And Shakespeare, whose genius touched on everything above the earth and under it, but who does not seem to have had a high opinion of the “sweetness” of the bagpipe, says of a character that he is as melancholy as a glib cat, or a lugged bear, or an old lion, or a lover’s lute, or the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe. In another place he speaks of men who “laugh, like parrots at a bagpiper,” and in yet another he infers that the instrument was more powerful than others then in use. “You would never,” he says, “dance again after a tabor or pipe; no, the bagpipe could not move you.” He seems, however, to have known the utility even of his English pipes for marching purposes, for he concludes _Much ado about Nothing_ with “Strike up, Pipers.” This phrase, by the way, must surely have been taken from the play, for it is always held as referring more to the bagpipe than to any other instrument. Generally speaking, Shakespeare’s references are more in the way of sarcasm than of praise. A.D. 1581.—In 1581 we find James VI. returning from church at Dalkeith one Sunday with two pipers playing before him; and, strangely enough, a little nearer the end of the century, we read, two pipers were prosecuted for playing on the Sunday. At various times between 1591 and 1596 pipers from the Water of Leith bound themselves strictly not to play on the Sundays. There was evidently one law for the king and another for the subject. A.D. 1584.—A poetical historian describing a battle between the English and the Irish in 1584 says:— “Now goe the foes to wracke, The Karne apace do sweate, And bagg pipe then instead of trompe Doe lulle the backe retreate. “Who hears the bagpipe now? The pastyme is so hotte, Our valiant captains will not cease Till that the field be gotte. “But still thei forward pearse, Upon the glibbed route, And with thar weapons meete for warre, These vaunting foes they cloute.” Then, when the battle was over, the piper having been killed:— “The bagpipe cease to plaie, The piper lyes on grounde; And here a sort of glibbed theeves Devoid of life are found.” It is difficult to see how an instrument like the present Irish bagpipe could be of any use in war; but in 1601 a traveller, visiting the same country, confirms the statement that it belonged to the military. In 1584 a man named Cockran “played on his bagpipe in a dramatic performance in Coventry.” An Irish bagpipe has been seen in London theatres on various occasions, and, of course, often enough in Scottish concert rooms. In 1798 a Mr. Courtney “played a solo on the union pipes in the quick movement of the overture with good effect” in a performance founded on Ossian’s poems.