Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 115

The seven sleepers slept for 250 years in Mount Celion.

St. David slept for seven years. (See ORMANDINE.)[TN-128]

(The following are not dead, but only sleep till the fulness of their respective times:--Elijah, Endymion, Merlin, King Arthur, Charlemagne, Frederick Barbarossa and his knights, the three Tells, Desmond of Kilmallock, Thomas of Erceldoune, Boabdil el Chico, Brian Boroimhe, Knez Lazar, King Sebastian of Portugal, Olaf Tryggvason, the French slain in the Sicilian Vespers, and one or two others.)

=Riquet with the Tuft=, the beau-ideal of ugliness, but with the power of bestowing wit and intelligence on the person he loved best. Riquet fell in love with a most beautiful woman, as stupid as he was ugly, but possessing the power of giving beauty to the person she loved best. The two married, whereupon Riquet gave his bride wit, and she bestowed on him beauty.--Charles Perrault, _Contes des Fees_ ("Riquet a la Houppe,"

1697).

? This tale is borrowed from the _Nights_ of Straparola. It is imitated by Mde. Villeneuve in her _Beauty and the Beast_.

=Risingham= (_Bertram_), the va.s.sal of Philip of Mortham. Oswald Wycliffe induced him to shoot his lord at Marston Moor; and for this deed the va.s.sal demanded all the gold and movables of his late master. Oswald, being a villain, tried to outwit Bertram, and even to murder him; but it turned out that Philip of Mortham,[TN-129] was not killed, neither was Oswald Wycliffe, his heir, for Redmond O'Neale (Rokeby's page) was found to be the son and heir of Philip of Mortham.--Sir W. Scott, _Rokeby_ (1812).

=Ritho= or =Rython=, a giant who had made himself furs of the beards of kings killed by him. He sent to King Arthur, to meet him on Mount Aravius, or else to send his beard to him without delay. Arthur met him, slew him, and took "fur" as a spoil. Drayton says it was this Rython who carried off Helena, the niece of Duke Hoel; but Geoffrey of Monmouth says that King Arthur, having killed the Spanish giant, told his army "he had found none so great in strength _since_ he killed the giant Ritho;" by which it seems that the Spanish giant and Ritho are different persons, although it must be confessed the scope of the chronicle seems to favor their ident.i.ty.--Geoffrey, _British History_, x. 3 (1142).

As how great Rython's self he [_Arthur_] slew ...

Who ravished Howell's niece, young Helena, the fair.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, iv. (1612).

=Rival Queens= (_The_), Stati'ra and Roxa'na. Statira was the daughter of Darius, and wife of Alexander the Great. Roxana was the daughter of Oxyartes, the Bactrian; her, also, Alexander married. Roxana stabbed Statira, and killed her.--N. Lee, _Alexander the Great_, or _The Rival Queens_ (1678).

=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 b.o.o.by; 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 b.a.l.l.s----" "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 Comnenus, 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. Poc.o.c.k.

=Rob Roy M'Gregor=, _i.e._ "Robert the Red," whose surname was MacGregor.

He was an outlaw who a.s.sumed 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 Dionides. (See _Evenings at Home_, art.

"Alexander and the Robber.") The tale is from Cicero:

Nam quum quaereretur ex eo, quo scelere impulsus mare haberet infestum uno myoparone: eodem, inquit, quo tu orbem terrae.--_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 ash.o.r.e, 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.--Moliere, _Le Medecin Malgre Lui_ (1666).