which is very like the modern German Hoboe.

_Sennet._ This is a rare direction, and is found only nine times in
eight plays, as against sixty-eight 'Flourishes' and fifty-one
'Trumpets.' The notes of a sennet are unknown. Three times it marks
the entrance or exit of a Parliament, three times is used in a Royal
or quasi-royal procession, and the remaining cases are royal, or near
it.

In the 1st Folio of Hen. V., the word is spelt _senet_, but in later
ones, _Sonet_, as if the former were a misprint. In Marlowe's Faustus
(published 1604), Act iii. sc. i., we find '_sound a sonnet_' [enter
Pope, Cardinal, etc.]. Also the French Cavalry of 1636 used trumpet
calls named _Sonneries_. These seem to point to a derivation of the
word from _sonare_, and thus the spelling ought to be _sonnet_, not
_sennet_.

But other forms are found--Synnet, Signet, Signate, which may be
proper derivatives of _signum_, and thus make this trumpet call 'a
signal,' instead of 'a sounding'; or (which is as likely) may be
corruptions, perhaps of the somewhat featureless form 'Synnet,' caused
by a misunderstanding of the original misspelling 'senet.'

In the text of Shakespeare the word does not occur.

_Cornets_, or _Flourish Cornets_ (only twice).

This is also rare, occurring only eight times in four plays. One case
only is in war, the others being all connected with Royal or triumphal
processions.

The term is by no means synonymous with Trumpets. The Cornet was an
entirely different instrument, and the use of it accordingly is very
much more limited in these stage directions. There were two
instruments called Cornet, the one with a reed, a coarse sort of Oboe
which was nearly obsolete in the 17th century; the other, with which
we are concerned, a sort of Horn (hence its name), with a cup
mouthpiece, and finger holes for the intermediate notes of the scale.
Hawkins gives pictures of a treble, a tenor, and a bass cornet, copied
from Mersennus, who remarks that the sounds of the cornet are
vehement, _but_ that those who are skilful, such as Quiclet, the royal
cornetist (_i.e._, of France, 1648) are able so to soften and modulate
them, that nothing can be more sweet.

Many people now living will remember the Serpent, a large, black,
curly instrument, of thin wood covered with leather, which helped to
play the loud bass in oratorios, within the last fifty years. This
Serpent was a true Cornet in every respect. It may now commonly be
seen i