Part 37

It soon recovered its good looks, and became as glossy and sleek as ever ... but for a whole year it never indulged in any other sound than a grave and decorous croak.... One bright summer morning ... the bird advanced with fantastic steps to the door of the Maypole, and then cried “I’m a devil!” three or four times, with extraordinary rapture ... and from that time constantly practised and improved himself in the vulgar tongue.--C. Dickens, _Barnaby Rudge_, ii. (1841).

_Raven_ (_The_), Edgar Allan Poe’s poem bearing this caption is the best known of his works, and one of the most remarkable in the English language (1845).

=Ravens of Owain= (_The_). Owain had in his army 300 ravens, who were irresistible. It is thought that these ravens were warriors who bore this device on their shields.

A man who caused the birds to fly upon the host Like the ravens of Owain, eager for prey.

Bleddynt Vardd, _Myvyrian Archaiology_, i. 365.

=Ravens once White.= One day a raven told Apollo that Coro´nis, a Thessalian nymph whom he passionately loved, was faithless. Apollo, in his rage, shot the nymph, but hated the raven, and “bade him prate in white plumes never more.”--Ovid, _Metam._, ii.

=Ravenswood= (_Allan, lord of_), a decayed Scotch nobleman of the royalist party.

_Master Edgar Ravenswood_, the son of Allan. In love with Lucy Ashton, daughter of Sir William Ashton, lord-keeper of Scotland. The lovers plight their troth at the “Mermaid’s Fountain,” but Lucy is compelled to marry Frank Hayston, laird of Bucklaw. The bride, in a fit of insanity, attempts to murder the bridegroom, and dies in convulsions. Bucklaw recovers, and goes abroad. Colonel Ashton appoints a hostile meeting with Edgar; but young Ravenswood, on his way to the place appointed, is lost in the quicksands of Kelpies Flow, in accordance with an ancient prophecy.--Sir W. Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_ (time, William III.).

⁂ In Donizetti’s opera of _Lucia di Lammermoor_, Bucklaw dies of the wound inflicted by the bride, and Edgar, heart-broken, comes on the stage and kills himself.

The catastrophe in the _Bride of Lammermoor_, where [_Edgar_] Ravenswood is swallowed up by a quicksand, is singularly grand in romance, but would be inadmissible in a drama.--_Encyc. Brit._, Art. “Romance.”

=Rawhead and Bloody-Bones=, two bogies or bugbears, generally coupled together. In some cases the phrase is employed to designate one and the same “shadowy sprite.”

Servants awe children ... by telling them of Rawhead and Bloody-bones.--Locke.

=Ray.= One of two brothers, divided by the civil war. Beltran is in the Southern army, Ray in the Northern. Both love the same woman whose heart is Beltran’s. The brothers met[TN-117] in battle and Beltran falls. Ray is wounded and left for dead; recovers and makes his way homeward. There he lives--undergoing volcanic changes, now passionless lulls, and now rages and spasms of grief; “gradually out of them all he gathers his strength about him,” and wins Vivia’s hand.--Harriet Prescott Spofford, _Ray_.

_Ray_ (_Will_), popular officer in a frontier brigade who steals through the deadly line of Cheyennes drawn about a handful of U. S. soldiers, and, followed by shots and yells, rides for his life and his comrades’ lives to the nearest encampment of troops and brings succor to the devoted little band with the dawn of the day that, but for him, would have been the last on earth for those left behind.--Charles King, _Marion’s Faith_ (1886).

=Rayland= (_Mrs._), the domineering lady of the _Old Manor-House_, by Charlotte Smith (1749-1806).

Mrs. Rayland is a sort of Queen Elizabeth in private life.--Sir W. Scott.

=Raymond=, count of Toulouse, the Nestor of the crusaders. He slays Aladine, king of Jerusalem, and plants the Christian standard on the tower of David.--Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_, xx. (1516).

⁂ Introduced by Sir W. Scott in _Count Robert of Paris_, a novel of the period of Rufus.

_Raymond_ (_Sir Charles_), a country gentleman, the friend and neighbor of Sir Robert Belmont.

_Colonel Raymond_, son of Sir Charles, in love with Rosetta Belmont. Being diffident and modest, Rosetta delights in tormenting him, and he is jealous even of William Faddle “a fellow made up of knavery, noise and impudence.”

_Harriet Raymond_, daughter of Sir Charles, whose mother died in giving her birth. She was committed to the care of a gouvernante, who changed her name to Fidelia, wrote to Sir Charles to say that she was dead, and sold her at the age of 12 to a villain named Villard. Charles Belmont, hearing her cries of distress, rescued her and took her home. The gouvernante at death confessed the truth, and Charles Belmont married her.--Edward Moore, _The Foundling_ (1748).

=Raz´eka=, the giver of food, one of the four gods of the Adites (2 _syl._).

We called on Razeka for food.

Southey, _Thalaba, the Destroyer_, i. 24 (1797).

=Razor=, a barber who could “think of nothing but old England.” He was the friend and neighbor of Quidnunc, the upholsterer, who was equally crazy about the political state of the nation, and the affairs of Europe in general.--Murphy, _The Upholsterer_ (1758).

_Razor_ (_To cut blocks with a_). Oliver Goldsmith said of Edward Burke, the statesman.

Too deep for his hearers, he went on refining, And thought of convincing, while they thought of dining: Tho’ equal to all things, to all things unfit; Too nice for a statesman, too proud for a wit; For a patriot too cool; for a drudge disobedient; And too fond of the _right_ to pursue the _expedient_. In short, ’twas his fate, unemployed or in place, sir, To eat mutton cold, and cut blocks with a razor.

_Retaliation_ (1774.)

=Read= (_Sir William_), a tailor, who set up for oculist, and was knighted by Queen Anne. This quack was employed both by Queen Anne and George I. Sir William could not read. He professed to cure wens, wry-necks, and hare-lips (died 1715).

None shall their rise to merit owe-- That popish doctrine is exploded quite, Or Ralph had been no duke, and Read no knight.

_A Political Squib of the Period._

⁂ The “Ralph” refered[TN-118] to is Ralph Montagu, created viscount in 1682, and duke of Montagu in 1705 (died 1709).

=Ready-to-Halt=, a pilgrim that journeyed to the Celestial City on crutches. He joined Mr. Greatheart’s party, and was carried to heaven in a chariot of fire.--Bunyan, _Pilgrim’s Progress_, ii. (1684).

=Reason= (_The goddess of_), in the French Revolution, some say, was the wife of Momoro, the printer; but Lamartine says it was Mdlle. Malliard, an actress.

=Rebecca=, leader of the Rebeccaïtes, a band of Welsh rioters, who, in 1843, made a raid upon toll-gates. The captain and his guard disguised themselves in female attire.

⁂ This name arose from a gross perversion of a text of Scripture: “And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, ... let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.” (_Gen._ xxiv. 60).

_Rebecca_, daughter of Isaac, the Jew; meek, modest, and high-minded. She loves Ivanhoe, who has shown great kindness to her and to her father; and when Ivanhoe marries Rowena, both Rebecca and her father leave England for a foreign land.--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

_Rebecca_ (_Mistress_), the favorite waiting-maid of Mrs. Margaret Bertram, of Singleside.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

=Record=, noted for his superlatives, “most presumptuous,” “most audacious,” “most impatient,” as:

Oh, you will, most audacious.... Look at him, most inquisitive.... Under lock and key, most noble.... I will, most dignified.--S. Birch, _The Adopted Child_.

=Recruiting Officer= (_The_), a comedy by G. Farquhar (1705). The “recruiting officer” is Sergeant Kite, his superior officer is Captain Plume, and the recruit is Sylvia, who assumes the military dress of her brother and the name of Jack Wilful, _alias_ Pinch. Her father, Justice Balance, allows the name to pass the muster, and when the trick is discovered, to prevent scandal, the justice gives her in marriage to the captain.

=Red Book of Hergest= (_The_), a collection of children’s tales in Welsh; so called from the name of the place where it was discovered. Each tale is called in Welsh a _Mabinogi_, and the entire collection is the _Mabinogion_ (from _nab_, “a child”). The tales relate chiefly to Arthur and the early British kings. A translation in three vols., with notes, was published by Lady Charlotte Guest (1838-49).

=Red-Cap= (_Mother_), an old nurse at the Hungerford Stairs.--Sir W. Scott, _Fortunes of Nigel_ (time, James I.).

_Red-Cap_ (_Mother_). Madame Bufflon was so called, because her bonnet was deeply colored with her own blood in a street fight at the outbreak of the French Revolution.--W. Melville.

=Red Cross Knight= (_The_) represents St. George, the patron saint of England. His adventures, which occupy bk. i. of Spenser’s _Faëry Queen_, symbolize the struggles and ultimate victory of holiness over sin (or protestantism over popery). Una comes on a white ass to the court of Gloriana, and craves that one of the knights would undertake to slay the dragon which kept her father and mother prisoners. The Red Cross Knight, arrayed in all the armor of God (_Eph._ vi. 11-17), undertakes the adventure, and goes, accompanied for a time, with Una; but, deluded by Archimago, he quits the lady, and the two meet with numerous adventures. At last, the knight, having slain the dragon, marries Una; and thus holiness is allied to the Oneness of Truth (1590).

=Red Hand of Ulster.=

Calverley, of Calverley, Yorkshire. Walter Calverley, Esq., in 1605, murdered two of his children, and attempted to murder his wife and a child “at nurse.” This became the subject of _The Yorkshire Tragedy_. In consequence of these murders, the family is required to wear “the bloody hand.”

The Holt family, of Lancashire, has a similar tradition connected with their coat armor.

=Red Knight= (_The_), Sir Perimo´nês, one of the four brothers who kept the passages leading to Castle Perilous. In the allegory of Gareth, this knight represents noon, and was the third brother. Night, the eldest born, was slain by Sir Gareth; the Green Knight, which represents the young day-spring, was overcome, but not slain; and the Red Knight, being overcome, was spared also. The reason is this: darkness is _slain_, but dawn is only _overcome_ by the stronger light of noon, and noon decays into the evening twilight. Tennyson in his _Gareth and Lynette_, calls Sir Perimonês “Meridies,” or “Noonday Sun.” The Latin name is not consistent with a British tale.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 129 (1470); Tennyson, _Idylls_.

=Red Knight of the Red Lands= (_The_), Sir Ironside. “He had the strength of seven men, and every day his strength went on increasing till noon.” This knight kept the Lady Lionês captive in Castle Perilous. In the allegory of Sir Gareth, Sir Ironside represents death, and the captive lady “the Bride,” or Church triumphant. Sir Gareth combats with Night, Morn, Noon, and Evening, or fights the fight of faith, and then overcomes the last enemy, which is death, when he marries the lady, or is received into the Church, which is “the Lamb’s Bride.” Tennyson, in his _Gareth and Lynette_, makes the combat with the Red Knight (“Mors,” or “Death”) to be a single stroke; but the _History_ says it is endured from morn to noon, and from noon to night--in fact, that man’s whole life is a contest with moral and physical death.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 134-137 (1470); Tennyson, _Idylls_ (“Gareth and Lynette”).

=Red Pipe.= The Great Spirit long ago called the Indians together, and, standing on the red pipe-stone rock, broke off a piece, which he made into a pipe, and smoked, letting the smoke exhale to the four quarters. He then told the Indians that the red pipe-stone was their flesh, and they must use the red pipe when they made peace; and that when they smoked it, the war-club and scalping-knife must not be touched. Having so spoken, the Great Spirit was received up into the clouds.--_Indian Mythology._

The red pipe has blown its fumes of peace and war to the remotest corners of the continent. It visited every warrior, and passed through its reddened stem the irrevocable oath of war and desolation. Here, too, the peace-breathing calumet was born, and fringed with eagle’s quills, which has shed its thrilling fumes over the land, and soothed the fury of the relentless savage.--Catlin, _Letters on ... the North Americans_, ii. 160.

=Red Ridinghood= (_Little_), a child with a red cloak, who went to carry cakes to her grandmother. A wolf placed itself in the grandmother’s bed, and when the child remarked upon the size of its eyes, ears, and nose, replied it was the better to see, hear, and smell the little grandchild. “But, grandmamma,” said the child, “what a great mouth you have got!” “The better to eat you up,” was the reply, and the child was devoured by the wolf.

This nursery tale is, with slight variations, common to Sweden, Germany, and France. In Charles Perrault’s _Contes des Fées_ (1697) it is called “Le Petit Chaperon Rouge.”

=Red Swan= (_The_). Odjibwa, hearing a strange noise, saw in the lake a most beautiful red swan. Pulling his bow, he took deliberate aim, without effect. He shot every arrow from his quiver with the same result; then, fetching from his father’s medicine sack three poisoned arrows, he shot them also at the bird. The last of the three arrows passed through the swan’s neck, whereupon the bird rose into the air and sailed away towards the setting sun.--Schoolcraft, _Algic Researches_, ii. 9 (1839).

=Redgauntlet=, a story told in a series of letters, about a conspiracy formed by Sir Edward Hugh Redgauntlet, on behalf of the “Young Pretender,” Charles Edward, then above 40 years of age. The conspirators insist that the prince shall dismiss his mistress, Miss Walkingshaw, and, as he refuses to comply with this demand, they abandon their enterprise. Just as a brig is prepared for the prince’s departure from the island, Colonel Campbell arrives with the military. He connives, however, at the affair, the conspirators disperse, the prince embarks, and Redgauntlet becomes the prior of a monastery abroad. This is one of the inferior novels, but is redeemed by the character of Peter Peebles.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (1824).

_Redgauntlet_ embodies a great deal of Scott’s own personal history and experience.--Chambers, _English Literature_, ii. 589.

_Redgauntlet_ (_Sir Alberick_), an ancestor of the family.

_Sir Edward Redgauntlet_, son of Sir Alberick; killed by his father’s horse.

_Sir Robert Redgauntlet_, an old tory, mentioned in Wandering Willie’s tale.

_Sir John Redgauntlet_, son and successor of Sir Robert, mentioned in Wandering Willie’s tale.

_Sir Redwald Redgauntlet_, son of Sir John.

_Sir Henry Darsie Redgauntlet_, son of Sir Redwald.

_Lady Henry Darsie Redgauntlet_, wife of Sir Henry Darsie.

_Sir Arthur Darsie Redgauntlet_, alias _Darsie Latimer_, son of Sir Henry and Lady Darsie.

_Miss Lilias Redgauntlet_, alias _Green-mantle_, sister of Sir Arthur. She marries Allan Fairford.

_Sir Edward Hugh Redgauntlet_, the Jacobite conspirator. He is uncle to Darsie Latimer, and is called “Laird of the Lochs,” _alias_ “Mr. Herries of Birrenswark,” _alias_ “Master Ingoldsby.”--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

=Redi= (_Francis_), an Italian physician and lyric poet. He was first physician to the grand-duke of Tuscany (1626-1698).

Even Redi, tho’ he chanted Bacchus in the Tuscan valleys, Never drank the wine he vaunted In his dithyrambic sallies.

Longfellow, _Drinking Song_.

=Redlaw= (_Mr._), the “haunted man.” He was a professor of chemistry, who bargained with the spirit which haunted him to leave him, on condition of his imparting to others his own idiosyncrasies. From this moment the chemist carried with him the infection of sullenness, selfishness, discontent and ingratitude. On Christmas Day the infection ceased. Redlaw lost his morbid feelings, and all who suffered by his infection, being healed, were restored to love, mirth, benevolence and gratitude.--C. Dickens, _The Haunted Man_ (1848).

=Redmain= (_Sir Magnus_), governor of the town of Berwick (fifteenth century).

He was remarkable for his long red beard, and was therefore called by the English “Magnus Red-beard,” but by the Scotch, in derision, “Magnus Red-mane,” as if his beard had been a horse-mane.--Godscroft, 178.

=Redmond O’Neale=, Rokeby’s page, beloved by Rokeby’s daughter, Matilda, whom he marries. He turns out to be Mortham’s son and heir.--Sir W. Scott, _Rokeby_ (1812).

=Reece= (_Captain_), R.N., of the _Mantelpiece_; adored by all his crew. They had feather-beds, warm slippers, hot-water cans, brown Windsor soap, and a valet to every four, for Captain Reece said, “It is my duty to make my men happy, and I will.” Captain Reece had a daughter, ten female cousins, a niece and a ma, six sisters and an aunt or two, and, at the suggestion of William Lee, the coxswain, married these ladies to his crew--“It is my duty to make my men happy, and I will.” Last of all, Captain Reece married the widowed mother of his coxswain, and they were all married on one day--“It was their duty, and they did it.”--W. S. Gilbert, _The Bab Ballads_ (“Captain Reece, R.N.”).

=Reeve’s Tale= (_The_). Symond Symkyn, a miller of Trompington, near Cambridge, used to serve “Soler Hall College,” but was an arrant thief. Two scholars, Aleyn and John, undertook to see that a sack of corn sent to be ground was not tampered with; so one stood by the hopper, and one by the trough which received the flour. In the mean time the miller let their horse loose, and, when the young men went to catch it, purloined half a bushel of the flour, substituting meal instead. It was so late before the horse could be caught that the miller offered the two scholars a “shakedown” in his own chamber, but when they were in bed he began to belabor them unmercifully. A scuffle ensued, in which the miller, being tripped up, fell upon his wife. His wife, roused from her sleep, seized a stick, and, mistaking the bald pate of her husband for the night-cap of one of the young men, banged it so lustily that the man was almost stunned with the blows. In the mean time the two scholars made off without payment, taking with them the sack and also the half-bushel of flour, which had been made into cakes.--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ (1388).

⁂ Boccaccio has a similar story in his _Decameron_. It is also the subject of a _fabliau_ entitled _De Gombert et des Deux Clers_. Chaucer borrowed his story from a _fabliau_ given by Thomas Wright in his _Anecdota Literaria_, 15.

=Reformation= (_The_). It was in germ in the early Lollards, and was radiant in the works of Wycliffe.

It was present in the pulpit of Pierre de Bruys, in the pages of Arnoldo da Brescia, in the cell of Roger Bacon.

It was active in the field with Peter Revel, in the castle of Lord Cobham, in the pulpit with John Huss, in the camp with John Ziska, in the class-room of Pico di Mirandola, in the observatory of Abraham Zacuto, and the college of Antonio di Lebrija, and it burst into full light through Martin Luther.

=Re´gan=, second daughter of King Lear, and wife of the duke of Cornwall. Having received the half of her father’s king-[TN-119] she refused to entertain him with his suite. On the death of her husband, she designed to marry Edmund, natural son of the earl of Gloster, and was poisoned by her elder sister, Goneril, out of jealousy. Regan, like Goneril, is proverbial for “filial ingratitude.”--Shakespeare, _King Lear_ (1605).

=Regent Diamond= (_The_). So called from the regent duke of Orleans. This diamond, the property of France, at first set in the crown, and then in the sword of state, was purchased in India by a governor of Madras, of whom the regent bought it for £80,000.

=Regillus= (_The Battle of Lake_). Regillus Lacus is about twenty miles east of Rome, between Gabii (north) and Lavīcum (south). The Romans had expelled Tarquin the Proud from the throne, because of the most scandalous conduct of his son Sextus, who had violated Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus. Thirty combined cities of Latium, with Sabines and Volscians, took the part of Tarquin, and marched towards Rome. The Romans met the allied army at the Lake Regillus, and here, on July 15, B.C. 499, they won the great battle which confirmed their republican constitution, and in which Tarquin, with his sons Sextus and Titus, was slain. While victory was still doubtful, Castor and Pollux, on their white horses, appeared to the Roman dictator, and fought for the Romans. The victory was complete, and ever after the Romans observed the anniversary of this battle with a grand procession and sacrifice. The procession started from the temple of Mars outside the city walls, entered by the Porta Capēna, traversed the chief streets of Rome, marched past the temple of Vesta in the Forum, and then to the opposite side of the “great square,” where they had built a temple to Castor and Pollux in gratitude for the aid rendered by them in this battle. Here offerings were made, and sacrifice was offered to the Great Twin-Brothers, the sons of Leda. Macaulay has a lay, called _The Battle of the Lake Regillus_, on the subject.

Where, by the Lake Regillus, Under the Porcian height, All in the land of Tusculum, Was fought the glorious fight.

Macaulay, _Lays of Ancient Rome_ (1842).

A very parallel case occurs in the life of Mahomet. The Koreishites had armed to put down “the prophet;” but Mahomet met them in arms, and on January 13, 624, won the famous battle of Bedr. In the _Korân_ (ch. iii.), he tells us that the angel Gabriel, on his horse, Haïzûm, appeared on the field with 3000 “angels,” and won the battle for him.

In the conquest of Mexico, we are told that St. James appeared on his grey horse at the head of the Castilian adventurers, and led them on to victory. Bernal Diaz, who was in the battle, saw the grey horse, but fancies the rider was Francesco de Morla, though, he confesses, “it might be the glorious apostle St. James” for aught he knew.

=Regimen of the School of Salerno=, a collection of precepts in Latin verse, written by John of Milan, a poet of the eleventh century, for Robert, the duke of Normandy.

A volume universally known As the “Regimen of the School of Salern.”

Longfellow, _The Golden Legend_ (1851).

=Reginald Archer.= A refined, debonnaire sensualist, courted by women and envied by men. He wooes and marries a gentle, pure heiress, and would, as her husband, break her heart were not the evil work cut short by his death at the hands of a man whose wife Reginald has lured from her allegiance to her lawful lord.--Anne Crane Seemuller, _Reginald Archer_ (1865).

=Region of Death=, (_Marovsthulli_), Thurr, near Delhi, fatal, from some atmospheric influence, especially about sunset.

=Regno= (_The_), Naples.

Are our wiser heads leaning towards an alliance with the pope and the Regno?--George Eliot (Marian Evans).

=Reg´ulus=, a Roman general, who conquered the Carthaginians (B.C. 256), and compelled them to sue for peace. While negotiation was going on, the Carthaginians, joined by Xanthippos, the Lacedemonian, attacked the Romans at Tunis, and beat them, taking Regulus prisoner. The captive was sent to Rome to make terms of peace and demand exchange of prisoners, but he used all his influence with the senate to dissuade them from coming to terms with their foe. On his return to captivity, the Cathaginians[TN-120] cut off his eyelids and exposed him to the burning sun, then placed him in a barrel armed with nails, which was rolled up and down a hill till the man was dead.

⁂ This subject has furnished Pradon and Dorat with tragedies (_French_), and Metastasio, the Italian poet, with an opera called _Regolo_ (1740).

“Regulus” was a favorite part of the French actor, François J. Talma.