ings, only ten to fourteen, while at the time of his
writing it had sixteen to twenty-six. He makes the statement that he
never spent more than a shilling a quarter for strings. The care of a
lute he describes quaintly:

"And that you may know how to shelter your lute in the worst of ill
weathers (which is moist) you shall do well, ever when you lay it by in
the day time, to put It into a Bed that is constantly used, between the
Rug and Blanket, but never between the Sheets, because, they may be
moist. This is the most absolute and best place to keep It in always, by
which doing, you will find many Great Conveniences. Therefore, a Bed
will secure from all these inconveniences and keep your Glew as Hard as
Glass and all safe and sure; only to be excepted, that no Person be so
inconsiderate as to Tumble down upon the Bed whilst the lute is there,
for I have known several Good lutes spoiled with such a Trick."

Again we are indebted to Italy for the invention and name of the
pianoforte. It is a strange fact that, entirely unknown to one another,
three men were working out the same principle--namely, the hammer
action--at the same time. Marius in France, Schroeter in Germany, and
Bartolomeo Christofori (often called Christofali) in Italy worked
secretly and simultaneously, and for a long time it was undecided to
whom the honor really belonged. A careful examination of all records,
however, establishes beyond a doubt the priority of Christofori's
claim. The hammer action was what all previous instruments lacked, and
it seems strange that it took nearly two thousand years for this
principle to be discovered and applied. Many times the inventors
appeared to be almost upon it. They worked all around it, but the idea
seemed illusive and they never grasped it.

[Illustration: Christofori Piano from the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York City]

At this point it might be well to enumerate in order the instruments
which preceded the piano, if only to fasten them clearly in memory: the
lyre and harp of the ancients; the dulcimer, played by means of the
plectra and to which, as the hand could use but one plectrum, there was
a keyboard added to use all the fingers, thus moving the plectra faster;
the clavichord, with tangents of brass to strike the strings; the
virginal and the spinet, in reality the same; the harpsichord, with its
crow quills to half rub, half strike the strings, still far away from
the hammer action of the pres