102
SHAKESPEARE AND MUSIC
| Per. | All fortune to the good Simonides! |
| Sim. | To you as much, sir! I am beholding to you For your sweet music this last night: I do Protest, my ears were never better fed With such delightful pleasing harmony. |
| Per. | It is your grace's pleasure to commend, Not my desert. |
| Sim. | Sir, you are music's master. |
| Per. | The worst of all her scholars, my good lord. |
The next quotation is also of 'morning music,' but with a different object—not a lady, but a soldier, and of a somewhat rough and ready kind, to judge by the Clown's critical remarks.
The passage seems to indicate the use of Bagpipes; for 'they speak in the nose' (see Merchant 41, 48), and are called wind-instruments, and are mentioned under the name 'pipes' in the last two lines. Moreover, there is the remark of the Clown, represented here by stars, which is terribly appropriate to that instrument.
Othello 31. Cassio brings musicians to salute Othello.
| Cass. | Masters, play here; I will content your pains: Something that's brief; and bid "Good morrow, general." [Music.] |
Enter Clown.
| Clo. | Why, masters, have your instruments been in Naples, that they speak i' the nose thus? |
