Swift Severn's flood; Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks, Ran fearfully among the trembling Reeds. _1st Henry IV_, act 1, sc. 3 (103). (6) _Portia._ And speak between the change of man and boy With a Reed voice. _Merchant of Venice_, act iii, sc. 4 (66). (7) _Wooer._ In the great Lake that lies behind the Pallace From the far shore thick set with Reeds and Sedges. * * * * * The Rushes and the Reeds Had so encompast it. _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act iv, sc. 1 (71, 80). (8) To Simois' Reedy banks the red blood ran. _Lucrece_ (1437). Reed is a general term for almost any water-loving, grassy plant, and so it is used by Shakespeare. In the Bible it is perhaps possible to identify some of the Reeds mentioned, with the Sugar Cane in some places, with the Papyrus in others, and in others with the Arundo donax. As a Biblical plant it has a special interest, not only as giving the emblem of the tenderest mercy that will be careful even of "the bruised Reed," but also as entering largely into the mockery of the Crucifixion: "They put a Reed in His right hand," and "they filled a sponge full of vinegar, and put it upon a Reed and gave Him to drink." The Reed in these passages was probably the Arundo donax, a very elegant Reed, which was used for many purposes in Palestine, and is a most graceful plant for English gardens, being perfectly hardy, and growing every year from 12ft. to 14ft. in height, but very seldom flowering.[240:1] But in Shakespeare, as in most writers, the Reed is simply the emblem of weakness, tossed about by and bending to a superior force, and of little or no use--"a Reed that will do me no service" (No. 1). It is also the emblem of the blessedness of submission, and of the power that lies in humility to outlast its oppressor-- "Like as in tempest great, Where wind doth bear the stroke, Much safer stands the bowing Reed Then doth the stubborn Oak." Shakespeare mentions but two uses to which the Reed was applied, the thatching of houses (No. 3), and the making of Pan or Shepherd's pipes (No. 6). Nor has he anything to say of its beauty, yet the Reeds of our river sides (_Arundo phragmites_) are most graceful plants, especially when they have their dark plumes of flowers, and this Milton seems to have felt-- "Forth flourish't thick the flustering Vine, forth crept The swelling Gourd, up stood the Cornie Reed Embattled in her field." _Paradise Lost_, book vii. FOOTNOTES: