Note 1672 — BOOK IV THE PLAY-HOUSES (continued 5)
Reading edition
Dekker, G. H. B. (1609), ‘on the very Rushes where the Commedy is to daunce ... must our fethered Estridge ... be planted’ ... ‘Salute all your gentle acquaintance, that are spred either on the rushes, or on stooles about you ... take vp a rush, and tickle the earnest eares of your fellow gallants’; 1 Hen. IV, III. i. 214, ‘She bids you on the wanton rushes lay you down’. In The Gentleman Usher (c. 1604, Blackfriars), II. i. 72, ‘Enter Bassiolo with Servants, with rushes and a carpet’, and Bassiolo says,
lay me ’em thus, In fine smooth threaves; look you, sir, thus, in threaves. Perhaps some tender lady will squat here, And if some standing rush should chance to prick her, She’d squeak, and spoil the songs that must be sung.’