d
accomplishments of which Lord Sands speaks would be still thought 'up
to date' and in the fashion.

Another instrument in common domestic use was the Recorder. This was a
kind of 'Beak-flute,' like a flageolet. Lord Bacon says it had a
conical bore, and six holes. So it had the general figure of a modern
Oboe, but was played with a 'whistle' mouthpiece instead of a reed.

The six holes may still be seen on any penny whistle, or the brass
flageolets in the music-shops.

The Recorder was known for its sweet tone. Poets used the word
'record' to signify the song of birds, especially of the nightingale.

Hawkins identifies it with the Fistula Dulcis, seu Anglica, and gives
two pictures which help to explain the next quotation.

In South Kensington Museum there is a Recorder[9] made of a dark
wood, which is nothing else but a big flageolet. Its length is 2 ft. 2
in., and its bore is that of the modern flageolet and old flute--viz.,
conical, but with the wide end nearest the player's mouth.

[Footnote 9: See Frontispiece.]

_Hamlet_ III, ii, 346. Enter Players with recorders.

_Ham._ O! the _recorders_: let me see one....

* * * * *

L. 351.

... Will you _play upon this pipe_?

_Guildenstern._ My lord, I cannot.

* * * * *

_Ham._ It is as easy as lying: govern these _ventages_ with
your _finger and thumb_, give it _breath_ with your mouth,
and it will discourse _most eloquent music_. Look you, these
are _the stops_.

_Guil._ But these cannot I command to any utterance of
_harmony_: I have not the skill.

_Ham._ Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of
_me_. You would _play upon me_: you would seem to _know my
stops_; ... you would _sound me_ from my _lowest note_ to
the _top of my compass_; and there is _much music_,
excellent voice, in _this little organ_ [the recorder], yet
cannot you make it _speak_. 'Sblood! do you think I am
_easier to be played on than a pipe_? Call me what
_instrument_ you will, though you can _fret_ me, you cannot
_play_ upon me.

The holes in a flute have always been called 'ventages,' because the
'wind' comes through them when the fingers are removed. They were
'governed' 'with the finger and thumb.' One of the illustrations from
Mersennus [b. 1588] shows a conical flute with four holes in front and
two at