Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 107

Bleddynt Vardd, _Myvyrian Archaiology_, i. 365.

=Ravens once White.= One day a raven told Apollo that Coro'nis, a Thessalian nymph whom he pa.s.sionately 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 n.o.bleman 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 b.l.o.o.d.y-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 b.l.o.o.d.y-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 pa.s.sionless 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.--Ta.s.so, _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 G.o.ds 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 G.o.ddess 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 Rebeccates, 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 n.o.ble.... 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 a.s.sumes the military dress of her brother and the name of Jack Wilful, _alias_ Pinch. Her father, Justice Balance, allows the name to pa.s.s 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).