Note 229 — GAMMER GURTON'S NEEDLE.
Reading edition
Counsel or advice. So in act iv., sc. 2—
"Therefore I reed you three, go hence and within keep close."
Again—
"Well, if ye will be ordered and do by my reed."
Again, act v., sc. 2—
"And where ye sat, he said full certain, if I would follow his reed."
Again, in Erasmus's "Praise of Folie," by Chaloner, sig. D 3: "Vnles perchaunce some would chuse suche a souldiour as was Demosthenes, who folowying Archilocus the poetes rede, scarse lookynge his enemies in the face, threw downe his shelde and ranne awaie, as cowardly a warriour as he was a wyse oratour."
The old version of the singing Psalms also begins in this manner—
"The man is blest that hath not bent To wicked rede his ear."