PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
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(15) Our gates 
Which yet seem shut, we have but pinn’ct with Rushes ! 
They’ll open of themselves.— Coriolanus , i. 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) Rings she made 
Of Rushes that grew by, and to ’em spoke 
The prettiest posies.— Two Noble Kinsmen , iv. 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. 1 The three principal Rushes 
referred to by Shakespeare are the Common Rush ( Jnncus 
co?n?nnnis ), the Bulrush ( Scirpus lacustris ), and the Sweet Rush 
[Acorns 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 n. 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— 
6 ‘ 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 . 
1 “ Around the islet at its lowest edge, 
Lo, there beneath, where breaks th’ encircling wave, 
The yielding mud is thick with Rushes crowned. 
No other flower with frond or leafy growth 
Or hardened fibre there can life sustain, 
Tor none bend safely to the watery shock.” 
Dante, Purgatorio , canto i. (Johnston).. 
