And rest your gentle head upon her lap.

_1st Henry IV_, act iii, sc. 1 (214).

(13) _Marcius._

He that depends
Upon your favours swims with fins of lead
And hews down Oaks with Rushes.

_Coriolanus_, act i, sc. 1 (183).

(14) _Iachimo._

Our Tarquin thus
Did softly press the Rushes.

_Cymbeline_, act ii, sc. 2 (12).

(15) _Senator._
Our gates
Which yet seem shut, we have but pinn'd with Rushes!
They'll open of themselves.

_Coriolanus_, act i, sc. 4 (16).

(16)

And being lighted, by the light he spies
Lucretia's glove, wherein her needle sticks;
He takes it from the Rushes where it lies.

_Lucrece_ (316).

(17) _See_ REEDS, No. 7.

(18) _Wooer._

Rings she made
Of Rushes that grew by, and to 'em spoke
The prettiest posies.

_Two Noble Kinsmen_, act iv, sc. 1 (109).

_See also_ FLAG, REED, _and_ BULRUSH.

Like the Reed, the Rush often stands for any water-loving, grassy
plant, and, like the Reed, it was the emblem of yielding weakness and of
uselessness.[264:1] The three principal Rushes referred to by
Shakespeare are the Common Rush (_Juncus communis_), the Bulrush
(_Scirpus lacustris_), and the Sweet Rush (_Acorus calamus_).

The Common Rush, though the mark of badly cultivated ground, and the
emblem of uselessness, was not without its uses, some of which are
referred to in Nos. 1, 3, and 11. In Nos. 3 and 18 reference is made to
the Rush-ring, a ring, no doubt, originally meant and used for the
purposes of honest betrothal, but afterwards so vilely used for the
purposes of mock marriages, that even as early as 1217 Richard Bishop of
Salisbury had to issue his edict against the use of "annulum de junco."

The Rush betrothal ring is mentioned by Spenser--

"O thou great shepheard, Lobbin, how great is thy griefe!
Where bene the nosegayes that she dight for thee?
The coloured chaplets wrought with a chiefe,
The knotted Rush-ringes and gilt Rosemarie."

_Shepherd's Calendar--November._

And by Quarles--

"Love-sick