth century. At first 



it had five strings, viz. C, G, d, a, d. In 1725, the 

 d was omitted as superfluous. The most distin- 

 guished modern violomelloplayers are Romberg (in 

 Berlin), Kraft (in Stuttgart), Merk (in Vienna), 

 Knoop (in Meiningen), Bohrer (in Paris), Dotzauer 

 (Dresden), who have also written for this instru- 

 ment. Instructions for playing on the violoncello 

 have been written by Baillot, Levasseur, Catel, 

 Baudiot, Alexander, and others. Before the double 

 bass came into use, the violoncello was called vio- 

 lono, which name was afterwards given to the 

 former instrument. 



VIOLONO (Italian; the English double bass; 

 in French, contrebasse ; violon signifying, in that 

 language, the violin) is the largest of the bow in- 

 struments, and is principally used to sustain the 

 harmony. Some performers, of late, have played 

 solos on it (for example, Hindle, of Vienna, and 

 Dall' Occa, an Italian), but not without some 

 changes, which diminish the strength of its tones. 

 In the Italian orchestra, it still has generally but 

 three strings, by which, however, its compass is too 

 much limited. In Germany, it has generally four, 

 in some places five, strings. The four strings are 

 tuned thus: E, A, d, g; and all are an octave 

 deeper than the corresponding ones of the violon- 

 cello. As there is necessarily much difficulty in 

 managing this instrument, composers ought not to 

 load it with passages which can be but imperfectly 

 executed. 



VIOTTI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA, the first violinist 

 of his age, was a Piedmontese, born near Crescen- 

 tino, in 1755, studied under Pugnani, and, in his 

 twenty-first year, was made first violinist at the 

 royal chapel in Turin. He afterwards visited Ber- 

 lin and Paris. On the breaking out of the revolu- 

 tion, he took refuge in England, and, from the year 

 1794 till 1798, had a share in the management of 

 the king's theatre, himself leading in the orchestra. 

 Having received an order from the alien office to 

 quit the country, he retired to Holland, and thence 

 to Hamburg. In 1801, he returned to London, 

 engaged in the wine trade, and lost the whole of 

 his property. After the restoration of the Bour- 

 bons, Louis XVIII. invited him to preside over the 

 academic royale de musique at Paris, which situation 

 he accepted, but did not retain it long, owing to 

 his increasing age and bodily infirmities. In 1822, 

 he settled finally in London, and there remained 

 till his death in the spring of 1824. He was the 

 author of a great variety of music for the violin ; 

 but the only two vocal compositions are the polac- 

 cas Che Gioja, and Consola, Amato Bene, both 

 masterpieces in their way. 



VIPER. See Serpent. 



VIRGIL. PUBLIUS ViRGiLii's MARO, the most 



distinguished epic, didactic and pastoral poet of 

 ancient Rome, was born at Andes (now Petiola~), a 

 little village near Mantua, in the year 70 B. C. 

 His father possessed a small estate there, which he 

 cultivated himself. Virgil travelled to Cremona, 

 Milan and Naples for the purpose of improvement, 

 and studied the Epicurean philosophy under a cer- 

 tain Syro. Varus, to whom the sixth eclogue is 

 addressed, was probably his fellow pupil. It has 

 been generally supposed that the poems which bear 

 the inscription Catalecta Virgilii, were composed 

 by him at an early age ; but modern criticism has 

 shown that some of them are evidently not his, and 

 that others are of uncertain date. If we are to 

 suppose that Virgil describes himself under the 

 character of Tityrus in his first eclogue, he was 

 thirty years of age when he went to Rome for the 

 first time, to obtain the restoration of his farm, 

 which had been taken possession of by the soldiers 

 of Octavius and Antony, after the close of the war 

 against the republicans. He was here presented, 

 by Pollio or some other friend, to Augustus, and 

 gained the favour of Maecenas, through whose in- 

 tercession he obtained the restitution of his proper- 

 ty. But on his attempting to take possession of it, 

 the new occupants resisted him, and threatened his 

 life ; and it was not until after a second journey to 

 Rome, and repeated efforts, that he finally succeeded 

 in his object. About this time, he wrote several 

 eclogues, the tenth and last of which is ascribed to 

 the thirty-third or thirty-fourth year of his age. 

 His Georgics (poem on agriculture), which he un- 

 dertook at the suggestion of Maecenas, are said, by 

 grammarians, to have been begun in his thirty-fourth 

 year. He is said to have spent seven years upon 

 this work, which was principally composed at 

 Naples; but these accounts of him are not well 

 authenticated. It is certain that the JEneid is his 

 last work. Virgil was now in high favour with 

 Augustus, with whom he kept up a familiar cor- 

 respondence. After completing the plan of his great 

 epic, he retired to Greece, with the design of ac- 

 complishing it there at his leisure. But Augustus 

 having arrived at Athens, on his return from the 

 East, Virgil determined to accompany him home. 

 At Megara, however, he fell sick ; and, his disease 

 becoming aggravated on the journey, he died at 

 Brundusium, or, according to some, at Tarentum, 

 in the fifty-second year of his age, B. C. 19. His 

 body was carried to Naples, in compliance with his 

 directions, and there interred in the Puteolan way. 

 (See Naples.) According to well-authenticated 

 accounts, the poet, on his death-bed, ordered the 

 JEneiA to be burnt, as an unfinished and defective 

 work ; but it was preserved by his friends, in dis- 

 obedience to his wishes. This circumstance is 

 characteristic of the modesty of Virgil. He was 

 likewise of a mild and gentle disposition, without 

 pretensions in his manners, and constant in his 

 friendship. As a poet, the first place must be as- 

 signed to him among the many distinguished authors 

 of lis age. If he had not the inventive talent in 

 its highest degree for in his Eclogues he imitated 

 Theocritus, in his Georgics, Hesiod, and in his 

 JEneid, Homer yet he deserves our admiration for 

 his command of language, which he displays in all 

 gradations, from the simplest and sweetest strains 

 of the pastoral, to the most splendid and lofty de- 

 scriptions of the epic; for the beauty of his versi- 

 fication, in which, particularly in georgic poetry, 

 he is unrivalled ; and for the taste and skill with 

 which he manages all the materials of poetry. 



