Flute in Dickens and others
himself for the present century," a sentiment which was embodied in the ancient Greek proverb. "To flute-players, nature gave brains, there's no doubt: But alas! 'tis in vain, for they soon blow them out." Readers of Mrs. Ward's Robert Elsmere will remember the description of the duet played by the Rev. Mr. Mayhew and Miss Banks:—
"After an adagio opening in which the flute and piano were at magnificent cross-purposes from the beginning, the two instruments plunged into an allegro very long and very fast, which became ultimately a desperate race between the competing performers for the final chord. . . . The shriller and the wilder grew the flute, and the greater the exertion of the dark Hercules performing on it, the fiercer grew the pace of the piano. . . Crash came the last chord, and the poor flute nearly half a page behind was left shrilly hanging in mid-air, forsaken, and companionless, an object of derision to gods and men."
Very frequently the novelist's flautist belongs to the Church, generally of the type of little Mr. Sweeting in Charlotte Bronte's Shirley (c. 7), who always carried about the pieces of his flute in his pocket. As its "squeaking and gasping notes" are mentioned, we gather he was not much of a performer. Another flute-playing curate (Mr. Baily) occurs in G. M. Fenn's This Man's Wife.
Pearson's Magazine for May, 1903, contains a remarkable story entitled The Flautist by J. H. Yoxall, M.P. It relates how a drunken flautist in the band at the Alcazar Restaurant saw a German flute hanging in the window of a slop-shop, which, when he took it in his hand, felt warm and flexible, almost
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