Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 105

It was no unusual thing for powerful barons to provide 30,000 dishes at a wedding breakfast. The coronation dinner of Edward III., cost 40,000, equal to half a million of money now. The duke of Clarence, at his marriage, entertained 1000 guests, and furnished his table with 36 courses. Archbishop Neville had 1000 egrettes served at one banquet, and the whole species seems to have been extirpated.

After this it will be by no means difficult to understand why Apicius despaired of being able to make two ends meet, when he had reduced his enormous fortune to 80,000, and therefore hanged himself.

? After the winter of 1327 was over, the elder Spenser had left of the stores laid in by him the preceding November and salted down, "80 salted beeves, 500 bacons, and 600 muttons."

_Ralph_, son of Fairfield, the miller. An outlandish, ignorant b.o.o.by, jealous of his sister, Patty, because she "could paint picturs and strum on the harpsicols." He was in love with f.a.n.n.y, the gypsy, for which "feyther" was angry with him; but, "what argufies feyther's anger?"

However, he treated f.a.n.n.y like a brute, and she said of him, "He has a heart as hard as a parish officer. I don't doubt but he would stand by and see me whipped." When his sister married Lord Aimworth, Ralph said:

Captain Ralph my lord will dub me, Soon I'll mount a huge c.o.c.kade; Mounseer shall powder, queue, and club me,-- 'Gad! I'll be a roaring blade.

If Fan should offer then to snub me, When in scarlet I'm arrayed; Or my feyther 'temp to drub me-- Let him frown, but who's afraid?

Bickerstaff, _The Maid of the Mill_ (1647).

_Ralph_ or RALPHO, the squire of Hudibras. Fully described in bk. i.

457-644.--S. Butler, _Hudibras_ (1663-78).

The prototype of "Ralph" was Isaac Robinson, a zealous butcher, in Morefields. Ralph represents the independent party, and Hudibras the Presbyterian.

? In regard to the p.r.o.nunciation of this name, which, in 1878, was the subject of a long controversy in _Notes and Queries_, Butler says:

A squire he had whose name was Ralph, That in th' adventure went his half: ...

And when we can, with metre safe, We'll call him Ralpho, or plain Ra'ph.

Bk. l. 456.

_Ralph_ (_Rough_), the helper of Lance Outram, park-keeper at Sir Geoffrey Peveril's of the Peak.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

_Ralph_ (_James_), an American, who came to London and published a poem ent.i.tled _Night_ (1725).

Silence, ye wolves! while Ralph to Cynthia howls, Making night hideous; answer him ye owls.

Pope, _The Dunciad_, iii. 165 (1728).

_Ralph_ [DE LASCOURS], captain of the _Uran'ia_, husband of Louise de Lascours. Ralph is the father of Diana and Martha, _alias_ Orgari'ta.

His crew having rebelled, Ralph, his wife, infant [Martha], and servant, Bar'abas, were put into a boat, and turned adrift. The boat ran on a huge iceberg, which Ralph supposed to be a small island. In time, the iceberg broke, when Ralph and his wife were drowned, but Martha and Barabas escaped. Martha was taken by an Indian tribe, who brought her up, and named her Orgarita ("withered corn"), because her skin was so white and fair.--E. Stirling, _Orphan of the Frozen Sea_ (1856).

=Ralph Roister Doister=, by Nicholas Udall, the first English comedy, about 1534. It contains nine male and four female characters. Ralph is a vain, thoughtless, bl.u.s.tering fellow, who is in pursuit of a rich widow named Custance, but he is baffled in his intention.

=Ramble= (_Sir Robert_), a man of gallantry, treats his wife with such supreme indifference that she returns to her guardian, Lord Norland, and resumes her maiden name of Marie Wooburn. Subsequently, however, she returns to her husband.

_Mrs. Ramble_, wife of Sir Robert, and ward of Lord Norland.--Inchbald, _Every One Has His Fault_ (1794).

=Ram'iel= (3 _syl._), one of the "atheist crew" overthrown by Ab'diel.

(The word means, according to Hume, "one who exalts himself against G.o.d.")--Milton, _Paradise Lost_, vi. 371 (1665).

=Raminago'bris.= Lafontaine, in his fables, gives this name to a cat.

Rabelais, in his _Pantag'ruel_, iii. 21, satirizes under the same name Guillaume Cretin, a poet.

=Rami'rez=, a Spanish monk, and father confessor to Don Juan, duke of Braganza. He promised Velasquez, when he absolved the duke at bed-time, to give him a poisoned wafer prepared by the Carmelite Castruccio. This he was about to do, when he was interrupted, and the breaking out of the rebellion saved the duke from any similar attempt.--Robert Jephson, _Braganza_ (1775).

=Rami'ro= (_King_) married Aldonza, who, being faithless, eloped with Alboa'zar, the Moorish king of Gaya. Ramiro came disguised as a traveller to Alboazar's castle, and asked a damsel for a draught of water, and when he lifted the pitcher to his mouth, he dropped in it his betrothal ring, which Aldonza saw and recognized. She told the damsel to bring the stranger to her apartment. Scarce had he arrived there when the Moorish king entered, and Ramiro hid himself in an alcove. "What would you do to Ramiro," asked Aldonza, "if you had him in your power?"

"I would hew him limb from limb," said the Moor. "Then lo! Alboazar, he is now skulking in that alcove." With this, Ramiro was dragged forth, and the Moor said, "And how would you act if our lots were reversed?"

Ramiro replied, "I would feast you well, send for my chief princes and counsellors, and set you before them and bid you blow your horn till you died." "Then be it so," said the Moor. But when Ramiro blew his horn, his "merry men" rushed into the castle, and the Moorish king, with Aldonza and all their children, princes, and counsellors, were put to the sword.--Southey, _Ramiro_ (a ballad from the Portuguese, 1804).

=Ramona=, young Indian woman, who, in defiance of her duenna's fierce opposition, goes out into the wide world with gallant Alessandro. The struggles and disappointments of the wedded pair, and their oppression by Indian agents are told in Helen Hunt Jackson's novel, _Ramona_, (1884).

=Ramorny= (_Sir John_), a voluptuary, master of the horse to Prince Robert of Scotland.--Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

=Ramsay= (_David_), the old watch-maker, near Temple Bar.

_Margaret Ramsay_, David's daughter. She marries Lord Nigel.--Sir W.

Scott, _Fortunes of Nigel_ (time, James I.).

=Ramsbottom= (_Mrs._), a vile speller of the language. Theodore Hook's pseudonym in the _John Bull_ newspaper, 1829.

? Winifred Jenkins, the maid of Miss Tabitha Bramble (in Smollett's _Humphrey Clinker_, 1770), rivals Mrs. Ramsbottom in bad spelling.

=Randal=, the boatman at Lochleven Castle.--Sir W. Scott, _The Abbot_ (time, Elizabeth).

=Randolph= (_Lord_), a Scotch n.o.bleman, whose life was saved by young Norval. For this service, his lordship gave the youth a commission; but Glenalvon, the heir presumptive, hated the new favorite, and persuaded Lord Randolph that Norval was too familiar with his lady. Accordingly, Glenalvon and Lord Randolph waylaid the lad, who being attacked, slew Glenalvon in self-defence, but was himself slain by Lord Randolph. When the lad was killed, Lord Randolph learned that "Norval" was the son of Lady Randolph by Lord Douglas, her former husband. He was greatly vexed, and went to the war then raging between Scotland and Denmark, to drown his sorrow by activity and danger.

_Lady Randolph_, daughter of Sir Malcolm, was privately married to Lord Douglas, and when her first boy was born, she hid him in a basket, because there was a family feud between Malcolm and Douglas. Soon after this, Douglas was slain in battle, and the widow married Lord Randolph.

The babe was found by old Norval, a shepherd, who brought it up as his own son. When 18 years old, the lad saved the life of Lord Randolph, and was given a commission in the army. Lady Randolph, hearing of the incident, discovered that young Norval was her own son, Douglas.

Glenalvon, who hated the new favorite, persuaded Lord Randolph that the young man was too familiar with Lady Randolph, and being waylaid, a fight ensued, in which Norval slew Glenalvon, but was himself slain by Lord Randolph. Lord Randolph being informed that the young man was Lady Randolph's son, went to the wars to "drive away care;" and Lady Randolph, in her distraction, cast herself headlong from a steep precipice.--J. Home, _Douglas_ (1757).

The voice of Mrs. Crawford [1734-1801], when thrown out by the vehemence of strong feeling, seemed to wither up the hearer; it was a flaming arrow, a lighting of pa.s.sion. Such was the effect of her almost shriek to old Norval, "Was he alive?" It was like an electric shock, which drove the blood back to the heart, and produced a shudder of terror through the crowded theatre.--Boaden, _Life of Kemble_.

=Random=, a man of fortune with a scapegrace son. He is pale and puffy, with gout and a tearing cough. Random goes to France to recruit his health, and on his return to England, gets arrested for debt by mistake for his son. He raves and rages, threatens and vows vengeance, but finds his son on the point of marrying a daughter of Sir David Dunder of Dunder Hall, and forgets his evils in contemplation of this most desirable alliance.--G. Colman, _Ways and Means_ (1788).

_Random_ (_Roderick_), a young Scotch scapegrace, in quest of fortune.

At one time he revels in prosperity, at another he is in utter dest.i.tution. Roderick is led into different countries (whose peculiarities are described), and falls into the society of wits, sharpers, courtiers, and harlots. Occasionally lavish, he is essentially mean; with a dash of humor, he is contemptibly revengeful; and, though generous minded when the whim jumps with his wishes, he is thoroughly selfish. His treatment of Strap is revolting to a generous mind. Strap lends him money in his necessity, but the heartless Roderick wastes the loan, treats Strap as a mere servant, fleeces him at dice, and cuffs him when the game is adverse.--T. Smollett, _Roderick Random_ (1748).

=Ranger=, the madcap cousin of Clarinda, and the leading character in Hoadly's _Suspicious Husband_ (1747).