To-day the viola’s beautiful tone is perfectly understood. “Every skilful violinist can in a few weeks acquire the ability to play the viola fairly well; but the true virtuoso of the viola must study his instrument long and carefully. In like degree as the violin is biting, incisive and masterful, the viola is humble, wan, sad and morose. Besides using it to fill in the harmony composers take advantage of those qualities to obtain expressions of melancholy and resignation for which the instrument is incomparable; for its range of sentiment runs from _sad reverie to agonized pathos_.”[11] [Illustration: VIOLA DA GAMBA _By Gaspard Duiffoprugcar_] CHAPTER III THE VIOLONCELLO _The viola da gamba; violin responsible for the development of the violoncello; instruments of the Seventeenth Century distinguished for their delicacy of tone; Italians the first to appreciate the possibilities of the violoncello; instruments of Andreas Amati; Franciscello, the first great violoncellist; Berteau and Duport; anecdote of Voltaire; Servais; Boccherini; use of the violoncello by great composers; instruments of Bergonzi, Maggini, and, Amati; compass of the violoncello; Lavignac and Berlioz on the instrument and its capacities._ The violoncello is not a big violin; it is a little double-bass; and that is why the name is spelled _violoncello_ and not _violincello_. Its parent was the _violone_; and, if we remember that the violoncello is the little _violone_ in the Viol Family, we will never make the mistake of writing _violincello_ for _violoncello_. Almost everyone speaks of this instrument as the ’cello (pronounced chello) except the Italians; for, as the word simply means “little,” it has no significance to them. The violoncello belongs to that ancient and honorable family of viols, already described (see page 47). Its _immediate ancestor_ was the _viola da gamba_. For a long time the _viola da gamba_ was the most popular of all bowed instruments. We see it in pictures by the old Italian Masters; and it appears in many pictures by Ter Borch, Metsu and other Dutch and Flemish painters of the Seventeenth Century, who loved to paint pictures of the everyday life that they saw. Dashing men and richly dressed women often appear with this big instrument in front of their knees, intently taking a lesson from a music-master, or playing to entertain a group of friends in a pleasant living-room. We recall that Shakespeare in his rollicking comedy of _Twelfth Night_ makes someone say of the silly knight, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, that “he plays o’ the viol de gamboys.”