Definition of "hautboy"

I […] told John a Gaunt he beat his own name; for you might have thrust him and all his apparel into an eel-skin; the case of a treble hautboy was a mansion for him, a court […]

c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene ii]

[W]ee would that the voice and dialect of the propheteſſe Pythia, reſembling the ſpeech of a Chorus in a tragedie from a ſcaffold, ſhould pronounce her anſwers not in ſimple, plaine, and triviall termes, without any grace to ſet them out, but with Poeticall magnificence of high and ſtately verſes, diſguiſed as it were with metaphors and figurative phraſes, yea, and that which more is, with ſound of flute and hautboies: […]

1603, Plutarch, “Why the Prophetesse Pythia Giveth No Answers Now from the Oracle in Verse or Meeter”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, page 1199

When after this manner any have lost their Ships, and cannot be seen, they discharge a Cannon from the Ship, or sound the Trumpets, or Haut-boys, according as they are provided in their Ships, that the men that are lost may find their Ship again.

1694, uncredited translator, The Voyage into Spitzbergen and Greenland by Friderich Martens in An Account of Several Late Voyages & Discoveries to the South and North, London: Sam Smith and Benjamin Walford, Chapter 1, p. 12

[…] even in a hautboy song, or any other where a particular instrument may have an obligato accompaniment, the voice ought to be every where assisted, but no where eclipsed.

1788, Charles Dibdin, The Musical Tour of Mr. Dibdin‎, Sheffield, Letter 48, p. 197

The notes proceed from her mouth as mechanically, as unmitigated by the sentiment, as if they came from the sharp hautboy or grating bassoon.

1816, William Hazlitt, “Theatrical Debuts,” The Examiner, 20 October, 1816, in A. R. Waller and Arnold Glover (eds.), The Collected Works of William Hazlitt, London: J.M. Dent, 1903, p. 341

“Well, this is a bad night altogether for them that have done well in their time; and if I were ever such a dab at the hautboy or tenor-viol, I shouldn’t have the heart to play tunes upon ’em now.”

1878, Thomas Hardy, chapter 7, in The Return of the Native‎, volume 3, London: Smith, Elder, page 69

In May we have strawberries, which continue in season two or three months. These are of the wood kind; very grateful, and of a good flavour; but the scarlets and hautboys are not known at Nice.

1766, Tobias Smollett, Travels through France and Italy‎, London: R. Baldwin, Volume 1, Letter 19, pp. 304-305

“The best fruit in England—every body’s favourite—always wholesome.—These the finest beds and finest sorts. […] every sort good—hautboy infinitely superior—no comparison—the others hardly eatable—hautboys very scarce […] ”

1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter 6, in Emma: […], volumes (please specify |volume=I, II or III), London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray