The Sordino is a pocket fiddle, the "Pochette" of the French and the "Taschengeige" of the Germans. In form it is derived from the mediæval rebec which came from the East, and was also known as "gigue." It was distinguished from the viol family by the neck being a prolongation of the body of the instrument, instead of an attachment to it. A diminutive viol, the dancing master's kit, replaced the rebec kit, or sordino, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. A sordino, in the Museum of the Paris Conservatoire, with the date 1717, is believed to be unique as the undoubted work of Stradivarius. Tarisio, a well-known violin collector, brought it from Italy to France, and Louis Clapisson, the violinist, composer, and collector, eventually bought it in 1858, and employed it in his opera of "Les trois Nicolas," writing a gavotte for it. The late M. Chouquet (author of _Le Musée du Conservatoire National de Musique_, Paris, a catalogue _raisonné_ of the musical instruments in that collection) has described, in enthusiastic terms, the effect of this little instrument when a gavotte was played upon it by Croisilles. "It was remembered," he says, "with pleasure by the old subscribers to the Opera Comique"--a remark that would seem to imply that the sordino, or pochette, had adequate power, and a special and agreeable quality of tone. The instrument is provided with four catgut strings, and _f_ holes on either side the bridge. Two Sordini are represented in the three figures of this Plate, the one with a negro's head in two views, the other with a termination in ivory. These Sordini belong to the Music Class Room, Edinburgh University. [Illustration: XXXII] PLATE XXXII. CLAVICHORD. "The claricord hath a tunely kynde As the wyre is wrested high and lowe." John Skelton, Poet Laureate, who was born at Oxford in 1489, and died in the sanctuary, Westminster, in 1529, was the author of a poem entitled "The Claricorde," from which this quotation is taken. The true spelling is Clavichord, from the Latin "clavis," a key, and "chorda," a string. The wrester was the tuner, who wrested or strained the wire to the required tension. The words "wrest-pin" and "wrest-plank" remain in technical use for the tuning-pin and the wood in which the tuning-pins are inserted. The Clavichord represented belongs to Mr. Gerald Wellesley, of London: its dimensions are--length, 5 feet 8-1/2 inches; width, 1 foot 9 inches; and depth, 6-1/2 inches; width of the key-board, 2 feet 9-1/2 inches. The compass is five octaves and a semitone--from the third E below, to the third F above, middle C.