Note 124 — THE PROLOGUE. (continued 2)
Reading edition
The shalme, or shawm, was a wind instrument like a hautboy, with a swelling protuberance in the middle. In “Commenius’s Visible World,” translated by Hoole, 1659, the Latin word gingras is translated by shawn, and the form of the instrument is represented as below. Its proper name appears to have been shawme; it is derived from the Teutonic. Drayton mentions it as shrill-toned: ‘E’en from the shrillest shaum unto the cornamute.’
Polyolbion v. iv. p. 376.
