95.
_Pan._ ... Come, _give me an instrument_. [And at Helen's
request, Pandarus sings, 'Love, love, nothing but love.']
The custom of having instrumental music in taverns has already been
referred to in the Introduction, near the end, where we learn that the
charge for playing before the guests was twenty shillings for two
hours in Shakespeare's time; also that a man could hardly go into a
public house of entertainment without being followed by two or three
itinerant musicians, who would either sing or play for his pleasure,
while he was at dinner. Accordingly, we find Sir John Falstaff
enjoying such a performance at the Boar's Head, Eastcheap.
_H. 4. B._ II, iv, 10.
_1 Drawer._ Why then, cover, and set them down: and see if
thou canst find out _Sneak's noise_; Mistress Tearsheet
would fain have _some music_. (After supper, in a cooler
room.)
_Id._ l. 227.
_Page._ The _music_ is come, sir.
_Falstaff._ Let them _play_.---- _Play_, sirs.
_Id._ l. 380.
_Fal._ _Pay the musicians_, sirrah.
The term 'Sneak's noise' is most interesting. 'Noise' means a company
of musicians, and Mr Sneak was the gentleman who gave his name to the
particular band of instrumentalists who favoured the Boar's Head.
Milton uses the word, in this sense, in the poem 'At a Solemn Music,'
where the 'saintly shout' of the seraphic choir, with 'loud uplifted
angel-trumpets,' 'immortal harps of golden wires,' and the singing of
psalms and hymns, are collectively called 'that melodious _noise_.
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