eans to keep the Body
upright, which is a commendable posture. I can also admit the
stiffness of the Elbow, in smooth and Swift Division; for which it is
most properly apt; but Cross and Skipping Divisions cannot (I think)
be so well express'd without some consent or yielding of the
Elbow-Joint unto the motion of the Wrist.... This motion or looseness
of the Wrist I mention, is chiefly in _Demi-semiquavers_; for, in
_Quavers_, and _Semiquavers_ too, we must allow so much stiffness to
the wrist as may command the Bow _on_ and _off_ the String, at every
Note, if occasion so require."

[Footnote 1: "_Some_ joint" is very good; it gives such liberty in
the way of choice.]

This must have been rather a crude form of _spiccato_. It is,
however, plainly evident that with heavy bows, destitute of
elasticity, and held underhand, it was quite impossible to allow the
bow to rebound naturally from the string for this effect.

Mace, whose book, "Musick's Monument," is one of the most amusing
works extant, in speaking of the bowing of the viol, _i.e._, viola da
gamba, or, as he calls it, "the generous viol," quotes Sympson's
direction for holding the bow and then adds:--

"Yet I must confess, that for _my own Part_, I could never _Use it so
well_ as when I held it 2 or 3 _Inches off the Nut_ (more or less)
according to the _Length or Weight of the Bow_, for _Good Poyzing of
It_: But 'tis possible, that by _Vse_ I might have made It _as
Familiar to_ Myself, as It was to _Him_."

He, also, was greatly exercised in his mind as to the stiffness or
the reverse of the elbow, and delivered himself thuswise thereon:--

"So likewise, for the _Exact Straitness of the Bow-Arm_, which some
do _Contend for_, I could _never do so well_, as with my _Arm_
(_straight enough, yet_) _something Plying, or Yielding to an Agile
Bending_: and which I do conceive most _Familiarly Natural_. (For I
would have no _Posture, Vrged, Disputed_, or _Contended for_; that
should _Cross_, or _Force Nature_.")

There is much to commend in the spirit of this last sentence. The
hand and arm should never be made to do anything that is unnatural.
But herein must be exercised the greatest possible judgment that the
unfamiliar be not mistaken for the unnatural.

Returning to the position of the thumb in violin playing we find
nearly every teacher insisting on a different posture. In the
"Methode de Violon," by Baillot, Rode and Kreutzer, it is set down as
being co