LYRE. 



lie found without a neck, and the ftiiiigr, open as in the 

 modern h.irj), played hy the fingers. ( Amiq. Expl. torn. iii. 

 lib. 5. cap. 3.) But though ancient and modern authors 

 uluailv contound thcfe inftrunnents, yet a maniRft diftinflion 

 is made by Arift. Ouintil. in the following pafTagc, p. lot. 

 After difcuffing^ the characters of wind-ii ftruments, he fays, 

 " Among the ilringed inftruinruts, you will find the lyre of 

 a charaAer analogous to mafculiue, from the great depth or 

 gravity, and roughuefs of its tones ; the fanibuca of a fe- 

 minine charafler, iveak and delicate, and from its great acute- 

 nefs, and the fmallrefs of its firings, tending to diffblve and 

 enervate. Of the intermediate inftrumcnts, the polypthon- 

 ^\\m parishes moft of \he feminine ; but the cithara differs 

 not much from the mnfctiline charaR:r of the lyre." Here is 

 a fcale of (Iringed inllruments ; the lyre and fanibuca at the 

 extrtmcs ; the polyptliongum and cithara between ; the one 

 next to the fambuca, the other next to the lyre. He after- 

 wards jult mentions that there were others between thefe. 

 Now it is natural to infer, that as he conllantly attributes 

 the manly charadcrto gravity of tone, tlie cithara was pro- 

 bably the more acute inftrument of the two ; lefs loud and 

 rough, and ftrung with fmaller firings. Concerning what 

 difference there might be in the form and itrufture of the 

 inftruments, he is wholly filent. The paffage, however, is 

 curious as far as it goes, and decifive. The cithara may, 

 perhaps, have been as different from the lyre, as a fingle 

 harp from one that is double ; and it feems to be clearly 

 pointed out by this multiplicity of names that the Greeks 

 had two principal fpecies of flringed inftruments ; one, like 

 our harp, of hill compafs, that relied on its bafe ; the other 

 more portable, and flung over the fhoulder, like our fmaller 

 harp or guitar, or like the ancfent lyres reprefented in fculp- 

 ture. 



Tacitus, Annal. xvi. 4. among the rules of decorum ob- 

 ferved by public performers, to which Nero, he fays, ttridlly 

 fubmitted, mi^ntions, " That he was not to fit down when 

 tired." Ne feffus refideret. It is remarkable that he calls 

 thefe rules, Cithane Leges, « The Laws of the Cithar.i ;" 

 which feems to afford a pretty fair proof of its being of 

 fuch a fize and form as to admit of being played on Jlnnd- 

 ing. 



The ufe of the phorminx in Homer, leads rather to the 

 rough, manly, harp-like character. But a paffage in Or- 

 pheus, Argon. 380, feems to make phorminx. the fame as 

 clielys, the lutiform inftrument of Mercury. It is there 

 faid of Chiron, that he " fometimes llrikes the cithara of 

 Apollo ; fometimes the fhell-refounding phorminx of Mer- 

 c«i-y, 



HXr/Ufnz ^c^jjLf/ya ^i^vKKotaf Efpaiivo;. " 



This paffage is curiotis ; for though the Argonautics were 

 not written by Orpheus himfelf, they have all the appear- 

 ance of great antiquity. * 



The belly of a theorbo, or arch-lute, is nfually made in 

 the (hell-form, as if the idea of its origin had never been 

 loft ; and the etymology of the word guitar feems naturally 

 dcducible from cithara ; it is fuppofcd that the Roman C 

 was hard, hke the modern K, and the Italian word chilarra 

 is manifeftly derived from KiGaoa, cithara. 



In the hymn to Mercury, aforibed to Homer, Mercury 

 and Apollo are faid to play with the ckhd.ri under tk-ir 

 arms, ver. 507. I' tr.-A'viov Ki,-M;i^i:,ful> uhiacitharA-ludebat, 

 " played with the cithara under his arm." So in ver. 4^,2. 

 ;ir«X:»i«, at his arm, fiiould, according to the critics, be 

 in-aXr.iov, as it is afterwards. This feems to point out a 

 guitar more than a harp ; but the ancients liad lyres, citharae, 



and teftudos of as different fliapcs from each other, as oilr 

 harp, fpinnet, virginal, and pianoforte. 



Thcfe paffages in old authors are a kind of antique draw, 

 ings, far more fatisfaftory than thofe of ancient feulpturc ; 

 for we have fcen the fyrinx, which had a regular ferics of 

 notes afccnding or dcfccnduig, reprefented with feven pipes, 

 four of one le!:g;h, and three of another, which of courfe 

 would furnifh no more tiian two different founds. The 

 cymbals too, which were to be ftrnck againil each other, 

 arc placed in the hands of fome antique figures in fuch a 

 manner, that it is impofTible to bring them in coutaft with 

 the neceffary degree of force, without amputating, or at 

 leaft violently briiifing the thumbs of the pcrform.er. And it is 

 certain that artifts continued to figure inllruments in the moft 

 fimple and convenient forni for their defigns, long after they 

 had been enl.irged, improved, and rendered more compli- 

 cated. An inllance of this in our OA'n country will confirm 

 the aflertion. In the reign of George II. a marble flatue 

 was erefted to Handel, in Vauxhall gardens. The muli- 

 cian is reprefented playing upon a lyre. Now if this ftatuc 

 (hould be preferred from the ravages of time and accident 

 12 or 1400 years, the antiquaries will naturally c^include 

 that the inllrument upon which Handel acquired his repu- 

 tation was the lyre ; though we are at prolent certain that 

 he never played on, or even faw a lyre, except in wood or 

 Hone. 



In one of the ancient paintings at Portici, we faw a lyre 

 with a pipe or flute for the crofs bar, or bridge at the top. 

 Whether this tube was ufed as a flute to accompany the lyre, 

 or only a pitch-pipe, we know not ; nor in the courfe of our 

 enquiries has any fimilar example of fuch a junftion occurred 

 ellewhere. 



Broffard feems to have abridged the hiftory and progrefs 

 of the lyre chronologically in the moil fhort and clear m.an- 

 ner, which Graffineau has fpun out to great length by jump- 

 ing from one century to another, and crowding together-all 

 the wild and incoherent ftories relative to the lyre, its in- 

 ventors and performers, that he cpuld find. All that the 

 diligent and generally accurate Broffard fays on the fubjcdl 

 is, that the lyre was a ilringed inftrument, upon which the 

 whole mufical fyftem of the ancients has been built. It is 

 pretended that Mercury firit invented it by chance, and that 

 it had only then three ftrings, wliich couiifted of B C D ; 

 that Apoho added a fourtii, Curcbus, a fifth, Hyagnis, a 

 fixth, and Terpander, a feventh. It remjined in this ftate 

 till the time of Pythagoras, or, according to others, Lycaon 

 added to it an eighth firing, to render the extremities con- 

 fonant. Timotheus afterwards added a ninth, tenth, and 

 eleventh ftring. Others after him increafed the number to 

 fixteen, that is, fifteen principals, and one added^ which will 

 be explained in the articles Proslambanomincs and Sys- 

 tem ; which fee. 



Ml". Barnes, in the prolegomena to his edition of Ana- 

 creon, has an inquirv into the antiquity and ftruiture of the 

 lyre ; of which he makes Jubal the firft inventor. For the 

 feveral changes this inllrument underwent, by the addiyon 

 of new ftrings, he obferves, that, according to Diodorus, it 

 had originally only three, referring to the three feafons of the 

 year, as the Greeks counted tliem, ii/z. fpring, fummer, and 

 autumn ; whence it was called T^i;^;pJof. Afterwards it had 

 feven firings ; as appears from Homer, Pindar, Horace, 

 Virgil, SiC. Feftus Avienus gives the lyre of Orpheus 

 nine ftrings. David mentions an inftrument of that fort 

 ftrung with ten, in pfilterio decachoido. Timotheus of Mi- 

 letus added four to the old feven, which made eleven. Jo- 

 fephus, in his Jewifh Antiquities, makes mention of one with 

 twelve ftrings ; to which were afterwards added fix others, 

 6 which 



