I02 THE PIPE AND TABOR 



aware that these instruments are known to have 

 existed in England earUer than the 13th century. 



Fra Angehco puts these instruments into 

 the hands of an angehc lady. Her tabor is 

 beautifully given, the pipe is but slightly indi- 

 cated. In Florence, among the singing boys of 

 Luca della Robbia (reproduced in fig. 5), is to be 

 found the best representation of a pipe player 

 that I have seen. There is a comparatively 

 modern picture of Will Kemp,i the Shakespearian 

 actor, performing his dance to Norwich. He 

 started, apparently in 1599, on the "first Monday 

 in cleane Lent," and succeeded in his object, 

 though not without difficulty. His attendants' 

 names are pleasant : Taborer, Tom Slye, Servant, 

 Wm. Bee, Overseer, Geo. Sprat. 



I am glad to say that a tabor and pipe appear 

 in one very honourable secular affair, "^ namely, a 

 tournament, more correctly a joust or single com- 

 bat. One of the combatants is supported by a 

 bagpipe, the other by a tabor and pipe. It must 

 be confessed, however, that the taborer was not 

 well treated in mediaeval times, badly paid, and 

 not received with the honour given to minstrels. 



I like the rustic character of the pipe, and its 

 association with cheerful mediaeval vagabonds, 

 and, still more, its memories of centuries of village 

 dances. I wish it had found a place in that 

 "dancing in the chequered shade," in which Milton 



^ Kemp's Nine Daies Wonder : Performed in a Daunce from 

 London to Norwich, by A. Dyce, Camden Society, 1840. 



* See Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, Edit. 2, 1810, Plate XIV.. 

 p. 124. 



