When William the Conqueror was fighting the Battle of Hastings (1066) bearded bards in Wales were taking crwth (pronounced crowd) in hand, sawing a short bow over its strings, singing verses. When Henry VIII was dangling Anne Boleyn on his knees, he often called for his favorite virginal player, listened to thin tinkling music from a small piano-like keyboard. The "Three Musicians'' in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1594) regaled Elizabethans with harsh, screechy fiddling on rebecs. Milton and Pepys praised the pennywhistle notes of the fipple....
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