Page:The story of the flute (IA storyofflute1914fitz).djvu/258



Early English referencesChaucerFlute and fife in ShakespeareIn the early dramatistsIn the poetsReferences to the qualities of the fluteEpithets applied to itCowperLongfellowOther poetsProse referencesIn modern novelistsDickensA weird flute storyFlute in American authorsSidney LanierOther literary flautistsLegends.

earliest mention of the flute that I can find occurs in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (c. 1386). In the Prologue to that work, the gay young squire is described as singing or “floytynge” all the day. In The House of Fame, iii., 130 (c. 1394), the poet speaks of "many thousand times twelve"

and he mentions three ancient flute-players by nameAtiteris [? Tityrus], Proserus [? Pronomus], and "Marcia that lost her skyn" (Dante in his Paradise, 1, 13-27, had already turned Marsyas into a woman). Again in the Romaunt of the Rose (c. 1400), "floytes" and