_Por._ ... _Music! hark!_
_Ner._ It is your music, madam, _of the house._
_Por._ Nothing is good, I see, without respect.
Methinks, _it sounds much sweeter than by day_.
_Ner._ _Silence_ bestows that virtue on it, madam.
_Por._ The _crow_ doth sing as sweetly as the _lark,
When neither is attended_; and I think,
The _nightingale_, if she should sing _by day_,
When every goose is cackling, _would be thought
No better a musician than the wren_.
How many things _by season_ season'd are
To their right praise, and true perfection.
Here is an example of a superstitious meaning attaching to supposed
mysterious music.
There are very few cases of this kind in Shakespeare--_i.e._, where
the music of the stage is an integral part of the drama.
_Antony and Cleop._ IV, iii, 12. Music of hautboys under the stage.
_4 Soldier._ ... Peace, what noise?
_1 Sold._ List, list!
_2 Sold._ Hark!
_1 Sold._ Music in the air.
_3 Sold._ Under the earth.
_4 Sold._ It signs well, does it not?
_3 Sold._ No.
_1 Sold._ Peace, I say!
What should this mean?
_2 Sold._ 'Tis the god Hercules, whom Antony lov'd,
Now leaves him.
A very usual popular amusement was the Masque, which would consist of
a public procession with decorated cars containing the characters,
accompanied by hobby horses, tumblers, and open air music. This is
referred to in the next passage, where Theseus speaks of the masque
as an 'abridgement' for the evening, that is, an entertainment to
shorten the hours. The lamentable play of Pyramus and Thisbe follows,
which, it will be noticed, has some of the main features of a masque.
_Mid's Night's Dream_ V, i, 39.
_Theseus._ Say, what abridgment have you for this evening?
_What masque, what music?_...
* * * * *
[Reads from the paper]
"A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus,
And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth."
Merry and tragical! Tedious and brief!
That is, hot ice, and wonderous strange snow.
How shall we find the _concord of this discord_?
In the _Merchant of Venice_, Shylock mentions the procession of a
masque through the streets, forbidding Jessica to look out of the
window at these 'Christian fools with varnished faces.' The music
accompanying the procession is named--viz., drum and fife.
_Merchant_ II, v, 22.
_Lancelot._ 'You shall see a _masque_' ...
_Shylock._ What! are there _masques_?
Hear you me, Jessica.
Lock up my doors; and _when you hear the drum_,
And the _vile squeaking of the wryneck'd fife_,
Clamber not you up to the casements then,
Nor thrust your head into the public street
To gaze on _Christian fools with varnish'd faces_.
The 'vile squeaking of the wryneck'd fife' is of some musical
interest. The adjective 'wryneck'd' refers, not to the instrument
itself, which was straight, but to the player, whose head has to be
slightly twisted round to get at the mouthpiece. Mersennus (b. 1588)
says that the Fife is the same as the Tibia Helvetica, which was
simply a small edition of the Flauto Traverso, or German Flute. That
is, the Fife of those days was much the same as the modern Fife of the
cheaper kind, with the usual six holes, and a big hole near the
stopped end, where the breath was applied. The instrument was
therefore held _across_ [traverso] the face of the player, whose head
would be turned sideways, and hence comes Shylock's description of it
as the 'wryneck'd' fife.
In _Much Ado_, Benedick draws a distinction between the Drum and Fife
and the Tabor and Pipe. The former (see _Othello_ III. iii. 353) were
of a decided military cast; whereas the latter were more associated
with May Day entertainments, bull-baitings, and out-of-door amusements
generally. The Tabor was a little drum, the Pipe (as explained before,
in Section III., about Autolycus) a tiny whistle with only three
holes. The two were played simultaneously by one person.
_Much Ado_ II, iii, 13. Benedick, of Claudio in love.
_Ben._ I have known, when there was no _music_ with him but
the _drum and the fife_; and now had he rather hear the
_tabor and the pipe_: ... but till all graces be in one
woman, one woman shall not come in my grace. Rich she shall
be, that's certain; wise, or I'll none; ... of good
discourse, an _excellent musician_, and her hair shall be of
what colour it please God.
Besides these more civilised 'pipes,' the country-man's pipe of
cornstalk is mentioned by Titania, in _Mids._ II. ii. 8. This was
really a 'reed,' not a whistle of any kind.
The tabor leads one on to the Tabourine, which was the full-sized
military drum, corresponding to the modern side-drum. See _Troil._ IV,
v, 275. 'Beat loud the tabourines,' and _Antony_ IV, viii, 37, 'our
rattling tabourines.'
The drum supplied the great proportion of military music in those
days, besides having its importance as a means of signalling orders to
the troops. This is dealt with more fully in the chapter on Stage
Directions.
Parolles' sham anxiety about a lost drum is mentioned fourteen or
fifteen times in _All's Well_ III. v. and vi.; and IV. i. Parolles
earns his nickname of 'Tom Drum,' in Act V. iii. 320.