Part 42

=Rondo= (_The Father of the_), Jean Baptiste Davaux.

=Rope of Ocnus= (_A_), profitless labor. Ocnus was always twisting a rope with unwearied diligence, but an ass ate it as fast as it was twisted.

⁂ This allegory means that Ocnus worked hard to earn money, which his wife squandered by her extravagance.

The work of Penelopê’s web was “never ending, still beginning,” because Penelopê pulled out at night all that she had spun during the day. Her object was to defer doing what she abhorred but knew not how to avoid.

=Roper= (_Margaret_), was buried with the head of her father, Sir Thomas More, between her hands.

Her who clasped in her last trance Her murdered father’s head.

Tennyson.

=Roque= (1 _syl._), a blunt, kind-hearted old servitor to Donna Floranthe.--Colman, _The Mountaineers_ (1793).

=Roque Guinart=, a freebooter, whose real name was Pedro Rocha Guinarda. He is introduced by Cervantês in _Don Quixote_.

=Rosa=, a village beauty, patronized by Lady Dedlock. She marries Mrs. Rouncewell’s grandson.--C. Dickens, _Bleak House_ (1853).

=Rosabelle= (3 _syl._), the lady’s-maid of Lady Geraldine. Rosabelle promised to marry L’Eclair, the orderly of Chevalier Florian.--W. Dimond, _The Foundling of the Forest_.

=Rosalind= (_i.e._ Rose Daniel), the shepherd lass who rejected Colin Clout (the poet Spenser) for Menalcas (John Florio, the lexicographer, 1579). Spenser was at the time in his twenty-sixth year. Being rejected by Rosalind, he did not marry till he was nearly 41, and then we are told that Elizabeth “was the name of his mother, queen and wife” (_Sonnet_, 74). In the _Faëry Queen_, “the country lass” (Rosalind) is introduced dancing with the Graces, and the poet says she is worthy to be the fourth (bk. vi. 10, 16). In 1595 appeared the _Epithala´mion_, in which the recent marriage is celebrated.--Ed. Spenser, _Shepheardes Calendar_, i., vi. (1579).

“Rosalinde” is an anagram for Rose Daniel, evidently a well-educated young lady of the north, and probably the “Lady Mirabella” of the _Faëry Queen_, vi. 7, 8. Spenser calls her “the widow’s daughter of the glen” (ecl. iv.), supposed to be either Burnley or Colne, near Hurstwood, in Yorkshire. Ecl. i. is the plaint of Colin for the loss of Rosalind. Ecl. vi. is a dialogue between Colin and Hobbinol, his friend, in which Colin laments, and Hobbinol tries to comfort him. Ecl. xii. is a similar lament to ecl. i. Rose Daniel married John Florio, the lexicographer, the “Holofernês” of Shakespeare.

_Rosalind_, daughter of the banished duke who went to live in the forest of Arden. Rosalind was retained in her uncle’s court as the companion of his daughter, Celia; but when the usurper banished her, Celia resolved to be her companion, and, for greater security, Rosalind dressed as a boy, and assumed the name of Ganymede, while Celia dressed as a peasant girl, and assumed the name of Aliēna. The two girls went to the forest of Arden, and lodged for a time in a hut; but they had not been long there when Orlando encountered them. Orlando and Rosalind had met before at a wrestling match, and the acquaintance was now renewed; Ganymede resumed her proper apparel, and the two were married, with the sanction of the duke.--Shakespeare, _As You Like It_ (1598).

Nor shall the griefs of Lear be alleviated, or the charms and wit of Rosalind be abated by time.--N. Drake, M.D., _Shakespeare and His Times_, ii. 554 (1817).

=Rosaline=, the niece of Capulet, with whom Romeo was in love before he saw Juliet. Mercutio calls her “a pale-hearted wench,” and Romeo says she did not “grace for grace and love for love allow,” like Juliet.--Shakespeare, _Romeo and Juliet_ (1598).

⁂ Rosaline is frequently mentioned in the first act of the play, but is not one of the _dramatis personæ_.

_Rosaline_, a lady in attendance on the princess of France. A sharp wit was wedded to her will, and “two pitch balls were stuck in her face for eyes.” Rosaline is called “a merry, nimble, stirring spirit.” Biron, a lord in attendance on Ferdinand, king of Navarre, proposes marriage to her, but she replies:

You must be purged first, your sins are racked ... Therefore if you my favor mean to get, A twelvemonth shall you spend, and never rest, But seek the weary beds of people sick.

Shakespeare, _Love’s Labor’s Lost_ (1594).

=Rosalu´ra=, the airy daughter of Nantolet, beloved by Belleur.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Wild-goose Chase_ (1652).

=Ros´amond= (_The Fair_), Jane Clifford, daughter of Walter, Lord Clifford. The lady was loved, not wisely, but too well, by Henry II., who kept her for concealment in a labyrinth at Woodstock. Queen Eleanor compelled the frail fair one to swallow poison (1777).

She was the fayre daughter of Walter, Lord Clifford.... Henry made for her a house of wonderfull working, so that no man or woman might come to her. This house was named “Labyrinthus,” and was wrought like unto a knot, in a garden called a maze. But the queen came to her by a clue of thredde, and so dealt with her that she lived not long after. She was buried at Godstow, in a house of nunnes, with these verses upon her tombe:

Hic jacet in tumba Rosa mundi, non Rosa munda; Non redolet, sed olet, quæ redolere solet.

_Here Rose the graced, not Rose the chaste, reposes; The smell that rises is no smell of roses._

⁂ The subject has been a great favorite with poets. We have in English the following tragedies:--_The Complaint of Rosamond_, by S. Daniel (before 1619); _Henry II.... with the Death of Rosamond_, either Bancroft or Mountford (1693); _Rosamond_, by Addison (1706); _Henry and Rosamond_, by Hawkins (1749); _Fair Rosamond_, by Tennyson (1879). In Italian, _Rosmonda_, by Rucellai (1525). In Spanish, _Rosmunda_, by Gil y Zarate (1840). We have also _Rosamond_, an opera, by Dr. Arne (1733); and _Rosamonde_, a poem in French, by C. Briffaut (1813). Sir Walter Scott has introduced the beautiful soiled dove in two of his novels--_The Talisman_ and _Woodstock_.

⁂ Dryden says her name was _Jane_:

Jane Clifford was her name, as books aver: “Fair Rosamond” was but her _nom de guerre_.

We rede that in Englande was a king that had a concubyne whose name was Rose, and for hir greate bewtye he cleped hir Rose à mounde (Rosa mundi), that is to say, Rose of the world, for him thought that she passed al wymen in bewtye.--R. Pynson (1493), subsequently printed by Wynken de Worde in 1496.

The _Rosemonde_ of Alfieri is quite another person. (See ROSEMOND.)

=Rosa´na=, daughter of the Armenian queen who helped St. George to quench the seven lamps of the knight of the Black Castle.--R. Johnson, _The Seven Champions of Christendom_, ii. 8, 9 (1617).

=Roscius= (_Quintus_), the greatest of Roman actors (died B.C. 62).

What scene of death hath Roscius now to act?

Shakespeare, 3 _Henry VI._ act v. sc. 6 (1592).

_Roscius_ (_The British_), Thomas Betterton (1635-1710), and David Garrick (1716-1779).

⁂ The earl of Southampton says that Richard Burbage “is famous as our English Roscius” (1566-1619).

_Roscius_ (_The Irish_), Spranger Barry, “The Silver Tongued” (1719-1777).

_Roscius_ (_The Young_), William Henry West Betty, who, in 1803, made his _début_ in London. He was about 12 years of age, and in fifty-six nights realized £34,000. He died, aged 84, in 1874.

=Roscius of France= (_The_), Michel Boyron or Baron (1653-1729).

=Roscrana=, daughter of Cormac, king of Ireland (grandfather of that Cormac murdered by Cairbar). Roscra´na is called “the blue-eyed and white-handed maid,” and was “like a spirit of heaven, half folded in the skirt of a cloud.” Subsequently she was the wife of Fingal, king of Morven, and mother of Ossian, “king of bards.”--Ossian, _Temora_, vi.

⁂ Cormac, the father of Roscrana, was great-grandfather of that Cormac who was reigning when Swaran made his invasion. The line ran thus: (1) Cormac I., (2) Cairbre, his son, (3) Artho, his son, (4) Cormac II., father-in-law of Fingal.

=Rose=, “the gardener’s daughter,” a story of happy first love, told in later years by an old man who had, in his younger days, trifled with the passion of love; but, like St. Augustin, was always “loving to love” (_amans amāre_), and was at length heart-smitten with Rose, whom he married. (See ALICE.)--Tennyson, _The Gardener’s Daughter_.

_Rose._ Sir John Mandeville says that a Jewish maid of Bethlehem (whom Southey names Zillah) was beloved by one Ham´uel, a brutish sot. Zillah rejected his suit, and Hamuel, in revenge, accused the maiden of offences for which she was condemned to be burned alive. When brought to the stake, the flames burnt Hamuel to a cinder, but did no harm to Zillah. There she stood, in a garden of roses, for the brands which had been kindled became red roses, and those which had not caught fire became white ones. These are the first roses that ever bloomed on earth since the loss of paradise.

As the fyre began to brenne about hire, she made her preyeres to oure Lord ... and anon was the fayer quenched and oute, and brondes that weren brennynge becomen white roseres ... and theise werein the first roseres that ever ony man saughe.--Sir John Maundeville, _Voiage and Traivaile_.

_Rose._ According to Mussulman tradition, the rose is thus accounted for: When Mahomet took his journey to heaven, the sweat which fell on the earth from the prophet’s forehead produced _White_ roses, and that which fell from Al Borak´ (the animal he rode) produced _yellow_ ones.

_Rose._

The gentle name that shows Her love, her loveliness, and bloom (Her only epitaph a rose) Is growing on her tomb!

John James Piatt, _Poems of House and Home_ (1879).

=Rose of Aragon= (_The_), a drama by S. Knowles (1842). Olivia, daughter of Ruphi´no (a peasant), was married to Prince Alonzo of Aragon. The king would not recognize the match, but sent his son to the army, and made the cortez pass an act of divorce. A revolt having been organized, the king was dethroned, and Almagro was made regent. Almagro tried to marry Olivia, and to murder her father and brother, but the prince returning with the army made himself master of the city, Almagro died of poison, the marriage of the prince and peasant was recognized, the revolt was broken up, and order was restored.

=Rose of Har´pocrate= (3 _syl._). Cupid gave Harpocrate a rose, to bribe him not to divulge the amours of his mother, Venus.

Red as a rose of Harpocrate.

E. B. Browning, _Isobel’s Child_, iii.

=Rose of Paradise.= The roses which grew in paradise had no thorns. “Thorns and thistles” were unknown on earth till after the Fall (_Gen._ iii. 18). Both St. Ambrose and St. Basil note that the roses in Eden had no thorns, and Milton says, in Eden bloomed “Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose.”--_Paradise Lost_, iv. 256 (1665).

=Rose of Raby=, the mother of Richard III. This was Cicely, daughter of Ralph de Nevill of Raby, earl of Westmoreland.

=Rose Vaughan.= Lover of “Yone” Willoughby, in _The Amber Gods_. He has super-refined and poetical tastes; delights and revels in beauty, and until he met Yone had admired her gentle sister. The siren, Yone, sets herself to win him and succeeds. Marriage disenchants him and the knowledge of this maddens her into something akin to hatred. Yet she dies begging him to kiss her. “I am your Yone! I forgot a little while,--but I love you, Rose, Rose!”--Harriet Prescott Spofford, _The Amber Gods_ (1863).

=Rose of York=, the heir and head of the York faction.

When Warwick perished, Edmund de la Pole became the Rose of York, and if this foolish prince should be removed by death ... his young and clever brother [_Richard_] would be raised to the rank of Rose of York.--W. H. Dixon, _Two Queens_.

=Roses= (_War of the_). The origin of this expression is thus given by Shakepeare:[TN-136]

_Plant._ Let him that is a true-born gentleman ... If he supposes that I have pleaded truth, From off this briar pluck a white rose with me.

_Somerset._ Let him that is no coward, nor no flatterer, But dare maintain the party of the truth, Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me.

Whereupon Warwick plucked a white rose and joined the Yorkists, while Suffolk plucked a red one and joined the Lancastrians.--Shakespeare, 1 _Henry VI._ act ii. sc. 4 (1589).

=Rosemond=, daughter of Cunimond, king of the Gepidæ. She was compelled to marry Alboin, king of the Lombards, who put her father to death A.D. 567. Alboin compelled her to drink from the skull of her own father, and Rosemond induced Peride´us (the secretary of Helmichild, her lover), to murder the wretch (573). She then married Helmichild, fled Ravenna, and sought to poison her second husband, that she might marry Longin, the exarch; but Helmichild, apprised of her intention, forced her to drink the mixture she had prepared for him. This lady is the heroine of Alfieri’s tragedy called _Rosemonde_ (1749-1803). (See ROSAMOND.)

=Ro´sencrantz=, a courtier in the court of Denmark, willing to sell or betray his friend and schoolfellow, Prince Hamlet, to please a king.--Shakespeare, _Hamlet_ (1596).

=Rosetta=, the wicked sister of Brunetta and Blon´dina, the mothers of Cherry and Fairstar. She abetted the queen-mother in her wicked designs against the offspring of her two sisters, but, being found out, was imprisoned for life.--Comtesse D’Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ (“Princess Fairstar,” 1682).

_Rosetta_, a bright, laughing little coquette, who runs away from home because her father wants her to marry young Meadows, whom she has never seen. She enters the service of Justice Woodcock. Now, it so happens that Sir William Meadows wishes his son to marry Rosetta, whom he has never seen, and he also runs away from home, and under the name of Thomas becomes gardener to Justice Woodcock. Rosetta and young Meadows here fall in love with each other, and the wishes of the two fathers are accomplished.--Isaac Bickerstaff, _Love in a Village_ (1763).

In 1786 Mrs. Billington made her _début_ in “Rosetta,” at once dazzling the town with the brilliancy of her vocalization and the flush of her beauty.--C. R. Leslie.

=Rosetta [Belmont]=, daughter of Sir Robert Belmont. Rosetta is high-spirited, witty, confident, and of good spirits. “If you told her a merry story, she would sigh; if a mournful one, she would laugh. For _yes_ she would say ‘no,’ and for _no_, ‘yes.’” She is in love with Colonel Raymond, but shows her love by teasing him, and Colonel Raymond is afraid of the capricious beauty.--Edward Moore, _The Foundling_ (1748).

=Rosiclear and Donzel del Phebo=, the heroine and hero of the _Mirror of Knighthood_, a mediæval romance.

=Rosinan´te= (4 _syl._), the steed of Don Quixote. The name implies “that the horse had risen from a mean condition to the highest honor a steed could achieve, for it was once a cart-horse, and was elevated into the charger of a knight-errant.”--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. ii. 1 (1605).

Rosinante was admirably drawn, so lean, lank, meagre, drooping, sharp-backed, and raw-boned, as to excite much curiosity and mirth.--Pt. I. ii. 1.

=Rosiphele= (3 _syl._), princess of Armenia; of surpassing beauty, but insensible to love. She is made to submit to the yoke of Cupid, by a vision which befalls her on a May-day ramble.--Gower, _Confessio Amantis_ (1393).

=Rosmonda=, a tragedy in Italian, by John R. Ruccellai (1525). This is one of the first regular tragedies of modern times. _Sophonisba_, by Trissino, preceded it, being produced in 1514, and performed in 1515.

=Rosny= (_Sabina_), the young wife of Lord Sensitive. “Of noble parents, who perished under the axe in France.” The young orphan, “as much to be admired for her virtues, as to be pitied for her misfortunes,” fled to Padua, where she met Lord Sensitive.--Cumberland, _First Love_ (1796).

=Ross= (_Lord_), an officer in the king’s army, under the duke of Monmouth.--Sir W. Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).

_Ross_ (_The Man of_), John Kyrle, of Whitehouse, in Gloucestershire. So called because he resided in the village of Ross, Herefordshire. Kyrle was a man of unbounded benevolence, and beloved by all who knew him.

⁂ Pope celebrates him in his _Moral Essays_, iii. (1709).

=Rosse= (2 _syl._), the sword which the dwarf Elberich gave to Otwit, king of Lombardy. It was so keen that it left no gap where it cut.

Balmung, the sword forged by Wieland, and given to Siegfried, was so keen that it clove Amilias in two without his knowing it, but when he attempted to move he fell asunder.

This sword to thee I give; it is all bright of hue, Whatever it may cleave, no gap will there ensue. From Almari I brought it, and Rossê is its name.

_The Heldenbuch._

=Rostocostojambedanesse= (_M. N._), author of _After Beef, Mustard_.--Rabelais, Pantagruel, ii. 7 (1533).

=Rothmar=, chief of Tromlo. He attacked the vassal kingdom of Croma, while the under-king, Crothar, was blind with age, resolving to annex it to his own dominion. Crothar’s son, Fovar-Gormo, attacked the invader, but was defeated and slain. Not many days after, Ossian (one of the sons of Fingal) arrived with succors, renewed the battle, defeated the victorious army, and slew the invader.--Ossian, _Croma_.

=Rothsay= (_The duke of_) prince Robert, eldest son of Robert III. of Scotland.

_Margaret, duchess of Rothsay._--Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

=Rou= (_Le Roman de_), a metrical and mythical history, in Norman-French, of the dukes of Normandy, from Rollo downwards, by Robert Wace (author of _Le Brut_).

⁂ Rou’, that is, _Roul_, the same as Rollo.

=Roubigné= (_Julie de_), the heroine and title of a novel by Henry Mackenzie (1783).

=Rougedragon= (_Lady Rachel_), the former guardian of Lilias Redgauntlet.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

=Rouncewell= (_Mrs._), housekeeper at Chesney Wold to Lord and Lady Dedlock, to whom she is most faithfully attached.--C. Dickens, _Bleak House_ (1823).

=Round Table= (_The_), a table made at Carduel, by Merlin, for Uther, the pendragon. Uther gave it to King Leodegraunce, of Camelyard, and when Arthur married Guinever (the daughter of Leodegraunce), he received the table with a hundred knights as a wedding present (pt. i. 45). The table would seat 150 knights (pt. iii. 36), and each seat was appropriated. One of them was called the “Siege Perilous,” because it was fatal for any one to sit therein, except the knight who was destined to achieve the Holy Graal (pt. iii. 32). King Arthur instituted an order of knighthood called “the knights of the Round Table,” the chief of whom were Sir Launcelot, Sir Tristram, and Sir Lamerock, or Lamorake. The “Siege Perilous” was reserved for Sir Galahad, the son of Sir Launcelot by Elaine.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_ (1470).

⁂ There is a table shown at Winchester, as “Arthur’s Round Table,” but it corresponds in no respect with the Round Table described in the _History of Prince Arthur_. Round Tables are not unusual, as Dr. Percy has shown, with other kings in the times of chivalry. Thus, the king of Ireland, father of Christabelle, had his “knights of the Round Table.”--See “Sir Cauline,” in Percy’s _Reliques_.

In the eighth year of Edward I., Roger de Mortimer established at Kenilworth, a Round Table for “the encouragement of military pastimes.” Some seventy years later, Edward III. had his Round Table at Windsor; it was 200 feet in diameter.

=Rousseau= (_Jean Jacques_) used to say that all fables which ascribe speech and reason to dumb animals ought to be withheld from children, as being only vehicles of deception.

I shall not ask Jean Jacques Rousseau If birds confabulate or no; ’Tis clear that they were always able To hold discourse--at least in fable.

Cowper, _Pairing-Time Anticipated_ (1782).

=Roustam= or =Rostam=, the Persian Herculês. He was the son of Zal, and a descendant of Djamshid At one time Roustam killed 1000 Tartars at a blow; he slew dragons, overcame devils, captured cities, and performed other marvellous exploits. This mighty man of strength fell into disgrace for refusing to receive the doctrines of Zoroaster, and died by the hand of one of his brothers named Scheghad (sixth century B.C.).

=Routledge= (_Harold_). First love of _Lilian Westbrook_, in _The Banker’s Daughter_. They have a lover’s quarrel and separate. Lilian, to save her father from poverty, marries another man. Meeting Harold in after years, her love revives. When he challenges a Frenchman who has spoken lightly of her, she follows him to the field in time to receive his last breath and sob in his ear--“I have loved you--you only--from the first.”--Bronson Howard, _The Banker’s Daughter_, (1878).

=Rover=, a dissolute young spark, who set off vice “as naughty but yet nice.”--Mrs. Behn, _The Rover_ (1680).

William Mountford [1660-1692] had so much in him of the agreeable, that when he played “The Rover,” it was remarked by many, and

## particularly by Queen Mary, that it was dangerous to see him

act--he made vice so alluring.--C. Dibdin, _History of the Stage_.

=Rovewell= (_Captain_), in love with Arethusa, daughter of Argus. The lady’s father wanted her to marry Squire Cuckoo, who had a large estate; but Arethusa contrived to have her own way and marry Captain Rovewell, who turned out to be the son of Ned Worthy, who gave the bridegroom £30,000.--Carey, _Contrivances_ (1715).

=Rowe= (_Nicholas_), poet-laureate (1673, 1714-1718). The monument in Westminster Abbey to this poet was by Rysbrack.

=Rowena= (_The lady_), of Hargettstanstede, a ward of Cedric the Saxon, of Rotherwood. She marries Ivanhoe.--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

=Rowland= (_Childe_), youngest brother of Helen. Under the guidance of Merlin, he undertook to bring back his sister from elf land, whither the fairies had carried her, and he succeeded in his perilous exploit.--_An Ancient Scotch Ballad._

=Rowland for an Oliver= (_A_), a tit for tat; getting as good as you gave. Rowland (or Roland) and Oliver were two of Charlemagne’s paladins, so much alike in prowess and exploits that they might be described as “fortemque Gyan, fortemque Cloanthum” (_Æneid_, i. 222).

Och! Mrs. Mustard-pot, have you found a Rowland for your Oliver at last?--T. Knight, _The Honest Thieves_.

=Rowley=, one of the retainers of Julia Avenel (2 _syl._).--Sir W. Scott, _The Monastery_ (time, Elizabeth).

_Rowley_ (_Master_), formerly steward of Mr. Surface, Sr., the friend of Charles Surface, and the _fidus Achātês_ of Sir Oliver Surface, the rich uncle.--Sheridan, _School for Scandal_ (1777).

_Rowley_ (_Thomas_), the hypothetical priest of Bristol, said by Chatterton to have lived in the reigns of Henry VI. and Edward IV., and to have written certain poems, of which Chatterton himself was the author.

=Rowley Overdees=, a highwayman.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

=Roxa´na=, daughter of Oxyartês of Bactria, and wife or concubine of Alexander the Great. Proud, imperious, and relentless, she loved Alexander with a madness of love; and being jealous of Statīra, daughter of King Darius, and wife of Alexander, she stabbed her and slew her.--N. Lee, _Alexander the Great_ (1678).

So now am I as great as the famed Alexander; but my dear Statīra and Roxana, don’t exert yourselves so much about me.--Mrs. Centlivre, _The Wonder_, iii. 1 (1714).

=Roxa´na and Stati´ra.= Dr. Doran says that Peg Woffington (as “Roxana”), jealous of Mrs. Bellamy (as “Statira”) because she was better dressed, pulled her to the floor when she left the stage, and pummeled her with the handle of her dagger, screaming as she did so:

Nor he, nor heaven, shall shield thee from my justice. Die, sorceress, die! and all my wrongs die with thee?

_Table Traits._

Campbell tells a very similar story of Mrs. Barry (“Roxana”) and Miss Boutwell (“Statira”). The stage-manager had given to Miss Boutwell a lace veil, and Mrs. Barry, out of jealousy, actually stabbed her rival in acting, and the dagger went a quarter of an inch through the stays into the flesh.

=Royal Mottoes= or LEGENDS.

_Dieu et mon droit_, Richard I.

_Honi soit qui mal y pense_, Edward III.

_Semper eadem_, Elizabeth and Anne.