in Antiquity, a discourse in verse sung or rehearsed by a rhapsodist. Others will have rhapsody to signify a collection of verses, especially those of Ho- mer, which having been a long time dispersed in pieces and fragments, were at length by Pisistratus's order di- gested into books called rhapsodies, from ῥαπτός, συν, and σύν, canticum. Hence, among moderns, rhapsody is also used for an assemblage of passages, thoughts, and autho- rities, raked together from divers authors, to compose some new piece.

RHEE, or REE, a little island in the bay of Biscay, near the coast of Aunis in France. It was taken during the war with France which ended in 1763, in the expe- dition commanded by Hawke and Mordaunt.