Shakespeare and Music Part 22

_Lor._ Come ho! and wake Diana with a _hymn_: With sweetest _touches_ pierce your mistress' ear, And draw her home _with music_.

[Music.

_Jessica._ I am _never merry when I hear sweet music_.

_Lor._ The reason is, _your spirits are attentive_.

For ... _colts_,

_If they but hear_ perchance _a trumpet_ sound, Or any _air of music touch their ears_, You shall perceive them make a _mutual stand_, Their savage eyes turn'd to a modest gaze.

_By the sweet power of music_: therefore, the poet Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods: Since nought so stockish, hard, and full of rage, But _music for the time doth change his nature.

The man that hath no music in himself_, Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus.

_Let no such man be trusted._--Mark the music.

L. 97. Portia and Nerissa.

_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 superst.i.tious 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 G.o.d Hercules, whom Antony lov'd, Now leaves him.

A very usual popular amus.e.m.e.nt 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 pa.s.sage, 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 cas.e.m.e.nts 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_, Bened.i.c.k draws a distinction between the Drum and Fife and the Tabor and Pipe. The former (see _Oth.e.l.lo_ III. iii. 353) were of a decided military cast; whereas the latter were more a.s.sociated with May Day entertainments, bull-baitings, and out-of-door amus.e.m.e.nts 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. Bened.i.c.k, 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 G.o.d.

Besides these more civilised 'pipes,' the country-man's pipe of cornstalk is mentioned by t.i.tania, 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.

The following is an interesting pa.s.sage of a more serious kind--