"Cornemuse and shalmyes, And many a maner pipe," and again, "Both ye Dowced and ye Rede." "Cornemuse" is generally accepted to mean a hornpipe. "Shalmyes"[4] was probably a reed instrument of the character of an oboe. With regard to "ye Dowced" and "ye Rede," numerous controversies have failed to establish any definite conviction. The poet, however, in another line mentions an instrument, of which there is no doubt possible:-- "A baggepipe coude wel he blowe and soune." It is natural to suppose that progress in the art of making instruments would correspond to that in the art of music itself, and the ever-increasing intercourse with the Continent since the Conquest would bring knowledge of many before unknown; both France and Italy being far in advance of England in this respect. References to them in Shakespeare's works are numerous. To cite only a few. In the first part of "Henry IV.":-- "_Falstaff_: S'blood! I am as melancholy as a gibcat or a lugged bear. "_Prince Henry_: Or an old lion; or a lover's _lute_. "_Falstaff_: Yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire _bagpipe_." In "Hamlet":-- "_Hamlet_: ... Will you play upon this _pipe_? "_Guildenstern_: My lord, I cannot. "_Guildenstern_: I know no touch of it, my lord. "_Hamlet_: 'Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops." We will content ourselves with one more quotation. It consists of some lines of incomparable beauty from the sonnets:-- "How oft, when thou, my music, music play'st, Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds With thy sweet fingers, when thou gently sway'st, The wiry concord that mine ear confounds, Do I envy those jacks, that nimble leap To kiss the tender inward of thy hand, Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest reap, At the wood's boldness by thee blushing stand." By the time of Queen Elizabeth the number and variety of instruments had greatly increased as the following lines by the poet, Michael Drayton, shew. It may be mentioned in explanation of the words, "the viol best in setts," that it was customary in those days to enclose in one case a set of these instruments, treble, tenor and bass, the last-named being probably the viol da gamba, the predecessor of the modern violoncello.