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Naylor, Edward W. (Edward Woodall), 1867-1934

"Shakespeare and Music With Illustrations from the Music of the 16th and 17th centuries"


28].
The Lute leads us quite easily from Musical Instruments and Technical
Terms to the second division.


II
MUSICAL EDUCATION

The following passages give a lively picture of what a music-master
might have to put up with from young ladies of quality.
_Shrew._ II, i, 142. Re-enter HORTENSIO with his head broken.
_Bap._ How now, my friend? why dost thou look so pale?
_Hor._ For fear, I promise you, if I look pale.
_Bap._ What, will my daughter [Kate] prove a good musician?
_Hor._ I think, she'll sooner prove a soldier:
Iron may hold her, but never _lutes_.
_Bap._ Why, then thou canst not _break her_ to the lute?
_Hor._ Why, no, for _she hath broke the lute to me_.
I did but tell her she _mistook her frets_,
And bow'd her hand to _teach her fingering_,
When, with a most impatient, devilish spirit,
"_Frets_ call you these?" quoth she; "I'll _fume_ with them;"
And with that word she struck me on the head,
And _through the instrument my pate made way_;
And there I stood amazed for a while,
_As on a pillory, looking through the lute_,
While she did call me _rascal fiddler_,
And, _twangling Jack_, with twenty such vile terms,
As had she studied to misuse me so.
_Shrew_ II, i, 277.
_Bap.


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