Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 111

Mr. Arber published three interesting contemporary doc.u.ments relating to _The Revenge_, by Sir Walter Raleigh.

Gervase Markham wrote a long poem on the subject (two hundred stanzas of eight lines each).

_Revenge_ (_The Palace of_), a palace of crystal, provided with everything agreeable to life except the means of going out of it. The fairy Pagan made it, and when Imis rejected his suit because she loved Prince Philax, he shut them up in this palace out of revenge. At the end of a few years Pagan had his revenge, for Philax and Imis longed as eagerly for a separation as they had once done to be united.--Comtesse D'Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ ("Palace of Revenge," 1682).

=Revenons a nos Moutons=, let us return to the matter in hand. This phrase comes from an old French comedy of the fifteenth century, ent.i.tled _L'Avocat Patelin_, by Blanchet. A clothier, giving evidence against a shepherd who had stolen some sheep, is for ever running from the subject to talk about some cloth of which Patelin, his lawyer, had defrauded him. The judge from time to time pulls him up by saying, "Well, well!

and about the sheep?" "What about the sheep!" (See PATELIN.)

=Revolutionary Songs.= By far the most popular were:

1. _La Ma.r.s.eillaise_, both words and music by Rouget de Lisle (1792).

2. _Veillons au Salut de l'Empire_, by Adolphe S. Boy (1791). Music by Dalayra. Very strange that men whose whole purpose was to _destroy_ the empire should go about singing "Let us guard it!"

3. _ca Ira_, written to the tune of _Le Carillon National_, in 1789, while preparations were being made for the _Fete de la Federation_. It was a great favorite with Marie Antoinette, who was for ever "strumming the tune on her harpsichord."

4. _Chant du Depart_, by Marie Joseph de Chenier (1794). Music by Mehul.

This was the most popular next to the _Ma.r.s.eillaise_.

5. _La Carmagnole._ "Madame Veto avait promis de faire egorger tout Paris ..." (1792). Probably so called from Carmagnole, in Piedmont. The burden of this dancing song is:

Danson la Carmagnole, Vive le son! Vive le son!

Danson la Carmagnole, Vive le son du canon!

6. _La Vengeur_, a spirited story, in verse, about a s.h.i.+p so called.

Lord Howe took six of the French s.h.i.+ps, June 1, 1794; but _La Vengeur_ was sunk by the crew, that it might not fall into the hands of the English, and went down while the crew shouted "Vive la Republique!" The story bears a strong resemblance to that of "The Revenge," Sir Richard Grenville's s.h.i.+p. See _ante_.

In the second Revolution we have:

1. _La Parisienne_, called "The _Ma.r.s.eillaise_ of 1830," by Casimir Delavigne, the same year.

2. _La France a l'Horreur du Servage_, by Casimir Delavigne (1843).

3. _Le Champ de Bataille_, by Emile Debreaux (about 1830).

The chief political songs of Beranger are: _Adieux de Marie Stuart_, _La Cocarde Blanche_, _Jacques_, _La Deesse_, _Marquis de Carabas_, _Le Sacre de Charles le Simple_, _Le Senateur_, _Le Vieux Caporal_, and _Le Vilain_.

In the American Revolution the air of _Yankee Doodle_ was sung to various sets of words, all derisive of the British and exhilarating to the Americans.

In the Civil War of the United States _The Star-Spangled Banner_, _Hail Columbia_, _Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!_ and Julia Ward Howe's _Battle Hymn of the Republic_ to the air of _John Brown's Body Lies Mouldering in the Ground_ were favorites with the Federal troops.

Among the Confederates, _Dixie_, and _Maryland, My Maryland_, were most popular.

=Rewcastle= (_Old John_), a Jedburgh smuggler, and one of the Jacobite conspirators with the laird of Ellieslaw.--Sir W. Scott, _The Black Dwarf_ (time, Anne).

=Reynaldo=, a servant to Polonius.--Shakespeare, _Hamlet_ (1596).

=Reynard the Fox=, the hero of the beast-epic so called. This prose poem is a satire on the state of Germany in the Middle Ages. Reynard represents the Church; Isengrin, the wolf (his uncle), typifies the baronial element; and Nodel, the lion, stands for the regal power. The plot turns on the struggle for supremacy between Reynard and Isengrin.

Reynard uses all his endeavors to victimize every one, especially his uncle, Isengrin, and generally succeeds.--_Reinecke Fuchs_ (thierepos,[TN-125] 1498).

=Reynardine= (3 _syl._), eldest son of Reynard the Fox. He a.s.sumed the names of Dr. Pedanto and Crabron.--_Reynard the Fox_ (1498).

=Reynold of Montalbon=, one of Charlemagne's paladins.

=Reynolds= (_Sir Joshua_), is thus described by Goldsmith:

Here Reynolds is laid; and, to tell you my mind, He has not left a wiser or better behind.

His pencil was striking, resistless and grand; His manners were gentle, complying and bland ...

To c.o.xcombs averse, yet most civilly steering, When they judged without skill he was still hard of hearing; When they talked of their Raphaels, Corregios, and stuff, He s.h.i.+fted his trumpet, and only took snuff.

_Retaliation_ (1774).

N.B.--Sir Joshua Reynolds was hard of hearing, and used an ear-trumpet.

=Rez'io= (_Dr._) or "Pedro Rezio of Ague'ro," the doctor of Barata'ria, who forbade Sancho Panza to taste any of the meats set before him. Roast partridge was "forbidden by Hippoc'rates." Podri'da was "the most pernicious food in the world." Rabbits were "a sharp-haired diet." Veal was "prejudicial to health." But, he said, the governor might eat "a few wafers, and a thin slice or two of quince."--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. iii. 10 (1615).

=Rhadaman'thus=, son of Jupiter and Euro'pa. He reigned in the Cyclades with such partiality, that at death he was made one of the judges of the infernal regions.

And if departed souls must rise again ...

And bide the judgment of reward or pain ...

Then Rhadamanthus and stern Minos were True types of justice while they lived here.

Lord Brooke, _Monarchie_, i. (1554-1628).

=Rhampsini'tos=, king of Egypt, usually called Ram'eses III., the richest of the Egyptian monarchs, who ama.s.sed 72 millions sterling, which he secured in a treasury of stone. By an artifice of the builder, he was robbed every night.--_Herodotus_, ii. 121.

A parallel tale is told of Hyrieus [_Hy'.ri.uce_] of Hyria. His two architects, Trophonios and Agamedes (brothers), built his treasure-vaults, but left one stone removable at pleasure. After great loss of treasure, Hyrieus spread a net, in which Agame'des was caught.

To prevent recognition, Trophonios cut off his brother's head.--Pausanias, _Itinerary of Greece_, ix. 37, 3.

A similar tale is told of the treasure-vaults of Augeas, king of Elis.

=Rha'sis= or Mohammed Aboubekr ibn Zakaria el Razi, a noted Arabian physician. He wrote a treatise on small-pox and measles, with some 200 other treatises (850-923).

Well, error has no end; And Rhasis is a sage.

R. Browning, _Paracelsus_, iii.