Puritans and Flute
to talk with the fingers (as on a flute) is an act of ingratitude to God, who gave men a tongue; whilst St. Epiphanius says the flute was modelled from the serpent in Eden, and compares the gestures of a flute-player to those of the devil himself when blaspheming. The same view was taken by the early English Puritans. Gosson, in his School of Abuse (1579), terms flute-players "the caterpillars of a Commonwealth." William Prynne, in his Histriomastix (1633), cites with evident gusto the dictum of St. Clement, that if a flute-player turn Christian he must either give up flute-playing or else be rejected (p. 654). Fox, in his Martyrs, tells us that Thomas Bilney (who was afterwards martyred) used to resort straight to his prayers whenever the Rev. Dr. Thurlby, of Cambridge, played on his recorder. This, however, apparently did not prevent Thurlby from becoming a bishop.
Johannes Secundus makes flutes the instrument of Venus, and it is said that Leonardo da Vinci employed flutes as a kind of spell in order to obtain the proper pose for the Mona Lisa countenance in his famous picture, in which a refined sensuality is the main characteristic (Rowbotham). Nothing could please Zubof, the favourite of Catherine of Russia, when in love but the voluptuous strains of the flute.
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