In the text of Shakespeare the word does not occur.
Cornets, or Flourish Cornets (only twice).
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
