F.H. Blandford.]
_In the middle, on table._
QUEEN ELIZABETH'S 'VIRGINAL.' Date, latter half of 16th century.
Outside of case (not visible in picture) covered with red velvet.
Inside finely decorated. Has three locks. Is more properly a Spinet,
the case not being square, but of the usual Spinet shape--viz., one
long side (front view), and four shorter ones forming a rough
semi-circle at back.
_Top row, counting from the right._
1. TABOR-PIPE. Modern, but similar to the Elizabethan instrument.
French name, 'galoubet.' Merely a whistle, cylindrical bore, and 3
holes, two in front, one (for thumb) behind. The scale is produced on
the basis of the 1st harmonic--thus 3 holes are sufficient. It was
played with left hand only, the tabor being hung to the left wrist,
and beaten with a stick in the right hand. Length _over all_ of pipe
in picture, 1 ft. 2-1/2 in.; speaking length, 1 ft. 1-1/8 in.; lowest
note in use, B flat above treble staff. Mersennus (1648), however,
says the tabor-pipe was in G, which makes it larger than the one in
the picture. A contemporary woodcut (in Calmour's 'Fact and Fiction
about Shakespeare') of William Kemp, one of Shakespeare's
fellow-actors, dancing the Morris, to tabor and pipe, makes the pipe
as long as from mouth to waist--viz., about 18 inches, which agrees
with Mersennus. A similar woodcut in 'Orchesographie' makes the pipe
even longer.
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