[phantomrose96]

I read Hamlet back in high school and to this day my absolute favorite thing about it was when Guildenstern was trying to fool Hamlet into doing something or other and Hamlet’s savvy to it but rather than saying “you’re lying and trying to trick me” instead Hamlet outta nowhere whips out this flute and tells Guildenstern to play it.

And Guildenstern is all “I dont know how to play a flute, my lord”

And Hamlet takes a dramatic pause before he absolutely ruins Guildenstern with, “Well thats funny considering you thought you could play me”

[phantomrose96]

this post sounds like im exaggerating but im not it’s straight up canon

[petermorwood]

Hamlet doesn’t whip the flute out of nowhere, he swipes it from the players -  the stage direction is: Re-enter Players with recorders and Hamlet says “Oh, the recorders! Let me see one!” (takes a recorder).

Beta readers are everywhere, so did Shakespeare add that after some feedback in rehearsals?

“Hey, Will, great wordplay with the whistle an’ all but where’d it come from? Hamlet’s acting crazy, not crazy-prepared!”

Here’s the lead into the OP quotation:

HAMLET: I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe?

GUILDENSTERN: My lord, I cannot.

HAMLET: I pray you.

GUILDENSTERN: Believe me, I cannot.

HAMLET: I do beseech you.

GUILDENSTERN: I know no touch of it, my lord.

HAMLET: It is as easy as lying. Govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops.

It’s no accident IMO that it’s specified in direction and dialogue as a recorder, an instrument both then and now so simple that children play them, yet Guildenstern claims he can’t.

Look at the welter of musical references - stops (woodwind), pluck (strings), compass (vocal range), organ (keyboards), frets (more strings but easier to play). The entire audience from toffs to groundlings would have got them.

It may even include a dick joke - very little Shakespeare doesn’t if you look hard enough. 

“Alright dude, you wanna blow me, but you can’t even blow this? Then pluck you, man, and pluck off!“ 

Here’s David Tennant playing Hamlet not being played by Guildenstern, who can’t play the recorder even though Rosencrantz is in the background making off-key mental notes as he records this duet for the King.

And here’s the scene.

ETA: here’s a longer version which includes the set-up; the actual recorder “business” starts at ~01:57.