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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"


In the text the word Cornet does not occur.
_Tucket._ Rare, only _seven_ times in six different plays. This is one
of the several trumpet calls we have noticed. It seems to have been a
French term, _toquet_, or _doquet_, and this is defined by Littre, as
_quatrieme partie de trompette d'une fanfare de cavalerie_--that is,
the name 'toquet' was applied to the fourth trumpet in a cavalry
fanfare. Mr Aldis Wright, in his Clarendon Press Edition of Hen. V.,
gives Markham, quoted by Grose in 'Military Antiquities,' which
explains 'Tucket' as a trumpet signal, which, 'being heard simply of
itself without addition, commands nothing but _marching after the
leader_.' Certainly in Shakespeare it seems to be used as a _personal_
trumpet call--_e.g._, _Merchant_ V, i, 121, Lorenzo says to Portia,
'Your husband is at hand; I hear his trumpet--'_i.e._, the 'tucket
sounded' which is indicated in the stage direction. Other cases of
the use of the Tucket are quite similar--for instance, the return of
Bertram, Count of Rousillon, from war; the arrival of Goneril
(_Cornwall._ What trumpet's that? _Regan._ I know't, my sister's:) or
the embassy of AEneas. Once it is used to herald Cupid and the masked
Amazons, in _Timon_; and twice at the entrance of Montjoy, the French
Herald, in _Hen. V._
The derivation of the word from _toccare_, and its connection with
_tocco di campana_, _tocsin_, and _tusch_, have already been explained
in the notes on Hortensio's music lesson to Bianca.


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