... Will you _play upon this pipe_?
_Guildenstern._ My lord, I cannot.
* * * * *
_Ham._ It is as easy as lying: govern these _ventages_ with
your _finger and thumb_, give it _breath_ with your mouth,
and it will discourse _most eloquent music_. Look you, these
are _the stops_.
_Guil._ But these cannot I command to any utterance of
_harmony_: I have not the skill.
_Ham._ Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of
_me_. You would _play upon me_: you would seem to _know my
stops_; ... you would _sound me_ from my _lowest note_ to
the _top of my compass_; and there is _much music_,
excellent voice, in _this little organ_ [the recorder], yet
cannot you make it _speak_. 'Sblood! do you think I am
_easier to be played on than a pipe_? Call me what
_instrument_ you will, though you can _fret_ me, you cannot
_play_ upon me.
The holes in a flute have always been called 'ventages,' because the
'wind' comes through them when the fingers are removed. They were
'governed' 'with the finger and thumb.' One of the illustrations from
Mersennus [b. 1588] shows a conical flute with four holes in front and
two at the back. These latter would, of course, be controlled by the
_thumbs_, while the others would occupy two fingers on each hand.
(Modern flageolets still keep a thumb hole at the back.) There were
other beaked flutes of the same period, of a better class, which had
several keys as well as the holes.
'The stops' referred to by Hamlet are merely the 'ventages.' The act
of covering a hole with the finger or thumb was called 'stopping'; and
further, one example of the Fistula Dulcis given by Mersennus has two
different holes for the lowest note, one on the right and the other on
the left, so that the instrument might be used either by a
right-handed or left-handed person. One of these two duplicate holes
was temporarily _stopped_ with wax. [The passing play upon 'fret' in
the last line should not be missed.]
In the next passage the meaning of stop as applied to Recorders is
punned on by Hippolyta, who carries on the play from Lysander's
horsebreaking metaphor.
_Mids._ V, i, 108. The Prologue speaks with all the punctuation
wrong.
_Theseus._ This fellow doth not _stand upon points_.
_Lysander._ He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he
knows not the _stop_....
_Hippolyta._ Indeed, he hath played on this prologue like a
_child on a recorder, a sound_, but _not in government_.
That is--the Prologue has misplaced all his _stops_--like a young
horse that refuses to _stop_--also like a child who has not learned to
_stop_ the holes on the flute _à bec_.
It is singular that the Virginal, which was the most popular of all
the keyed instruments, is nowhere directly named in Shakespeare. There
is, however, a reference to the action of the fingers on its keys in
the following.
_Winter's Tale_ I, ii, 125. Of _Hermione_, Queen of Leontes, King of
Sicilia, and _Polixenes_, King of Bohemia.
_Leon._ ---- still _virginalling_
Upon his palm?
The Virginal (generally known as 'a _pair_ of virginals') was most
commonly used by ladies for their private recreation, and from this
circumstance is supposed to derive its name. Queen Elizabeth was fond
of playing on it, but as it was in vogue before her time, there is no
need to connect the name with the Virgin Queen. (Elizabeth's own
Virginal is in South Kensington Museum.[10]) Its keyboard has four
octaves, and the case is square, like that of a very old pianoforte.
The strings of the virginal were plucked, by quills,[11] which were
secured to the 'jacks' [see Sonnet cxxviii.], which in turn were set
in motion by the keys. The strings were wire. The oldest country dance
known, the Sellenger's (St Leger's) Round, of Henry VIII.'s time, was
arranged by Byrd as a Virginal 'lesson' for 'Lady Nevell's booke.'
Another well-known Virginal Book, that at the Fitzwilliam Museum at
Cambridge, commonly known as 'Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book,' is
being published by Breitkopf & Härtel.
[Footnote 10: See Frontispiece.]
[Footnote 11: Plectra of leather were also in use, as well as those of
quill.]
The first music ever printed for the Virginals was 'Parthenia,'
published in London, 1611. This collection contains principally Pavans
and Galliards by Byrd, Bull, and Gibbons. The title 'Parthenia, or the
Maydenhead of the firste musicke,' etc., with a picture of a young
lady playing on the virginal, seems to confirm our explanation of the
name of this instrument.
Next to the viol, the lute[12] was the most popular stringed
instrument. It was used both as a Solo instrument on which to play
sprightly 'Ayres,' or as an accompaniment for the voice, or 'in
consort' with other instruments. Naturally, it figured frequently in
'serenading' especially when a love song had to be sung outside a
lady's window. The general shape of a Lute was that of a mandoline,
but about four times as big. Like the mandoline, it had a flat belly,
and a great basin-shaped back. But in every other respect it was
entirely different. It was used more in the fashion of a guitar, and
its strings (which were of gut) were plucked with the fingers.
[Footnote 12: See Frontispiece.]
Adrian Le Roy's book, published in Paris about 1570, says the six
strings were tuned as follows--1st (minikin), C in third space, treble
staff; 2nd (small mean), G on second line; 3rd (great mean), D under
the staff; 4th (counter-tenor), B flat over the bass staff; 5th
(tenor), F on fourth line; and 6th (base), C in second space.
Scipione Cerreto, however (Naples 1601), gives quite a different
account of the Italian Lute of eight strings, the tuning of which
seems to have extended the compass downwards to C under the bass
staff. Thomas Mace (Musicks Monument, 1676) tells of several
objections against the lute, the most noteworthy of which were--1st,
that it was a costly instrument to keep in repair; 2nd, that it was
out of fashion; and 3rd, that it _made young people grow awry_. Mace
refutes these calumnies, the last of which no doubt was set about on
account of the very awkward shape of the lute back, and the
considerable size of the instrument. Hawkins (Hist. of Music, pp. 730
and 731) gives two pieces for the lute by Mace, or, rather, the same
piece twice, first for one lute, then arranged for two. [Appendix.]
The five lower strings of the lute were 'doubled'--_i.e._, there were
two of each pitch, duplicates, which helped the tone of the chords by
'sympathetic' vibration. So there were really eleven strings, but only
six different pitches. There were eight frets on the fingerboard.
Other varieties were the Arch-Lute[13] and the Theorbo-Lute, both of
which had very long double necks, and a large number of strings. One
Archlute in South Kensington Museum has as many as 24, eleven of which
are duplications.
[Footnote 13: See Frontispiece.]
_H. 6. A._ I, iv, 92.
_Talbot_ (of Salisbury dying).
'He beckons with his hand, and smiles on me,
As who should say, "When I am dead and gone,
Remember to avenge me on the French."--
Plantagenet, I will; and _like thee, Nero,
Play on the lute_, beholding the towns burn.'
_Hen. 4. A._ III, i, 206. Mortimer to Lady Mortimer.
_Mort._ ... for thy tongue
Makes Welsh as sweet as _ditties_ highly penn'd,
_Sung_ by a fair queen in a summer's bower,
With _ravishing division_, to her _lute_.
For 'ravishing division,' see the remarks on the third of the
foregoing passages, the speech of Juliet about the lark's song [p.
28].
The Lute leads us quite easily from Musical Instruments and Technical
Terms to the second division.