the back. These latter would, of course, be controlled by the
_thumbs_, while the others would occupy two fingers on each hand.
(Modern flageolets still keep a thumb hole at the back.) There were
other beaked flutes of the same period, of a better class, which had
several keys as well as the holes.

'The stops' referred to by Hamlet are merely the 'ventages.' The act
of covering a hole with the finger or thumb was called 'stopping'; and
further, one example of the Fistula Dulcis given by Mersennus has two
different holes for the lowest note, one on the right and the other on
the left, so that the instrument might be used either by a
right-handed or left-handed person. One of these two duplicate holes
was temporarily _stopped_ with wax. [The passing play upon 'fret' in
the last line should not be missed.]

In the next passage the meaning of stop as applied to Recorders is
punned on by Hippolyta, who carries on the play from Lysander's
horsebreaking metaphor.

_Mids._ V, i, 108. The Prologue speaks with all the punctuation
wrong.

_Theseus._ This fellow doth not _stand upon points_.

_Lysander._ He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he
knows not the _stop_....

_Hippolyta._ Indeed, he hath played on this prologue like a
_child on a recorder, a sound_, but _not in government_.

That is--the Prologue has misplaced all his _stops_--like a young
horse that refuses to _stop_--also like a child who has not learned to
_stop_ the holes on the flute _a bec_.

It is singular that the Virginal, which was the most popular of all
the keyed instruments, is nowhere directly named in Shakespeare. There
is, however, a reference to the action of the fingers on its keys in
the following.

_Winter's Tale_ I, ii, 125. Of _Hermione_, Queen of Leontes, King of
Sicilia, and _Polixenes_, King of Bohemia.

_Leon._ ---- still _virginalling_
Upon his palm?

The Virginal (generally known as 'a _pair_ of virginals') was most
commonly used by ladies for their private recreation, and from this
circumstance is supposed to derive its name. Queen Elizabeth was fond
of playing on it, but as it was in vogue before her time, there is no
need to connect the name with the Virgin Queen. (Elizabeth's own
Virginal is in South Kensington Museum.[10]) Its keyboard has four
octaves, and the case is square, like that of a very old pianoforte.
The strings of the virginal were plucked, by quills,[11] which wer