What pleasure take you in this your foolishness?
What joy have ye to wander thus by night,
Save that _ill doers alway hate the light_?'

Another verse explains that not only the foolish young men of _low_
birth were given to this practice, but also--

'States themselves therein abuse,'
'With _some yonge fooles of the spiritualtie_:
The foolish _pipe_ without all gravitie
Doth eche degree call to his frantic game:
The darkness of night expelleth feare of shame.'

Brant had no great opinion of the music provided either. He describes
their singing before their lady's window--

'One barketh, another bleateth like a shepe;
Some rore, some _counter_, some their _ballads fayne_:
Another from singing geveth himself to wepe;
When his soveraigne lady hath of him disdayne.'

Finally--a Parthian shot--

'Standing in corners like as it were a spye,
Whether that the wether be whot, colde, wet, or dry.'

Thus, one hundred years before Shakespeare was born, Serenades of
voices and instruments were common, and in general practice by all
classes of young men, and not only laymen, but also yonge fooles of
the spiritualtie.

The instruments mentioned are such as were still in use in
Shakespeare's time--viz., harp, lute, 'foolish' pipe, bagpipe, and
'foolish' flute, besides the several varieties of song, which
evidently included both solo and part singing--'feigned' ballads for a
single voice [ballads, that is, in the more refined 'keys' of 'Musica
Ficta'], and 'Countering,' which implies that two voices at least took
part.

The following passage is an example of this nocturnal serenading by a
company of gentlemen.

_Two Gent._ III, ii, 83.

_Proteus_ (advises Thurio)
'Visit by night your lady's chamber window
With some _sweet concert_: to their _instruments_
Tune a _deploring dump_:'

_Thu._ And thy advice this night I'll put in practice.
Therefore, sweet Proteus, my direction-giver,
Let us into the city presently,
_To sort some gentlemen well skilled in music_.

Proteus advises Thurio to get a 'consort' (probably of viols) to play
a 'dump' under Silvia's window. He goes to arrange for some of his
friends to attend for this purpose. The serenade takes place in the
next Act, where, in the 2nd scene, line 17, it is called 'evening
music,' but does not include the 'dump,' for Thur