‘Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages with your lingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops.
– William Shakespeare
Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2. When Guildenstern says that he cannot play the recorder, Hamlet suggests that it’s as easy as lying – which Guildenstern already does. He means, ironically, that Rosencrantz’s and Guildenstern’s lies sound as ridiculour as a person trying to play a musical instrument without knowing how.