TECHNICAL TERMS
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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.
Hamlet 32,346. Enter Players with recorders.
| Ham. | O! the recorders: let me see one.… ••••••• L. 351. |
| 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
