And now, if you have finished your coffee, shall we return to our case of Asiatic instruments? There is to be found amongst them a mongrel species of bass instrument, which certainly acted in no mean way as a factor in the development of low-pitched instruments played with a bow. We allude to the _trummelscheit_, known in England under the ambiguous title of marine trumpet. It carries one short gut string tuned to CC, and when correctly played--_i.e._ harmonically--gives out a scale corresponding in pitch to that of the high soprano voice. This _trummelscheit_ before us is rather undersized. Its form and construction are of an advanced type, for besides the short gut string it has the additional sympathetic wire strings piercing the body like a delicate bundle of nerves. Broadly speaking, this instrument was probably made in France in the days when aristocracy prospered, and danced stately minuets at the court of “Le Grand Monarch”: when that cultured son of _tapisier_, Molière, wrote his immortal _comedies_ for the amusement of the _haute monde_, and Jean Baptiste Lully’s impudence and genius placed him upon the highest pinnacle of fame. The intriguing Jean Baptiste--whom Boileau denounced as a _coquin tenebreaux_, a _coeur bas_, and a _bouffon odieux_--was possessed of talents which quite equalled his gifts as a composer of operas. He could write such divine inspirations as “Bois Epais”: could revolutionise the “_ballet de la cour_” by the introduction of the pirouette and sprightly allegro: could play the fiddle to perfection, and conduct his band of “_Petits Violons_” in a manner to make them quickly famous. He could pen mischievous verse; take advantage of court squabbles and turn them to good account, and used his histrionic gifts to the most satisfactory ends. Many a time did Lully’s impersonations of the exquisitely comic situations in which Molière delighted to place his characters, obtain for him the King’s pardon when his Majesty had been fairly exasperated by the unscrupulous actions of his “_Surintendant de la Musique_.” The polygamy scene in _M. de Pourceaugnac_ was one of Maître Lully’s most effective parts for this purpose, and it is easy to imagine how the ludicrous perplexities of M. Jourdain in _Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme_[12] must have been interpreted by a man who had himself risen from obscurity to wealth and fame. It is in the latter witty comedy that we hear of the trumpet marine and its position at that time. Bewildered M. Jourdain’s music-master is advising him to give concerts twice a week at his house. LE MAÎTRE DE MUSIQUE Au reste, monsieur, ce n’est pas assez; il faut qu’une personne comme vous, qui êtes magnifique et qui avez de l’inclination pour les belles choses, ait un concert de musique chez soi tous les Mercredis ou tous les Jeudis. M. JOURDAIN Est-ce que les gens de qualité en out? LE MAÎTRE DE MUSIQUE