Chapter XIX: Book I: Satan presents himself as an old peasant, and, entering into (9)

“That ring,” said Dame Lionês, “increaseth my beauty much more than
it is of itself; and this is the virtue of my ring: that which is
green it will turn to red, and that which is red it will turn
green; that which is blue it will turn white, and that which is
white it will turn blue; and so with all other colors. Also,
whoever beareth my ring can never lose blood.”--Sir T. Malory,
_History of Prince Arthur_, i. 146 (1470).

_Ring_ (_Luned’s_). This ring rendered the wearer invisible. Luned or Lynet gave it to Owain, one of King Arthur’s knights. Consequently, when men were sent to kill him he was nowhere to be found, for he was invisible.

Take this ring, and put it on thy finger, with the stone inside thy
hand; and close thy hand upon the stone; and as long as thou
concealest it, it will conceal thee.--_The Mabinogion_ (“Lady of
the Fountain,” twelfth century).

_Ring_ (_The Steel_), made by Siedel-Beckir. This ring enabled the wearer to read the secrets of another’s heart.--Comte de Caylus, _Oriental Tales_ (“The Four Talismans,” 1743).

_Ring_ (_The Talking_), a ring given by Tartaro, the Basque Cyclops, to a girl whom he wished to marry. Immediately she put it on, it kept incessantly saying, “You there, and I here;” so, to get rid of the nuisance, she cut off her finger and threw both ring and finger into a pond.--Rev. W. Webster, _Basque Legends_, 4 (1876).

The same story appears in Campbell’s _Popular Tales of the West Highlands_, i. 111, and in Grimm’s tale of _The Robber and His Sons_. When the robber put on the ring, it incessantly cried out, “Here I am;” so he bit off his finger, and threw it from him.

_Ring_ (_The Virgin’s Wedding Ring_), kept in the Duomo of Perugia, under fourteen locks.

=Ring and the Book= (_The_), an idyllic epic, by Robert Browning, founded on a _cause célèbre_ of Italian history in 1698. The case was this: Guido Franceschini, a Florentine count of shattered fortune, married Pompilia, thinking her to be an heiress. When the young bride discovered that she had been married for her money only, she told her husband she was no heiress at all, but was only the supposititious child of Pietro (2 _syl._), supplied by one Violantê, for the sake of keeping in his hands certain entailed property. The count now treated Pompilia so brutally that she ran away from home, under the protection of Caponsacchi, a young priest, and being arrested at Rome, a legal separation took place. Pompilia sued for a divorce, but, pending the suit, gave birth to a son. The count now murdered Pietro, Violantê, and Pompilia, but being taken red-handed, was brought to trial, found guilty, and executed.

=Ring the Bells Backwards= (_To_), to ring a muffled peal, to lament. Thus, John Cleveland, wishing to show his abhorrence of the Scotch, says:

How! Providence! and yet a Scottish crew!...
Ring the bells backwards. I am all on fire;
Not all the buckets in a country quire
Shall quench my rage.

_The Rebel Scot_ (1613-1659).

=Ringdove= (_The Swarthy_). The responses of the oracle of Dodōna, in Epīros, were made by old women called “pigeons,” who derived their answers from the cooing of certain doves, the bubbling of a spring, a rustling of the sacred oak [or _beech_], and the tinkling of a gong or bell hung in the tree. The women were called pigeons by a play on the word _pelīæ_, which means “old women” as well as “pigeons;” and as they came from Libya they were _swarthy_.

According to the fable, Zeus gave his daughter, Thēbê, two black doves endowed with the gift of human speech; one of them flew into Libya, and the other into Dodona. The former gave the responses in the temple of Ammon, and the latter in the oracle of Dodona.

... beach or lime,
Or that Thessalian growth,
In which the swarthy ringdove sat,
And mystic sentence spoke.

Tennyson.

=Ringhorse= (_Sir Robert_), a magistrate at Old St. Ronan’s.--Sir W. Scott, _St. Ronan’s Well_ (time, George III.).

=Ringwood=, a young Templar.--Sir W. Scott, _Fortunes of Nigel_ (time, James I.).

=Rintherout= (_Jenny_), a servant at Monkbarns to Mr. Jonathan Oldbuck, the antiquary.--Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time, George III.).

=Riou= (_Captain_), called by Nelson “The Gallant and the Good;” fell in the battle of the Baltic.

Brave hearts! to Britain’s pride
Once so faithful and so true,
On the deck of fame that died,
With the gallant, good Riou.

Campbell, _Battle of the Baltic_ (1777-1844).

=Rip van Winkle= slept twenty years in the Catskill Mountains, of North America. (See WINKLE.)

Epimenĭdês, the Gnostic, slept for fifty-seven years.

Gyneth slept 500 years, by the enchantment of Merlin.

The seven sleepers slept for 250 years in Mount Celion.

St. David slept for seven years. (See ORMANDINE.)[TN-128]

(The following are not dead, but only sleep till the fulness of their respective times:--Elijah, Endymion, Merlin, King Arthur, Charlemagne, Frederick Barbarossa and his knights, the three Tells, Desmond of Kilmallock, Thomas of Erceldoune, Boabdil el Chico, Brian Boroimhe, Knez Lazar, King Sebastian of Portugal, Olaf Tryggvason, the French slain in the Sicilian Vespers, and one or two others.)

=Riquet with the Tuft=, the beau-ideal of ugliness, but with the power of bestowing wit and intelligence on the person he loved best. Riquet fell in love with a most beautiful woman, as stupid as he was ugly, but possessing the power of giving beauty to the person she loved best. The two married, whereupon Riquet gave his bride wit, and she bestowed on him beauty.--Charles Perrault, _Contes des Fées_ (“Riquet à la Houppe,” 1697).

⁂ This tale is borrowed from the _Nights_ of Straparola. It is imitated by Mde. Villeneuve in her _Beauty and the Beast_.

=Risingham= (_Bertram_), the vassal of Philip of Mortham. Oswald Wycliffe induced him to shoot his lord at Marston Moor; and for this deed the vassal demanded all the gold and movables of his late master. Oswald, being a villain, tried to outwit Bertram, and even to murder him; but it turned out that Philip of Mortham,[TN-129] was not killed, neither was Oswald Wycliffe, his heir, for Redmond O’Neale (Rokeby’s page) was found to be the son and heir of Philip of Mortham.--Sir W. Scott, _Rokeby_ (1812).

=Ritho= or =Rython=, a giant who had made himself furs of the beards of kings killed by him. He sent to King Arthur, to meet him on Mount Aravius, or else to send his beard to him without delay. Arthur met him, slew him, and took “fur” as a spoil. Drayton says it was this Rython who carried off Helĕna, the niece of Duke Hoel; but Geoffrey of Monmouth says that King Arthur, having killed the Spanish giant, told his army “he had found none so great in strength _since_ he killed the giant Ritho;” by which it seems that the Spanish giant and Ritho are different persons, although it must be confessed the scope of the chronicle seems to favor their identity.--Geoffrey, _British History_, x. 3 (1142).

As how great Rython’s self he [_Arthur_] slew ...
Who ravished Howell’s niece, young Helena, the fair.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, iv. (1612).

=Rival Queens= (_The_), Stati´ra and Roxa´na. Statīra was the daughter of Darīus, and wife of Alexander the Great. Roxana was the daughter of Oxyartês, the Bactrian; her, also, Alexander married. Roxana stabbed Statira, and killed her.--N. Lee, _Alexander the Great_, or _The Rival Queens_ (1678).

=Rivals= (_The_), a comedy by Sheridan (1775). The rivals are Bob Acres and Ensign Beverley (_alias_ Captain Absolute), and Lydia Languish is the lady they contend for. Bob Acres tells Captain Absolute that Ensign Beverley is a booby; and if he could find him out, he’d teach him his place. He sends a challenge to the unknown, by Sir Lucius O’Trigger, but objects to forty yards, and thinks thirty-eight would suffice. When he finds that Ensign Beverley is Captain Absolute, he declines to quarrel with his friend; and when his second calls him a coward, he fires up and exclaims, “Coward! Mind, gentlemen, he calls me a ‘coward,’ coward by my valor!” and when dared by Sir Lucius, he replies, “I don’t mind the word ‘coward;’ ‘coward’ may be said in a joke; but if he called me ‘poltroon,’ ods, daggers and balls----” “Well, sir, what then?” “Why,” rejoined Bob Acres, “I should certainly think him very ill-bred.” Of course, he resigns all claim to the lady’s hand.

=River of Juvenescence.= Prester John, in his letter to Manuel Comnēnus, emperor of Constantinople, says there is a spring at the foot of Mount Olympus, which changes its flavor hour by hour, both night and day. Whoever tastes thrice of its waters, will never know fatigue or the infirmities of age.

=River of Paradise=, St. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux (1091-1153).

=Rivers Arise....= In this _Vacation Exercise_, George Rivers (son of Sir John Rivers of Westerham, in Kent), with nine other freshmen, took the part of the ten “Predicaments,” while Milton himself performed the part of “Ens.” Without a doubt, the pun suggested the idea in Milton’s _Vacation Exercise_ (1627):

Rivers arise; whether thou be the son
Of utmost Tweed, or Ouse, or gulpy Don,
Or Trent, who, like some earthborn giant, spreads
His thirty arms along the indented meads,
Or sullen Mole that runneth underneath,
Or Severn swift, guilty of maiden’s death,
Or rocky Avon, or of sedgy Lee,
Or cooly Tyne, or ancient hallowed Dee,
Or Humber loud that keeps the Scythian’s name,
Or Medway smooth, or royal towered Thame.

=Rivulet Controversy= (_The_) arose against Rev. T. T. Lynch, a Congregationalist, who, in 1853, had expressed neologian views in _The Rivulet_, a book of poems.

=Rizzio= (_David_), the private secretary of Marie Stuart, queen of the Scots, and reputed by her enemies to be her favored lover. He was murdered in her presence by a gang of conspirators, led by Henry Darnley, her husband. Poets and musicians have made lavish use of this episode in the life of the unhappy queen.

=Road to Ruin=, a comedy by Thomas Holcroft (1792). Harry Dornton and his friend, Jack Milford, are on “the road to ruin,” by their extravagance. The former brings his father to the eve of bankruptcy; and the latter, having spent his private fortune, is cast into prison for debt. Sulky, a partner in the bank, comes forward to save Mr. Dornton from ruin; Harry advances £6000 to pay his friend’s debts, and thus saves Milford from ruin; and the father restores the money advanced by Widow Warren to his son, to save Harry from the ruin of marrying a designing widow instead of Sophia Freelove, her innocent and charming daughter.

=Roads= (_The king of_), John Loudon Macadam, the improver of roads (1756-1836).

=Roan Barbary=, the charger of Richard II., which would eat from his master’s hand.

Oh, how it yearned my heart when I beheld
In London streets, that coronation day,
When Bolingbroke rode on Roan Barbary!
That horse that thou so often hast bestrid;
That horse that I so carefully have dressed!

Shakespeare, _Richard II._ act v. sc. 5 (1597).

=Rob Roy=, published in 1818, excellent for its bold sketches of Highland scenery. The character of Bailie Nicol Jarvie is one of Scott’s happiest conceptions; and the carrying of him to the wild mountains among outlaws and desperadoes is exquisitely comic. The hero, Frank Osbaldistone, is no hero at all. Dramatized by I. Pocock.

=Rob Roy M’Gregor=, _i.e._ “Robert the Red,” whose surname was MacGregor. He was an outlaw who assumed the name of Campbell in 1662. He may be termed the Robin Hood of Scotland. The hero of the novel is Frank Osbaldistone, who gets into divers troubles, from which he is rescued by Rob Roy. The last service is to kill Rashleigh Osbaldistone, whereby Frank’s great enemy is removed; and Frank then marries Diana Vernon.--Sir W. Scott, _Rob Roy_ (time, George I.).

Rather beneath the middle size than above it, his limbs were formed
upon the very strongest model that is consistent with agility....
Two points in his person interfered with the rules of symmetry: his
shoulders were too broad ... and his arms (though round, sinewy and
strong) were so very long as to be rather a deformity.--Ch. xxiii.

=Rob Tally-ho=, Esq., cousin of the Hon. Tom Dashall, the two blades whose rambles and adventures through the metropolis are related by Pierce Egan (1821-2).

=Rob the Rambler=, the comrade of Willie Steenson, the blind fiddler.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

=Robb= (_Duncan_), the grocer near Ellangowan.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

=Robber= (_Alexander’s_). The pirate who told Alexander he was the greater robber of the two, was Dionĭdês. (See _Evenings at Home_, art. “Alexander and the Robber.”) The tale is from Cicero:

Nam quum quæreretur ex eo, quo scelere impulsus mare haberet
infestum uno myoparone: eodem, inquit, quo tu orbem terræ.--_De
Repub._, iii. 14 sc. 24.

_Robber_ (_Edward the_). Edward IV. was so called by the Scotch.

=Robert=, father of Marian. He had been a wrecker, and still hankered after the old occupation. One night a storm arose, and Robert went to the coast to see what would fall into his hands. A body was washed ashore, and he rifled it. Marian followed, with the hope of restraining her father, and saw in the dusk some one strike a dagger into a prostrate body. She thought it was her father, and when Robert was on his trial he was condemned to death on his daughter’s evidence. Black Norris, the real murderer, told her he would save her father if she would consent to be his wife; she consented, and Robert was acquitted. On the wedding day her lover, Edward, returned to claim her hand, Norris was seized as a murderer, and Marian was saved.--S. Knowles, _The Daughter_ (1836).

_Robert_, a servant of Sir Arthur Wardour, at Knockwinnock Castle.--Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time, George III.).

_Robert_ (_Mons._), a neighbor of Sganarelle. Hearing the screams of Mde. Martine (Sganarelle’s wife), he steps over to make peace between them, whereupon Madame calls him an impertinent fool, and says if she chooses to be beaten by her husband it is no affair of his; and Sganarelle says, “Je la veux battre, si je le veux; et ne la veux pas battre, si je ne le veux pas;” and beats M. Robert again.--Molière, _Le Médecin Malgré Lui_ (1666).

=Robert Kent.= Weak, vicious husband of Margaret Kent. Causes trouble all his life and dies of yellow fever.--Ellen Olney Kirk, _The Story of Margaret Kent_ (1886).

=Robert Macaire=, a bluff, free-living libertine. His accomplice is Bertrand, a simpleton and a villain.--Daumier, _L’Auberge des Adrets_.

=Robert, duke of Albany=, brother of Robert III. of Scotland.--Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.)[TN-130]

=Robert, duke of Normandy=, sold his dominions to Rufus for 10,000 marks, to furnish him with ready money for the crusade, which he joined at the head of 1000 heavy-armed horse and 1000 light-armed Normans.--Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).

=Robert III.= of Scotland, introduced by Sir W. Scott in the _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

=Robert le Diable=, son of Bertha and Bertramo. Bertha was the daughter of Robert, duke of Normandy, and Bertramo was a fiend in the guise of a knight. The opera shows the struggle in Robert between the virtue inherited from his mother and the vice inherited from his father. His father allures him to gamble till he loses everything, and then claims his soul, but his foster-sister, Alice, counterplots the fiend, and rescues Robert by reading to him his mother’s will.--Meyerbeer, _Roberto il Diavolo_ (libretto by Scribe, 1831).

⁂ Robert le Diable was the hero of an old French metrical romance (thirteenth century). This romance in the next century was thrown into prose. There is a miracle-play on the same subject.

=Robert of Paris= (_Count_), one of the crusading princes. The chief hero of this novel is Hereward (3 _syl._), one of the Varangian guard of the Emperor Alexius Comnēnus. He and the count fight a single combat with battle-axes; after which Hereward enlists under the count’s banner, and marries Bertha, also called Agatha.--Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus).

=Robert Penfold.= Hero of Foul Play, by Charles Reade. He is foully wronged by Arthur Wardlaw, who forges his father’s name on a note with Penfold’s endorsement. Penfold is found guilty and imprisoned. After his release, he takes passage in the ship with Helen Rolleston, Wardlaw’s betrothed. Penfold also loves her, but hopelessly. They are wrecked and cast upon an island in company, and for several months are the only residents. After their rescue and return home, the truth is made manifest, Robert is vindicated, and marries Helen. His aliases are James Seaton and John Hazel.

=Robert the Devil=, or =Robert the Magnificent=, Robert I., duke of Normandy, father of William “the Conqueror” (*, 1028-1035).

Robert François Damiens, who tried to assassinate Louis XV., was popularly so called (*, 1714-1757).

=Robert of Lincoln.= The saucy songster is an especial favorite with American poets. Bryant does not disdain to write a long poem that has him as the theme.

“Merrily singing on briar and reed,
Near to the nest of his little dame,
Over the mountain-side or mead,
Robert of Lincoln is telling his name:
‘Bob-o’-link, bob-o’-link!
Spink, spank, spink!
Snug and safe is that nest of ours,
Hidden among the summer flowers,
Cha! cha! cha!’”

William Cullen Bryant, _Poems_.

=Roberts=, cash-keeper of Master George Heriot, the king’s goldsmith.--Sir W. Scott, _Fortunes of Nigel_ (time, James I.).

_Roberts_ (_John_), a smuggler.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

=Robespierre’s Weavers=, the fish-fags and their rabble female followers of the very lowest class, partisans of Robespierre in the first French Revolution.

=Robin=, the page of Sir John Falstaff.--Shakespeare, _Merry Wives of Windsor_ (1601).

_Robin_, servant of Captain Rovewell, whom he helps in his love adventure with Arethusa, daughter of Argus.--Carey, _Contrivances_ (1715).

_Robin_, brother-in-law of Farmer Crop, of Cornwall. Having lost his property through the villainy of Lawyer Endless, he emigrates, and in three years returns. The ship is wrecked off the coast of Cornwall and Robin saves Frederick, the young squire. On landing, he meets his old sweetheart, Margaretta, at Crop’s house, and the acquaintance is renewed by mutual consent.--P. Hoare, _No Song no Supper_ (1790).

_Robin_, a young gardener, fond of the minor theatres, where he has picked up a taste for sentimental fustian, but all his rhapsodies bear upon his trade. Thus, when Wilhelmina asks why he wishes to dance with her, he replies:

Ask the plants why they love a shower; ask the sunflower why it
loves the sun; ask the snowdrop why it is white; ask the violet why
it is blue; ask the trees why they blossom; the cabbages why they
grow. ’Tis all because they can’t help it; no more can I help my
love for you.--C. Didbin, _The Waterman_, i. (1774).

_Robin_ (_Old_), butler to old Mr. Ralph Morton, of Milnwood.--Sir W. Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).

=Robin Bluestring.= Sir Robert Walpole was so called, in allusion to his blue ribbon as a knight of the garter (1676-1745).

=Robin des Bois.= Mysterious rover of the woods in _Freischütz_, also in Eugène Sue’s novels--“a bug-a-boo!”

=Robin Gray= (_Auld_). The words of this song are by Lady Anne Lindsay, daughter of the earl of Balcarres; she was afterwards Lady Barnard. The song was written, in 1772, to an old Scotch tune called _The Bridegroom Grat when the Sun gaed Down_. (See GRAY.)

=Robin Hood= was born at Locksley, in Notts., in the reign of Henry II. (1160). His real name was Fitzooth, and it is commonly said that he was the earl of Huntingdon. Having outrun his fortune, and being outlawed, he lived as a freebooter in Barnsdale (Yorkshire), Sherwood (Notts.), and Plompton Park (Cumberland). His chief companions were Little John (whose name was _Nailor_), William Scadlock (or _Scarlet_), George Green, the pinder (or pound-keeper) of Wakefield, Much, a miller’s son, and Tuck, a friar, with one woman, Maid Marian. His company at one time consisted of a hundred archers. He was bled to death in his old age by his sister, the Prioress of Kirkley’s Nunnery, in Yorkshire, November 18, 1247, aged 87 years.

⁂ An excellent sketch of Robin Hood is given by Drayton in his _Polyolbion_, xxvi. Sir W. Scott introduces him in two novels--_Ivanhoe_ and _The Talisman_. In the former he first appears as Locksley, the archer, at the tournament. He is also called “Dickon Bend-the-Bow.”

The following dramatic pieces have the famous outlaw for the hero: _Robin Hood_, i. (1597), Munday; _Robin Hood_, ii. (1598), Chettle; _Robin Hood_ (1741), an opera, by Dr. Arne and Burney; _Robin Hood_ (1787), an opera by O’Keefe, music by Shield; _Robin Hood_, by Macnally (before 1820).

Major tells us that this famous robber took away the goods of rich men only; never killed any person except in self-defence; never plundered the poor, but charitably fed them; and adds, “he was the most humane and the prince of all robbers.”--_Britanniæ Historia_, 128 (1740).

The abbot of St. Mary’s, in York, and the sheriff at Nottingham were his _bêtês noires_. Munday and Chettle wrote a popular play in 1601, entitled _The Death of Robert, Earl of Huntington_.

_Epitaph of Robin Hood._

Hear undernead dis laitl stean
Laiz robert earl of Huntingtun.
Near arcir ver az hie sa geud,
An pipl kauld im robin heud.
Sick utlawz az hi an iz men
Vil england nivr si agen.
Obiit 24 (? 14) kal dekembris, 1247.

Dr. Gale (dean of York).

_Robin Hood’s Fat Friar_ was Friar Tuck.

_Robin Hood’s Men_, outlaws, freebooters.

There came sodainly twelve men all appareled in short cotes of
Kentish Kendal [_green_] ... every one of them ... like outlaws or
Robyn Hodes men.--Hall (_fo._ lvi. _b_).

=Robin Redbreast.= One tradition is that the robin pecked a thorn out of the crown of thorns when Christ was on His way to Calvary, and the blood which issued from the wound, falling on the bird, dyed its breast red.

Another tradition is that it carries in its bill dew to those shut up in the burning lake, and its breast is red from being scorched by the fire of Gehenna.

He brings cool dew in his little bill,
And lets it fall on the souls of sin;
You can see the mark on his red breast still,
Of fires that scorch as he drops it in.

J. G. Whittier, _The Robin_.

=Robin Redbreasts=, Bow Street officers. So called from their red vests.

=Robin Roughhead=, a poor cottager and farm laborer, the son of Lord Lackwit. On the death of his lordship, Robin Roughhead comes into the title and estates. This brings out the best qualities of his heart--liberality, benevolence and honesty. He marries Dolly, to whom he was already engaged, and becomes the good genius of the peasantry on his estate.--Allingham, _Fortune’s Frolic_.

=Robin and Makyne= (2 _syl._), an old Scotch pastoral. Robin is a shepherd, for whom Makyne sighs, but he turns a deaf ear to her, and she goes home to weep. In time, Robin sighs for Makyne, but she replies, “He who wills not when he may, when he wills he shall have nay.”--Percy, _Reliques, etc._, II.

=Robin of Bagshot=, _alias_ Gordon, _alias_ Bluff Bob, _alias_ Carbuncle, _alias_ Bob Booty, one of Macheath’s gang of thieves, and a favorite of Mrs. Peachum’s.--Gay, _The Beggar’s Opera_ (1727).

=Robins= (_Zerubbabel_), in Cromwell’s troop.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).

=Robinson Cru´soe= (2 _syl._), a tale by Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe ran away from home, and went to sea. Being wrecked, he led for many years a solitary existence on an uninhabited island of the tropics, and relieved the weariness of life by numberless contrivances. At length he met a human being, a young Indian, whom he saved from death on a Friday. He called him his “man Friday,” and made him his companion and servant.

Defoe founded this story on the adventures of Alexander Selkirk, sailing-master of the _Cinque Ports Galley_, who was left by Captain Stradling on the desolate island of Juan Fernandez for four years and four months (1704-1709), when he was rescued by Captain Woodes Rogers and brought to England.

=Robsart= (_Amy_), countess of Leicester. She was betrothed to Edmund Tressilian. When the earl falls into disgrace at court for marrying Amy, Richard Varney loosens a trap-door at Cumnor Place; and Amy, rushing forward to greet her husband, falls into the abyss and is killed.

_Sir Hugh Robsart_, of Lidcote Hall, father of Amy.--Sir W. Scott, _Kenilworth_ (time, Elizabeth).

=Roc=, a white bird of enormous size. Its strength is such that it will lift up an elephant from the ground and carry it to its mountain nest, where it will devour it. In the _Arabian Nights’ Entertainments_, it was a roc which carried Sindbad the sailor from the island on which he had been deserted by his companions (“Second Voyage”). And it was a roc which carried Agib from the castle grounds of the ten young men who had lost their right eyes (“The Third Calender’s Story”). Sindbad says one claw of the roc is as “big as the trunk of a large tree,” and its egg is “fifty paces [_150 feet_] in circumference.”

⁂ The “rukh” of Madagascar, lays an egg equal to 148 hen’s eggs.--_Comptes Rendus_, etc., xxxii. 101 (1851).

=Rocco=, the jailer sent with Fidelio (_Leonora_) to dig the grave of Fernando Florestan (_q.v._)[TN-131]--Beethoven, _Fidelio_ (1791).

=Roch´dale= (_Sir Simon_), of the manor-house. He is a J.P., but refuses to give justice to Job Thornberry, the old brazier, who demands that his son, Frank Rochdale, should marry Mary [Thornberry], whom he has seduced. At this crisis, Peregrine appears, and tells Sir Simon he is the elder brother, and, as such, is heir to the title and estates.

_Frank Rochdale_, son of the baronet, who has promised to marry Mary Thornberry, but Sir Simon wants him to marry Lady Caroline Braymore, who has £4000 a year. Lady Caroline marries the Hon. Tom Shuffleton, and Frank makes the best reparation he can by marrying Mary.--G. Colman, Jr., _John Bull_ (1805).

=Roche’s Bird= (_Sir Boyle_), which was “in two places at the same time.” The tale is that Sir Boyle Roche said in the House of Commons, “Mr. Speaker, it is impossible I could have been in two places at once, unless I were a bird.” This is a quotation from Jevon’s play, _The Devil of a Wife_ (seventeenth century).

_Wife._ I cannot be in two places at once.

_Husband_ (Rowland). Surely no, unless thou wert a bird.

=Rochecliffe= (_Dr. Anthony_), formerly Joseph Albany, a plotting royalist.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, commonwealth).

=Rochester= (_The earl of_), the favorite of Charles II., introduced in high feather by Sir W. Scott in _Woodstock_, and in _Peveril of the Peak_ in disgrace.

_Rochester_ (_Edward_). Brusque, cynical lover of _Jane Eyre_. Having married in his early youth a woman who disgraces him and then goes crazy, he shuts her up at Thornhill, and goes abroad. He returns to find a governess there in charge of his child-ward; falls in love with her, and would marry her, but for the discovery of his insane wife. _Jane Eyre_ leaves him, and is lost to him until he is almost blind from injuries received in trying to rescue his wife from burning Thornhill. _Jane_ marries and ministers unto him.--Charlotte Bronté, _Jane Eyre_ (1847).

=Rock= (_Dr. Richard_), a famous quack, who professed to cure every disease. He was short of stature and fat, wore a white three-tailed wig, nicely combed and frizzed upon each cheek, carried a cane, and halted in his gait.

Dr. Rock, F.U.N., never wore a hat.... He and Dr. Franks were at
variance.... Rock cautioned the world to beware of bog-trotting
quacks, while Franks called his rival “Dumplin’ Dick.” Head of
Confucius, what profanation!--Goldsmith, _Citizen of the World_
(1759).

Oh! when his nerves had received a shock,
Sir Isaac Newton might have gone to Rock.

Crabbe, _Borough_ (1810).

=Rocket.= _He rose like a rocket, and fell like the stick._ Thomas Paine said this of Mr. Burke.

=Roderick=, the thirty-fourth and last of the Gothic kings of Spain, son of Theod´ofred and Rusilla. Having violated Florinda, daughter of Count Julian, he was driven from his throne by the Moors, and assumed the garb of a monk with the name of “Father Maccabee.” He was present at the great battle of Covadonga, in which the Moors were cut to pieces, but what became of him afterwards no one knows. His helm, sword, and cuirass were found, so was his steed. Several generations passed away, when, in a hermitage near Viseu, a tomb was discovered, “which bore in ancient characters King Roderick’s name;” but imagination must fill up the gap. He is spoken of as most popular.

Time has been
When not a tongue within the Pyrenees
Dared whisper in dispraise of Roderick’s name,
Lest, if the conscious air had caught the sound,
The vengeance of the honest multitude
Should fall upon the traitorous head, and brand
For life-long infamy the lying lips.

Southey, _Roderick, etc._, xv. (1814).

_Roderick’s Dog_ was called Theron.

_Roderick’s Horse_ was Orel´io.

_Roderick_ (_The Vision of Don_). Roderick, the last of the Gothic kings of Spain, descended into an ancient vault near Toledo. This vault was similar to that in Greece, called the cave of Triphōnios, where was an oracle. In the vault Roderick saw a vision of Spanish history from his own reign to the beginning of the nineteenth century. _Period I._ The invasion of the Moors, with his own defeat and death. _Period II._ The Augustine age of Spain, and their conquests in the two Indies. _Period III._ The oppression of Spain by Bonaparte, and its succor by British aid.--Sir W. Scott, _The Vision of Don Roderick_ (1811).

=Roderick Dhu=, an outlaw and chief of a banditti, which resolved to win back the spoil of the “Saxon spoiler.” Fitz-James, a Saxon, met him and knew him not. He asked the Saxon why he was roaming unguarded over the mountains, and Fitz-James replied that he had sworn to combat with Roderick, the rebel, till death laid one of them prostrate. “Have, then, thy wish!” exclaimed the stranger, “for I am Roderick Dhu.” As he spoke, the whole place bristled with armed men. Fitz-James stood with his back against a rock, and cried, “Come one, come all, this rock shall fly from its firm base as soon as I.” Roderick, charmed with his daring, waved his hand, and all the band disappeared as mysteriously as they had appeared. Roderick then bade the Saxon fight, “For,” said he, “that party will prove victorious which first slays an enemy.” “Then,” replied Fitz-James, “thy cause is hopeless, for Red Murdock is slain already.” They fought, however, and Roderick was slain (canto v.).--Sir W. Scott, _The Lady of the Lake_ (1810).

=Roderick Random=, a child of impulse, and a selfish libertine. His treatment of Strap is infamous and most heartless.--Smollett, _Roderick Random_ (1748).

=Rod´erigo= or =Roderi´go= (3 _syl._), a Venetian gentleman, in love with Desdemona. When Desdemona eloped with Othello, Roderigo hated the “noble Moor,” and Ia´go took advantage of this temper for his own base ends.--Shakespeare, _Othello_ (1611).

Roderigo’s suspicious credulity and impatient submission to the
cheats which he sees practised on him, and which, by persuasion, he
suffers to be repeated, exhibit a strong picture of a weak mind
betrayed by unlawful desires to a false friend.--Dr. Johnson.

=Rodilardus=, a huge cat, which attacked Panurge, and which he mistook for “a young, soft-chinned devil.” The word means “gnaw-lard” (Latin, _rodĕre lardum_).--Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, iv. 67 (1545).

⁂ The[TN-132] marquis de Carabas.” (See PUSS IN BOOTS.)

=Rodrigo=, king of Spain, conquered by the Moors. He saved his life by flight, and wandered to Guadaletê, where he begged food of a shepherd, and gave him in recompense his royal chain and ring. A hermit bade him, in penance, retire to a certain tomb full of snakes and toads, where, after three days, the hermit found him unhurt; so, going to his cell, he passed the night in prayer. Next morning, Rodrigo cried aloud to the hermit, “They eat me now; I feel the adder’s bite.” So his sin was atoned for, and he died.

⁂ This Rodrigo is Roderick, the last of the Goths.

_Rodrigo_, rival of Pe´dro, “the pilgrim,” and captain of a band of outlaws.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Pilgrim_ (1621).

=Rodri´go de Mondragon= (_Don_), a bully and tyrant, the self-constituted arbiter of all disputes in a tennis-court of Valladolid.

Don Rodrigo de Mondragon was about 30 years of age, of an ordinary
make, but lean and muscular; he had two little twinkling eyes that
rolled in his head, and threatened everybody he looked at; a very
flat nose, placed between red whiskers that curled up to his very
temples; and a manner of speaking so rough and passionate that his
words struck terror into everybody.--Lesage, _Gil Bias_, ii. 5
(1715).

=Rodhaver=, the sweetheart of Zal, a Persian. Zal being about to scale her bower, she let down her long tresses to assist him, but Zal managed to fix his crook into a projecting beam, and thus made his way to the lady of his devotion.--Champion, _Ferdosi_.

=Rodman= (_Keeper, The_), an ex-colonel of the Federal army, who has become the keeper of a national cemetery at the south. “At sunrise, the keeper ran up the stars and stripes, and ... he had taken money from his own store to buy a second flag for stormy weather, so that, rain or not, the colors should float over the dead.... It was simply a sense of the fitness of things.” He deviates so far from his rule as to fall in love with a Southern girl, whose nearest relative he has nursed through his last illness. She despises him as a Yankee too much to suspect this; she will not even write her name as a visitor to the National Cemetery. She goes to Tennessee to teach school, and Rodman offers to buy the uprooted vines discarded by the new owner of her cottage. “Wuth about twenty-five cents, I guess,” said the Maine man, handing them over.--Constance Fenimore Woolson (1880).

=Rodmond=, chief mate of the _Brittania_, son of a Northumbrian, engaged in the coal trade; a hardy, weather-beaten seaman, uneducated, “boisterous of manners,” and regardless of truth, but tender-hearted. He was drowned when the ship struck on Cape Colonna, the most southern point of Attica.

Unskilled to argue, in dispute yet loud,
Bold without caution, without honors proud,
In art unschooled, each veteran rule he prized,
And all improvement haughtily despised.

Falconer, _The Shipwreck_, i. (1756).

=Ro´dogune=, =Rhodogune=, or =Rho´dogyne= (3 _syl._), daughter of Phraa´tês, king of Parthia. She married Deme´trius Nica´nor (the husband of Cleopat´ra, queen of Syria) while in captivity.

⁂ P. Corneille has a tragedy on the subject entitled _Rodogune_ (1646).

=Rodolfo= (_Il conte_). It is in the bedchamber of this count that Ami´na is discovered the night before her espousal to Elvi´no. Ugly suspicion is excited, but the count assures the young farmer that Amina walks in her sleep. While they are talking Amina is seen to get out of a window and walk along a narrow edge of the mill-roof while the huge wheel is rapidly revolving. She crosses a crazy bridge, and walks into the very midst of the spectators. In a few minutes she awakens and flies to the arms of her lover.--Bellini, _La Sonnambula_ (opera, 1831).

=Rodomont=, king of Sarza or Algiers. He was Ulien’s son, and called the “Mars of Africa.” His lady-love was Dor´alis, princess of Grana´da, but she eloped with Mandricardo, king of Tartary. At Rogero’s wedding Rodomont accused him of being a renegade and traitor, whereupon they fought, and Rodomont was slain.--_Orlando Innamorato_ (1495); and _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

Who so meek? I’m sure I quake at the very thought of him; why, he’s
as fierce as Rodomont!--Dryden, _Spanish Fryar_, v. 2 (1680).

⁂ Rodomontade (4 _syl._), from Rodomont, a bragging although a brave knight.

=Rogel of Greece= (_The Exploits and Adventures of_), part of the series called _Le Roman des Romans_, pertaining to “Am´adis of Gaul.” This part was added by Feliciano de Silva.

=Roger=, the cook who “cowde roste, sethe, broille, and frie, make mortreux, and wel bake a pye.”--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ (1388).

_Roger_ (_Sir_), curate to “The Scornful Lady” (no name given).--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Scornful Lady_ (1616).

=Roger Armstrong=, clerical lover of Faith Gartney, and her preferred suitor.--A. D. T. Whitney, _Faith Gartney’s Girlhood_.

=Roger Bontemps=, the personation of contentment with his station in life, and of the buoyancy of good hope. “There’s a good time coming, John.”

Vous pauvres, pleins d’enviè;
Vous rich, désireux;
Vous dont le char dévie
Après un cours heureux;
Vous qui perdrez peut-être
Des titres éclatans;
Eh! gai! prenez pour maitre
Le gros Roger Bontemps.

Béranger (1780-1856).

Ye poor, with envy goaded;
Ye rich, for more who long;
Ye who by fortune loaded
Find all things going wrong;
Ye who by some disaster
See all your cables break;
From henceforth, for your master
Sleek Roger Bontemps take.

=Roger Chillingworth=, deformed husband of Hester Prynne. He returns to Boston from a long sojourn with the Indians, and sees his wife in the pillory with a baby--not his--in her arms. From that instant he sets himself to work to discover the name of her seducer, and, suspecting Arthur Dimmesdale, attaches himself to the oft-ailing clergyman as his medical attendant. He it is who first suspects the existence of the cancer that is devouring the young clergyman’s life, and when the horrible thing is revealed, kneels by the dying man with the bitter whisper, “Thou hast escaped me!”--Nathaniel Hawthorne, _The Scarlet Letter_ (1850).

=Roger de Coverley= (_Sir_), an hypothetical baronet of Coverley or Cowley, near Oxford.--Addison, _The Spectator_ (1711, 1712, 1714).

⁂ The prototype of this famous character was Sir John Pakington, seventh baronet of the line.

=Roge´ro=, brother of Marphi´sa; brought up by Atlantês, a magician. He married Brad´amant, the niece of Charlemagne. Rogero was converted to Christianity, and was baptized. His marriage with Bradamant and his election to the crown of Bulgaria concludes the poem.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

Who more brave than Rodomont? who more courteous than
Rogero?--Cervantês, _Don Quixote_, I. i. (1605).

_Rogero_, son of Roberto Guiscardo, the Norman. Slain by Tisaphernês.--Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_, xx. (1575).

_Rogero_ (3 _syl._), a gentleman of Sicilia.--Shakespeare, _The Winter’s Tale_ (1604).

⁂ This is one of those characters which appear in the _dramatis personæ_, but are never introduced in the play. Rogero not only does not utter a word--he does not even enter the stage all through the drama. In the Globe edition his name is omitted. (See VIOLENTA.)

=Rogers= (_Mr._), illiterate, tender-hearted, great-souled old father of _Louisiana_. When she begs his pardon for having been ashamed of, and having disowned him, he tells her, “It’s _you_ as should be a-forgivin’ _me_ ... I hadn’t done ye no sort o’ justice in the world, an’ never could.”--Frances Hodgson Burnett, _Louisiana_ (1880).

=Roget=, the pastoral name of George Wither in the four “eglogues” called _The Shepheards Hunting_ (1615). The first and last “eglogues” are dialogues between Roget and Willy, his young friend; in the second pastoral Cuddy is introduced, and in the third Alexis makes a fourth character. The subject of the first three is the reason of Roget’s imprisonment, which, he says, is a hunt that gave great offence. This hunt is in reality a satire called _Abuses Stript and Whipt_. The fourth pastoral has for its subject Roget’s love of poetry.

⁂ “Willy” is his friend, William Browne, of the Inner Temple (two years his junior), author of _Britannia’s Pastorals_.

=Roi Panade= (“_king of slops_”), Louis XVIII. (1755, 1814-1824).

=Roister Doister= (_Ralph_), a vain, thoughtless, blustering fellow, in pursuit of Custance, a rich widow, but baffled in his endeavor.--Nicholas Udall, _Ralph Roister Doister_ (the first English comedy, 1534).

=Rokesmith= (_John_), _alias_ JOHN HARMON, secretary of Mr. Boffin. He lodged with the Wilfers, and ultimately married Bella Wilfer. John Rokesmith is described as “a dark gentleman, 30 at the utmost, with an expressive, one might say, a handsome face.”--Dickens, _Our Mutual Friend_ (1864).

⁂ For solution of the mystery, see vol. I. ii. 13.

=Ro´land=, count of Mans and knight of Blaives. His mother, Bertha, was Charlemagne’s sister. Roland is represented as brave, devotedly loyal, unsuspicious, and somewhat too easily imposed npon.[TN-133] He was eight feet high, and had an open countenance. In Italian romance he is called Orlan´do. He was slain in the valley of Roncesvalles as he was leading the rear of his uncle’s army from Spain to France. Charlemagne himself had reached St. Jean Pied de Port at the time, heard the blast of his nephew’s horn, and knew it announced treachery, but was unable to render him assistance (A.D. 778).

Roland is the hero of Théroulde’s _Chanson de Roland_; of Turpin’s _Chronique_; of Bojardo’s _Orlando Innamorato_; of Ariosto’s _Orlando Furioso_; of Piccini’s opera called _Roland_ (1778); etc.

_Roland’s Horn_, Olivant or Olifant. It was won from the giant Jatmund, and might be heard at the distance of thirty miles. Birds fell dead at its blast, and the whole Saracen army drew back in terror when they heard it. So loud it sounded, that the blast reached from Roncesvallês to St. Jean Pied de Port, a distance of several miles.

Roland lifts Olifant to his month and blows it with all his might.
The mountains around are lofty, but high above them the sound of
the horn arises [_at the third blast, it split in twain_].--_Song
of Roland_ (as sung by Taillefer, at the battle of Hastings). See
Warton, _History of English Poetry_, v. I, sect. iii. 132 (1781).

_Roland’s Horse_, Veillantif, called in Italian _Velian´tino_ (“the little vigilant one”).

In Italian romance, Orlando has another horse, called Brigliado´ro (“golden bridle”).

_Roland’s Spear._ Visitors are shown a spear in the cathedral of Pa´via, which they are told belonged to Roland.

_Roland’s Sword_, Duran´dal, made by the fairies. To prevent its falling into the hands of the enemy, when Roland was attacked in the valley of Roncesvallês, he smote a rock with it, and it made in the solid rock a fissure some 300 feet in depth, called to this day _La Brêche de Roland_.

Then would I seek the Pyrenean breach,
Which Roland clove with huge two-handed sway,
And to the enormous labor left his name.

Wordsworth.

⁂ A sword is shown at Rocamadour, in the department of Lot (France), which visitors are assured was Roland’s _Durandal_. But the romances says that Roland, dying, threw his sword into a poisoned stream.

_Death of Roland._ There is a tradition that Roland escaped the general slaughter in the defile of Roncesvallês, and died of starvation while trying to make his way across the mountains.--John de la Bruiere Champier, _De Cibaria_, xvi. 5.

_Died like Roland_, died of thirst.

Nonnulli qui de Gallicis rebus historias conscripserunt, non
dubitarunt posteris significare Rolandum Caroli illius magni
sororis filium, verum certe bellica gloria omnique fortitudine
nobillissimum, post ingentem Hispanorum cædem prope Pyrenæi saltus
juga, ubi insidiæ ab hoste collocatæ fuerint, siti miserrime
extinctum. Inde nostri intolerabili siti et immiti volentes
significare se torqueri, facete aiunt “Rolandi morte se
perire.”--John de la Bruiere Champier, _De Cibaria_, xvi. 5.

_Roland_ (_The Roman_). Sicinius Dentātus is so called by Niebuhr. He is not unfrequently called “The Roman Achillês” (put to death B.C. 450).

=Roland Blake.= Hero of a war-novel of the same name.--Silas Weir Mitchell, M.D. (1886).

=Roland and Oliver=, the two most famous of the twelve paladins of Charlemagne. To give a “Roland for an Oliver” is to give tit for tat, to give another as good a drubbing as you receive.

Froissart, a countryman of ours [_the French_] records,
England all Olivers and Rowlands bred
During the time Edward the Third did reign.

Shakespeare, 1 _Henry VI._ act i. sc. 2 (1589).

=Roland de Vaux= (_Sir_), baron of Triermain, who wakes Gyneth from her long sleep of 500 years, and marries her.--Sir W. Scott, _Bridal of Triermain_ (1813).

=Rolando= (_Signor_), a common railer against women, but brave, of a “happy wit and independent spirit.” Rolando swore to marry no woman, but fell in love with Zam´ora, and married her, declaring “that she was no woman, but an angel.”--J. Tobin, _The Honeymoon_ (1804).

The resemblance between Rolando and Benedick will instantly occur to the mind.

=Rolandseck Tower=, opposite the Drachenfels. Roland was engaged to Aude, daughter of Sir Gerard and Lady Guibourg; but the lady, being told that Roland had been slain by Angoulaffre, the Saracen, retired to a convent. The paladin returned home full of glory, having slain the Saracen, and when he heard that his lady-love had taken the veil, he built Rolandseck Castle, which overlooks the convent, that he might at least _see_ the lady to whom he could never be united. After the death of Aude, Roland “sought the battle-field again, and fell at Roncevall.”--Campbell, _The Brave Roland_.

=Roldan=, “El encantado,” Roldan made invulnerable by enchantment. The cleft “Roldan,” in the summit of a high mountain in the kingdom of Valencia, was so called because it was made by a single back-stroke of Roldan’s sword. The character is in two Spanish romances, authors unknown.--_Bernardo del Carpio_ and _Roncesvalles_.

This book [_Rinaldo de Montalban_], and all others written on
French matters, shall be deposited in some dry place ... except one
called _Bernardo del Carpio_, and another called _Roncesvalles_,
which shall certainly accompany the rest on the
bonfire.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. i. 6 (1605).

=Rolla=, kinsman of the Inca Atali´ba, and the idol of the army. “In war a tiger chafed by the hunters’ spears; in peace more gentle than the unweaned lamb” (act i. 1). A firm friend and most generous foe. Rolla is wounded in his attempt to rescue the infant child of Alonzo from the Spaniards, and dies. His grand funeral procession terminates the drama.--Sheridan, _Pizarro_ (altered from Kotzebue, 1799).

=Rolleston= (_General_), father of Helen, in _Foul Play_, by Charles Reade.

=Rollo=, duke of Normandy, called “The Bloody Brother.” He caused the death of his brother, Otto, and slew several others, some out of mere wantonness.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Bloody Brother_ (1639).

=Rollo=, boy who is the hero of Jacob Abbott’s celebrated and delightful “_Rollo Books_,” embracing _Rollo Learning to Read_, _Rollo Learning to Work_, _Rollo at School_, _Rollo’s Vacation_, etc., etc. (1840-1857).

=Roman= (_The_), Jean Dumont, the French painter, _Le Romain_ (1700-1781).

Stephen Picart, the French engraver, _Le Romain_ (1631-1721).

Giulio Pippi, called _Giulio Romano_ (1492-1546).

Adrian von Roomen, mathematician, _Adriānus Romānus_ (1561-1615).

=Roman Achillês=, Sicinius Dentātus (slain R.C.[TN-134] 450).

=Roman Brevity.= Cæsar imitated laconic brevity when he announced to Amintius his victory at Zela, in Asia Minor, over Pharna´cês, son of Mithridatês; _Veni, vidi, vici._

_Poins._ I will imitate the honorable Roman in
brevity.--Shakespeare, 2 _Henry IV._ act ii. sc. 2 (1598).

Sir Charles Napier is credited with a far more laconic despatch, on making himself master of Scinde, in 1843. Taking possession of Hyderabad, and outflanking Shere Mohammed by a series of most brilliant manœuvres, he is said to have written home this punning despatch: _Peccāvi_ (“I have sinned” [Scinde]).

=Roman Father= (_The_), Horatius, father of the Horatii and of Horatia. The story of the tragedy is the well-known Roman legend about the Horatii and Curiatii. Horatius rejoices that his three sons have been selected to represent Rome, and sinks the affection of the father in love for his country. Horatia is the betrothed of Caius Curiatius, but is also beloved by Valerius, and when the Curiatii are selected to oppose her three brothers, she sends Valerius to him with a scarf, to induce him to forego the fight. Caius declines, and is slain. Horatia is distracted; they take from her every instrument of death, and therefore she resolves to provoke her surviving brother, Publius, to kill her. Meeting him in his triumph, she rebukes him for murdering her lover, scoffs at his “patriotism,” and Publius kills her. Horatius now resigns Publius to execution for murder, but the king and Roman people rescue him.--W. Whitehead (1741).

⁂ Corneille has a drama on the same subject, called _Les Horaces_ (1639).

=Roman des Romans= (_Le_), a series of prose romances connected with Am´adis, of Gaul. So called by Gilbert Saunier.

=Romans= (_Last of the_), Rienzi, the tribune (1310-1354).

Charles James Fox (1749-1806).

Horace Walpole, _Ultimus Romanorum_ (1717-1797).

Caius Cassius was so called by Brutus.

The last of all the Romans, fare thee well!
It is impossible that ever Rome
Should breed thy fellow.

Shakespeare, _Julius Cæsar_, act v. sc. 3. (1607).

_Romans_ (_Most Learned of the_), Marcus Terentius Varro (B.C. 116-28).

=Romance of the Rose=, a poetical allegory, begun by Guillaume di Lorris in the latter part of the thirteenth century, and continued by Jean de Meung in the former half of the fourteenth century. The poet dreams that Dame Idleness conducts him to the palace of Pleasure, where he meets Love, whose attendant maidens are Sweet-looks, Courtesy, Youth, Joy, and Competence, by whom he is conducted to a bed of roses. He singles out one, when an arrow from Love’s bow stretches him fainting on the ground, and he is carried off. When he comes to himself, he resolves, if possible, to find his rose, and Welcome promises to aid him; Shyness, Fear, and Slander obstruct him; and Reason advises him to give up the quest. Pity and Kindness show him the object of his search; but Jealousy seizes Welcome, and locks her in Fear Castle. Here the original poem ends. The sequel, somewhat longer than the twenty-four books of Homer’s _Iliad_, takes up the tale from this point.

=Roma´no=, the old monk who took pity on Roderick in his flight (viii.), and went with him for refuge to a small hermitage on the sea-coast, where they remained for twelve months, when the old monk died.--Southey, _Roderick, The Last of the Goths_, i., ii. (1841).

=Rome Does= (_Do as_). The saying originated with Saint Ambrose (fourth century). It arose from the following diversity in the observance of Saturday:--The Milanese make it a feast, the Romans a fast. St. Ambrose, being asked what should be done in such a case, replied, “In matters of indifference, it is better to be guided by the general usage. When I am at Milan, I do not fast on Saturdays, but when I am at Rome, I do as they do at Rome.”

=Rome Saved by Geese.= When the Gauls invaded Rome, a detachment in single file scaled the hill on which the capitol stood, so silently that the foremost man reached the summit without being challenged; but while striding over the rampart, some sacred geese were disturbed, and by their cackle aroused the guard. Marcus Manlius rushed to the wall, and hustled the Gaul over, thus saving the capitol.

A somewhat parallel case occurred in Ireland in the battle of Glinsaly, in Donegal. A party of the Irish would have surprised the Protestants if some wrens had not disturbed the guards by the noise they made in hopping about the drums and pecking on the parchment heads.--Aubrey, _Miscellanies_, 45.

=Ro´meo=, a son of Mon´tague (3 _syl._), in love with Juliet, the daughter of Cap´ulet; but between the houses of Montague and Capulet there existed a deadly feud. As the families were irreconcilable, Juliet took a sleeping draught, that she might get away from her parents and elope with Romeo. Romeo, thinking her to be dead, killed himself; and when Juliet awoke and found her lover dead, she also killed herself.--Shakespeare, _Romeo and Juliet_ (1598).

=Romeo and Juliet=, a tragedy by Shakespeare (1598). The tale is taken from _Rhomeo and Julietta_, a novel by Boisteau, in French, borrowed from an Italian story by Bandello (1554).

In 1562 Arthur Brooke produced the same tale in verse, called _The Tragicall History of Romeus and Juliet_. In 1567 Painter published a prose translation of Boisteau’s novel.

=Romola=, superb woman, high-spirited, pure and single of heart, the idol and co-laborer of her scholarly father. She wrecks her life by the marriage with the fascinating Greek, Tito Melema.--George Eliot, _Romola_.

=Romp= (_The_), a comic opera altered from Bickerstaff’s _Love in the City_. Priscilla Tomboy is “the romp,” and the plot is given under that name.

A splendid portrait of Mrs. Jordan, in her character of “The Romp,”
hung over the mantelpiece in the dining-room [_of Adolphus
Fitzclarence_].--Lord W. P. Lennox, _Celebrities, etc._, i. 11.

=Rom´uald= (_St_).[TN-135] The Catalans had a great reverence for a hermit so called, and hearing that he was about to quit their country, called together a parish meeting, to consult how they might best retain him amongst them, “For,” said they, “he will certainly be consecrated, and his relics will bring a fortune to us.” So they agreed to strangle him; but their intention being told to the hermit, he secretly made his escape.--St. Foix, _Essais Historiques sur Paris_, v. 163.

⁂ Southey has a ballad on the subject.

=Romulus= (_The Second and Third_), Camillus and Marĭus. Also called “The Second and Third Founders of Rome.”

=Romulus and Remus=, the twin sons of Silvia, a vestal virgin, and the god Mars. The infants were exposed in a cradle, and the floods carried the cradle to the foot of the Palatine. Here a wolf suckled them, till one Faustulus, the king’s shepherd, took them to his wife, who brought them up. When grown to manhood, they slew Amulius, who had caused them to be exposed.