(1)	2nd Servant.	I had as lief have a Reed that will do me no service, as a partizan I could not heave.
Antony and Cleopatra, act ii, sc. 7 (13).
(2)	Arviragus.	Fear no more the frown o' the great, Thou art past the tyrant's stroke; Care no more to clothe and eat; To thee the Reed is as the Oak; The sceptre, learning, physick, must All follow this, and come to dust.
Cymbeline, act iv, sc. 2 (264).
(3)	Ariel.	His tears run down his beard, like winter's drops From eaves of Reeds.
Tempest, act v, sc. 1 (16).
(4)	Ariel.	With hair up-staring—then like Reeds, not hair—
Ibid., act i, sc. 2 (213).
(5)	Hotspur.	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—

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—

Paradise Lost, book vii.

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