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M U S I Cv 
it needs be to have fuch things played upon inftruments 
vinequally fuited, or unevenly numbered ! viz. one fmall 
weak-founding bafs-viol, and 2 or 3 violins ; whereas one 
(in reafon) would think, that one violin would bear up 
fufficiently againll 2 or 3 common founding bafles, efpe- 
cially fuch as you (hall generally meet with in their ordi¬ 
nary conforts. This is a very common piece of inconfi- 
derate praftice at this day. But it has been obje&ed, 
There has been an harpficon, or organ, with it, What 
then ? has not the harpficon or organ balfes and trebles 
equally mixt ? and mull not ftill the unequalnefs be the 
fame? Or fuppofe a theorboe-lute : the dilproportion is 
Hill the fame : the fcolding violins will out-top them all. 
Nay, 1 have as yet but fuppos’d a fmall matter of unequal¬ 
nefs in refpedl of what I have heard, and is ftill very mag- 
nanimoufty endeavoured to be daily performed ; viz. fix 
violins, nay ten, nay twenty or more, at a fumptuous 
meeting, and fcarce half fo many bafles, which (as I faid 
before) were morereafonable, fure, to be the greater num¬ 
ber. Now I fay, if this be not an injury, both to the 
mufic, the compofer, and the compofitions, let any judi¬ 
cious perfon judge.” Mufick’s Monument, p.233. 
Plate XX. fig. 1. reprefents the violin, with its natural 
fcale at the fide of itthe open notes denoting fhe open 
firings as before. All the femitones are of courle fuppofed 
to be included. But above this natural fcale, by fhifting 
upon a long finger-board, notes are produced as high as 
are exprefled by the additional keys of a piano-forte 5 for 
which we refer to Plate I. Ex. 3. 
Befides thefe notes, there is another fet to be produced 
from the violin by a peculiar mode of fingering. Thefe 
are called the harmonics. To produce thefe charming 
founds, the finger fliould touch the firing as flightly as 
poflible ; and, when the fourth finger is ufed, the firft 
fhould be placed in the ufual way, as a fulcrum, while the 
fourth is very flightly laid on. In the following Example, 
the figures underneath denote with what fingers the notes 
fliould be taken; and the fmall notes above are the har¬ 
monics produced: 
1234 1234 1234 
The viola piccola, or kit, called in French violon depoche, 
or in fhort poche, has exaftly the fame fcale as the violin ; 
the length of the finger-board and neck the fame 5 only 
the body is fmaller. 
The rebec is the moft ancient violin in France ; it had 
but three firings, and the romancers and troubadours 
frequently mention it. A figure of the minllrel Colin 
Mufet, is ftill preferved at the entrance of the church of 
St. Julien des Meneftriers, at Paris, playing on the rebec. 
The time is not known when the fourth firing was added 
to this inftrument. It is ftill ufed in its primitive Hate, as 
a trichord, in Turkey and other Eaftern countries. Its 
three firings are tuned 5ths, and played with a bow. 
Etymologifts have tortured themfelves to find a deriva¬ 
tion for the name of a vulgar inftrument, no longer in ufe. 
Some trace it from the Arabic, fome from the Celtic, the 
Welfh, the Spanifh, Italian, and old French. Rebec, ribibe, 
and ribible, feem to be the fame inftrument; and are often 
indifcriminately ufed by Gower, Chaucer, and the ftill 
more ancient bards of Normandy, and our own country. 
The following paflages are from Tyrwhitt’s Chaucer ; 
The Millere's Tale. Speaking of the Parifli Clerk. 
A mery child he was, fo God me fave ; 
Wei coud he leten blod, and clippe and fhave, 
And make a chartre of land, and a quitance. 
In twenty manere coud he trip and dance, 
3 
(After the fcole of Oxenforde th«,) 
And with his legges caften to and fro; 
And playen fonges on a fmall ribible; 
Therto he long fomtime a loud quinibte, 
And as wel coud he play on a giterne. 
In all the toun n’as brewhous ne taverne, 
That he ne vifited with his folas, 
Ther as that any gaillard tapftere was. 
But foth to fay, he was fomdel fquaimous 
Of fafting, and of fpeche dangerous. 
The Coke's Tale. Speaking of the Prentis. 
For fothly, a prentis ; a revelour, 
That hanteth dis, riot and paramour, 
His maifler dial it in his fhoppe abie, 
A 1 have he no part of the minftralcie. 
For theft and riot they ben convertible, 
A 1 can they play on giterne or ribible. 
Revel and trouth, as in a low degree, 
They ben ful worth all day, as men may fee. 
Ribeba, in the Decameron, ix. 5. is rendered by Magon, 
the old French tranflator, rebec, and guiterne; but in the 
above paflages the giterne is diftinguiffied from the ribible. 
As the head, or fcroll-work, of old viols and violins, 
ufed to be curioufly carved, fo ieems to have been that of 
the rebec. Chaucer compares the face of an old woman, 
an old trot, to the head of a rebec. Rabelais does the 
fame : 
-A tel mineftrier tel rebec, 
Tenant toujours le verre aubec ; 
Car elle avoit vifage de rebec. 
At length the inftrument came to be put for the old 
woman herfeif, perhaps from its flirillnefs. An old writer, 
quoted by Du Cange, has the following lines in his de- 
fcription of a concert: 
Quidam rebeccam arcuabant, 
Muliebrem vocem confingentes. 
“ Some, imitating the voice of a woman, fiddled on a re- 
becca.” Now we are informed, that a Ihrew, a quarrel- 
fome woman, is to this day called in France une Rebecca ; 
and from that circumftance, the head of a peevilh woman 
was placed at the handle of this fmall violin, which, by its 
flirill found, feemed to imitate the argute diapafon of a 
fcold : hence probably the name. 
In the following paflages from Chaucer, it feems to be 
put, not for an old woman merely, but a woman of ill 
fame ; perhaps from ribaude, a bawd : 
The Frere's Tale. The Archedeken’s Sompnour. 
And fo befell, that ones on a day 
This fompnour, waiting ever on his prey, 
Rode forth to fompne a widewe, an olde ribibe, 
Feining a caufe, for he wold han a bribe. 
And happed that he faw beforn him ride 
A gay yeman under a foreft fide : 
A bow he bare, and arroes bright and kene ; 
He had upon a courtepy of grene, 
An hat upon his hed with frenges blake. 
When that they comen fomewhat out of toun. 
This fompnour to his brother gan to roune ; 
Brother, quod he, here W'oneth an old rebehke 
That had almollas lefe to lefe hirenekke 
As for to yeve a peny of hire good. 
I wol have twelf-pens though that fhe be wood. 
Or I wol lornone hire to our office ; 
And yet, God wot, of hire know I no vice. 
It will have been obferved, alfo, that Rabelais, in the 
paflage quoted from him, ufes the word in this lenfe alfo : 
“ A tel mineftrier tel rebec.” 
The rebec reprefented at fig. 2. was kindly communi¬ 
cated to us by a profeifor, whole apartment is a cabinet of 
curious inftruments and fcarce books on the fcience of 
mufic. This gentleman had fitted it up as a violin, with 
four firings; but he found that the additional firing would 
not 
