Part 40

=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).