This is also rare, occurring only eight times in four plays. One case only is in war, the others being all connected with Royal or triumphal processions.
The term is by no means synonymous with Trumpets. The Cornet was an entirely different instrument, and the use of it accordingly is very much more limited in these stage directions. There were two instruments called Cornet, the one with a reed, a coarse sort of Oboe which was nearly obsolete in the 17th century; the other, with which we are concerned, a sort of Horn (hence its name), with a cup mouthpiece, and finger holes for the intermediate notes of the scale. Hawkins gives pictures of a treble, a tenor, and a bass cornet, copied from Mersennus, who remarks that the sounds of the cornet are vehement, but that those who are skilful, such as Quiclet, the royal cornetist (i.e., of France, 1648) are able so to soften and modulate them, that nothing can be more sweet.
Many people now living will remember the Serpent, a large, black, curly instrument, of thin wood covered with leather, which helped to play the loud bass in oratorios, within the last fifty years. This Serpent was a true Cornet in every respect. It may now commonly be seen in Exhibitions, Museums, and curiosity shops, for it has been entirely superseded by the Bass Tuba and the Euphonium.
In the text the word Cornet does not occur.
Tucket. Rare, only seven times in six different plays. This is one of the several trumpet calls we have noticed. It seems to have been a French term, toquet, or doquet, and this is defined by Littré, as quatrième partie de trompette d'une fanfare de cavalerie—that is, the name 'toquet' was applied to the fourth trumpet in a cavalry fanfare. Mr Aldis Wright, in his Clarendon Press Edition of Hen. V., gives Markham, quoted by Grose in 'Military Antiquities,' which explains 'Tucket' as a trumpet signal, which, 'being heard simply of itself without addition, commands nothing but marching after the leader.' Certainly in Shakespeare it seems to be used as a personal trumpet call—e.g., Merchant V, i, 121, Lorenzo says to Portia, 'Your husband is at hand; I hear his trumpet—'i.e., the 'tucket sounded' which is indicated in the stage direction. Other cases of the use of the Tucket are quite similar—for instance, the return of Bertram, Count of Rousillon, from war; the arrival of Goneril (Cornwall. What trumpet's that? Regan. I know't, my sister's:) or the embassy of Æneas. Once it is used to herald Cupid and the masked Amazons, in Timon; and twice at the entrance of Montjoy, the French Herald, in Hen. V.
The derivation of the word from toccare, and its connection with tocco di campana, tocsin, and tusch, have already been explained in the notes on Hortensio's music lesson to Bianca. (See [Sec. II].)
In the [Appendix] is given an Italian Tucket of 1638, and a French one of 1643.
In the text the word is only found once—viz., H. 5. IV, ii, 35, where the Constable of France orders the trumpets to 'sound the tucket-sonance, and the note to mount,' which fits in with Markham's definition, for the passage appears to recognise the tucket as in some sort a preparatory signal.
It is perhaps worth noting, that of the seven tuckets in the stage directions, only one, Goneril's, is supposed to be an English one. In the single instance just given of its use in the text, it is a French general who uses the word. Perhaps this may be regarded as confirming the view of its foreign origin.
Parley, or Trumpets sound a parley, either alone, or with Retreat. This call is named in the stage directions 7 times in five plays, viz.—H. 6. A. three times; H. 6. B. once; R. II. once; H. 4. A. once; and H. 5. once. It means either a trumpet call announcing an embassy from one party to the other, or for cessation of hostilities during the fight itself. Of course the name is derived from parler, with a reference to the proposed 'pow-wow' of the opposing forces.