_Silvia_ (from window). 'I thank you for your music,
gentlemen.'
The next passage is of a serenade in the early morning. Cloten
arranges for the musicians (who seem in this case to be professional
players) to give two pieces, one instrumental, followed by a song.
_Cymbeline_ II, iii, 11. Cloten serenades Imogen.
_Cloten._ I would this _music would come_. I am advised to
give her _music o' mornings_; they say, it will penetrate.
_Enter Musicians._
Come on: _tune_. If you can penetrate her with your
_fingering_, so; we'll try with _tongue_ too: ... _First_, a
very excellent good-conceited thing; _after_, a wonderful
sweet air, with admirable rich words to it,--_and then_ let
her consider.
[The musicians perform 'Hark! hark! the lark.']
So, get you gone. If this penetrate, I will consider your
_music the better_; if it do not, it is a vice in _her
ears_, which _horse-hairs_, and _calves'-guts_, ... can
never amend.
In l. 14, 'fingering' and 'tongue' correspond to 'playing' and
'singing.' The first is to be a 'Fancy' for viols, 'a very excellent
good-conceited thing'; the second is the 'wonderful sweet air,' Hark!
hark! the lark.
'Good-conceited' means having many 'conceits.' These 'fancies' were
always contrapuntal, and the various artificial contrivances,
answering of points, imitations, and what not, are referred to under
this title. The mention of 'horse-hairs and calves'-guts' makes it
clear that the instruments in this 'morning music' were Viols.
Another 'evening music' is provided by Pericles, Prince of Tyre.
_Pericles_ II, v, 24. Pericles, a musician [his education had been 'in
_arts_ and arms,' see II, iii, 82].
_Per._ All fortune to the good Simonides!
_Sim._ To you as much, sir! _I am beholding to you
For your sweet music this last night_: I do
Protest, my ears were never better fed
With such _delightful pleasing harmony_.
_Per._ It is your grace's pleasure to commend,
Not my desert.
_Sim._ Sir, _you are music's master_.
_Per._ The worst of all her scholars, my good lord.
The next quotation is also of 'morning music,' but with a different
object--not a lady, but a soldier, and of a somewhat rough and ready
kind, to judge by the Clown's critical remarks.
The passage seems to indicate the use of Bagpipes; for 'they speak
in the _nose_' (see _Merchant_ IV, i, 48), and are called
_wind_-instruments, and are mentioned under the name 'pipes' in the
last two lines. Moreover, there is the remark of the Clown,
represented here by stars, which is terribly appropriate to that
instrument.
_Othello_ III, i. Cassio brings musicians to salute Othello.
_Cass._ Masters, _play here_; I will content your pains:
Something that's brief; and bid "Good morrow, general."
[_Music._]
_Enter Clown._
_Clo._ Why, masters, _have your instruments been in Naples_,
that they _speak i' the nose_ thus?
_1 Mus._ How, sir, how?
_Clo._ Are these, I pray you, called _wind_-instruments?
_1 Mus._ Ay, marry, are they, sir.
* * * * *
_Clo._ ... masters, here's money for you; and _the general
so likes your music_, that _he desires you_, for love's
sake, _to make no more noise with it_.
_1 Mus._ Well, sir, we will not.
_Clo._ If you have _any music that may not be heard_, to't
again; but, as they say, to _hear_ music the general does
not greatly care.
_1 Mus._ _We have none such_, sir.
_Clo._ Then _put up your pipes in your bag_, for I'll away.
Go; vanish into air, away!
Pandarus appears to be a capital musician. In the following we find
him questioning a musical servant of Priam's palace about some
instrumental music which is going on within, 'at the request of
Paris.' The servant amuses himself by giving 'cross' answers to
Pandarus' crooked questions, and in the process gets out two or three
musical jokes--_e.g._, '_partly_ know,' 'music _in parts_,' '_wholly_,
sir.' Further on, Paris also plays on the term 'broken' music.
_Troilus and Cressida_ III, i, 19.
_Pandarus._ What music is this?
_Servant._ I do but _partly_ know, sir; it is _music in
parts_.
_Pandarus._ Know you the _musicians_?
_Serv._ _Wholly_, sir.
_Pan._ Who play they to?
_Serv._ To the hearers, sir.
_Pan._ At whose pleasure, friend?
_Serv._ At mine, sir, and _theirs that love music_.
* * * * *