Also 4 loyt, 5–6 lutte, lewte. [a. F. lut (Cotgrave; now written luth) whence It. liuto, Du. luit, Da. lut, MHG. lûte (G. laute); another form of the word appears in Pr. laut, Sp. laud, Pg. alaude; a. Arab. al-sūd, where al- is the definite article.]
1. A stringed musical instrument, much in vogue from the 14th to the 17th centuries, the strings of which were struck with the fingers of the right hand and stopped on the frets with those of the left.
1361–2. Durham Acc. Rolls, 127. In uno viro ludenti in uno loyt.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Manciple’s T., 268. For sorwe of which he brak his minstralcye, Bothe harpe, and lute, and giterne, and sautrye.
c. 1410. Sir Cleges, 101. He hard a sovne … Of harpis, luttis, and getarnys.
1481–90. Howard Househ. Bks. (Roxb.), 218. Item, to the menstrellis for the mendynge of a lewte ij.s. iiij.d.
a. 1529. Skelton, Agst. Comely Coystrowne, 29. He lumbryth on a lewde lewte.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. xxxiii. 2. Synge psalmes vnto him with the lute and instrument of ten strynges.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, II. i. 98. God defend the Lute should be like the case.
1663. Cowley, Verses & Ess., Garden, iv. (1669), 117. When Orpheus strook th’ inspired Lute, The trees danc’d round.
1717. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to C’tess Mar, 18 April. Four of them began to play some soft airs on instruments between a lute and a guitar.
1789. Burney, Hist. Mus. (ed. 2), III. i. 143. The Lute of which hardly the sound or shape is known at present, was during the last two centuries the favorite chamber instrument of every nation of Europe.
1879. Stainer, Music of Bible, 22. A guitar and lute only vary with regard to the shape or length of the body and neck.
transf. 1820. Keats, Isabella, xxxv. The forest tomb Had … taken the soft lute From his lorn voice.
b. The name of a stop in some forms of the harpsichord (see quot. 1885).
1879. A. J. Hipkins, in Grove’s Dict. Mus., I. 691/1. The so-called ‘lute’-stop.
1885. Encycl. Brit., XIX. 70/2. To the three shifting registers of jacks of the octave and first and second unisons were added the ‘lute,’ the charm of which was due to the favouring of high harmonics by plucking the strings close to the bridge, and the ‘harp,’ a surding or muting effect [etc.].
2. attrib. and Comb., as lute-case, -lesson, -maker, -master, -player, -playing, -tune; lute-resounding, -voiced adjs.; lute-fashion adv.; lute-backed a., having a back shaped like a lute; lute-fingered a., having fingers adapted to the lute; lute-pin, one of the pegs or screws for tuning the strings of the lute; † lute shoulders (cf. lute-backed), round shoulders; lute-way adv., in the way in which the lute is played (cf. lyra-way). Also LUTE-STRING.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 354. Those who are *Lute backed, thicke shouldered, and bending forward,… bee long liued.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, etc. (Arb.), 141. This slut … with a head lyke a *lutecase.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., III. ii. 45. Bardolph stole a Lute-case; bore it twelue Leagues, and sold it for three halfepence.
a. 1734. North, Life Ld. Keeper North (1742), 12. His … Lyra Viol (which he used to touch, *Lute-fashion, upon his knees).
1873. Browning, Red Cott. Nt.-cap, I. Wks. 1898, II. 374/2. [Fiddles] sawn bow-handwise, Or touched lute-fashion and forefinger-plucked.
1820. Keats, Lamia, I. 73. The soft, *lute-finger’d Muses.
1610. Dowland (title), Varietie of *Lvte-lessons.
1573. Baret, Alv., L 672. A *lutemaker, testudinarius.
1610. Dowland, Var. Lute-lessons, D 2. Hans Gerle, Lutenist, Citizen and Lute-Maker of Nurenburge.
1665–6. Pepys, Diary, 12 Feb. Then comes Mr. Cæsar, my boy’s *lute-master.
1703. Lond. Gaz., No. 3921/4. Mr. Dupre, Lute-Master, has set up a School at the White-Periwig in King-street.
1596. Nashe, Saffron-Walden, F 4. Otherwise he looks like a case of tooth-pikes, or a *Lute pin put in a sute of apparell.
1612. Rowlands, Knaue of Harts, 10. My Breeches like a paire of Lute-pins be, Scarse Buttocke-roome, as euery man may see.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, vii. 91. He doth fondlie incorporate the spirit of the *Lute-plaier in the Lute. Ibid., xiv. 221. He cannot put his *Lute-playing in exercise.
1742. Pope, Dunciad, IV. 306. Love-whisp’ring woods, and *lute-resounding waves.
1500–20. *Lut schulderis [see LUTTERED].
c. 1500. Proverbs, in Grose, Antiq. Repert. (1809), IV. 406. He that is a perfyte musicion Perceyvithe the *Lute tewnes and the goode proporcion.
1818. Keats, Endym., iv. 774. Thy *lute-voiced brother will I sing ere long.
1607. Brewer, Lingua, I. ix. Auditus, shall we here thee play, the Lyero-way, or the *Lute-way, shall we?
1611. J. Maynard (title), XII Wonders of the World…. With some Lessons to play Lyra-wayes alone, or … with another Violl set Lute-way.
