Character Sketches of Romance Volume Iii Part 120

=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 Ca.s.sius 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 Caesar_, 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 Sat.u.r.day:--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 Sat.u.r.days, 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, t.i.to 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 Marius. Also called "The Second and Third Founders of Rome."

=Romulus and Remus=, the twin sons of Silvia, a vestal virgin, and the G.o.d 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.

The Greek legend of Tyro is in many respects similar. This Tyro had an amour with Poseidon (as Silvia had with Mars), and two sons were born in both cases. Tyro's mother-in-law confined her in a dungeon, and exposed the two infants (Pelias and Neleus) in a boat on the river Enipeus (3 _syl._). Here they were discovered and brought up by a herdsman (Romulus and Remus were brought up by a shepherd), and when grown to manhood, they put to death their mother-in-law, who had caused them to be exposed (as Romulus and Remus put to death their great-uncle, Amulius).

=Ron=, the ebony spear of Prince Arthur.

The temper of his sword, the tried Excalibor, The bigness and the length of Rone his n.o.ble spear, With Pridwin his great s.h.i.+eld.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, iv. (1612).

=Ronald= (_Lord_), in love with Lady Clare, to whom he gave a lily-white doe. The day before the wedding nurse Alice told Lady Clare she was not "Lady Clare" at all, but her own child. On hearing this, she dressed herself as a peasant girl, and went to Lord Ronald to release him from his engagement. Lord Ronald replied, "If you are not the heiress born, we will be married to-morrow, and you shall still be Lady Clare."--Tennyson, _Lady Clare_.

=Ronaldson= (_Neil_), the old ranzelman of Jarlshof (ch. vii.).--Sir W.

Scott, _The Pirate_ (time William III.).

=Rondib'ilis=, the physician consulted by Panurge, on the knotty question, "whether he ought to marry, or let it alone."--Rabelais, _Pantagruel_ (1545).

? This question, which Panurge was perpetually asking every one, of course refers to the celibacy of the clergy.

=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 a.s.s 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 Penelope's web was "never ending, still beginning," because Penelope 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.