boy,
_That plays thee music_?--Gentle knave, good night;
I will not do thee so much wrong to wake thee.
If thou dost nod, thou _break'st thy instrument:
I'll take it from thee_; and, good boy, good night.--

[Ghost of Caesar appears.]

L. 290.

_Bru._ Boy!--Lucius!--Varro! Claudius! sirs, awake!--Claudius!

_Luc._ [asleep]. _The strings_, my lord, _are false_.

_Bru._ He thinks he still is _at his instrument_.

In _Henry VIII._ III, i is a case of the same kind.

_Queen Catherine._ Take thy _lute_, wench: my soul grows sad with
troubles:
_Sing, and disperse them_, if thou canst. Leave working.

[Song. 'Orpheus.']

The next passage brings us to another class of music--viz., dirges,
funeral songs, or 'good-nights.' [See _H. 4. B._ III, ii, 322]. In
_Cymbeline_ IV, ii, 184, Cadwal (Arviragus) sounds an 'ingenious
instrument' to signify Imogen's death. Polydore (Guiderius) says they
had not used it since their mother died. The song, or more properly,
duet, which they sing directly after, in memory of Imogen, may be
taken in this connection. Unfortunately there seems to be no musical
setting of 'Fear no more the heat o' the sun' any older than 1740.

In the following quotation 'dirges' are mentioned by name.

_Rom._ IV, iv, 21.

_Capulet._ ... "Good faith! 'tis day:
The county [Count Paris] will be here _with music_ straight."

Sc. v. 84.

_Cap._ All things, that we ordained festival,
Turn from their office to black funeral:
Our _instruments_ to _melancholy bells_;
Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast;
Our _solemn hymns_ to _sullen dirges_ change.

In close connection with these funeral songs is the passage in _Hen.
VIII._ IV, ii, 77, where Queen Katherine, sick, requests her
gentleman-usher to get the musicians to play a favourite piece of this
class--

... Good Griffith,
Cause the musicians play me _that sad note
I named my knell_, whilst I sit meditating
On that celestial harmony I go to.

[She sleeps, then, waking from the vision--]

... Bid the music leave,
They are harsh and heavy to me.

It would be of great interest if it were possible to identify Queen
Katherine's 'Knell.'

There is an old song, given in Chappell's Popular Music, 'O Death,
rock me to sleep,' which