Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 110

Remond, young Remond, that full well could sing, And tune his pipe at Pan's birth carolling; Who, for his nimble leaping, sweetest layes, A laurell garland wore on holidayes; In framing of whose hand Dame Nature swore, There never was his like, nor should be more.

_Pastoral_, i.

=Rem'ores=, birds which r.e.t.a.r.d the execution of a project.

"Remores" aves in auspicio dic.u.n.tur quae acturum aliquid remorari compellunt.--Festus, _De VerborumSignificatione_.[TN-121]

=Remus.= (See ROMULUS AND REMUS.)

_Remus_ (_Uncle_). Hero of many of Joel Chandler Harris's tales of negro-life. His fables of "Brer Rabbit," "Brer Bear," and the like are curious relics of African folk-lore (1886).

=Re'naud=, one of the paladins of Charlemagne, always described with the properties of a borderer, valiant, alert, ingenious, rapacious, and unscrupulous. Better known in the Italian form _Rinaldo_ (_q.v._).

=Renault=, a Frenchman, and one of the chief conspirators in which Pierre was concerned. When Jaffier joined the conspiracy, he gave his wife, Belvide'ra, as surety of his fidelity, and a dagger to be used against her if he proved unfaithful. Renault attempted the honor of the lady, and Jaffier took her back in order to protect her from such insults. The old villain died on the wheel, and no one pitied him.--T. Otway, _Venice Preserved_ (1682).

=Rene=, the old king of Provence, father of Queen Margaret of Anjou (wife of Henry VI. of England). A minstrel-monarch, friend to the chase and tilt, poetry, and music. Thiebault says he gave in largesses to knights-errant and minstrels more than he received in revenue (ch.

xxix.).--Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).

_Rene_ (2 _syl._), the hero and t.i.tle of a romance by Chateaubriand (1801). It was designed for an episode to his _Genie du Christianisme_ (1802). Rene is a man of social inaction, conscious of possessing a superior genius, but his pride produces in him a morbid bitterness of spirit.

_Rene_ [LEBLANC], notary public of Grand Pre, in Arcadia (_Nova Scotia_). Bent with age, but with long yellow hair flowing over his shoulders. He was the father of twenty children, and had a hundred grandchildren. When Acadia was ceded by the French to England, George II. confiscated the goods of the simple colonists, and drove them into exile. Rene went to Pennsylvania, where he died, and was buried.--Longfellow, _Evangeline_ (1849).

=Renton= (_Dr._). A Boston physician, whose best friend, dying, leaves a letter charging Renton, "_In the name of the Saviour, be true and tender to mankind_." The doctor believes himself to be haunted by the ghost of this man, intent upon inforcing the admonition, and the needy and the afflicted profit by the hallucination.--William D. O'Connor, _The Ghost_.

=Rentowel= (_Mr. Jabesh_), a covenanting preacher.--Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, George II.).

With vehemence of some pulpit-drumming Gowkthrapple, or "precious"

Mr. Jabesh Rentowel.--Carlyle.

=Renzo and Lucia=, the hero and heroine of an Italian novel by Alessandro Manzoni, ent.i.titled[TN-122] _The Betrothed Lover_ ("I Promessi Sposi").

This novel contains an account of the Bread Riot and plague of Milan.

Cardinal Borro'meo is also introduced. There is an English translation (1827).

=Republican Queen=, (_The_), Sophie Charlotte, wife of Frederick I. of Prussia.

=Resequenz=, wily major-domo to the duke of Romagna, audacious, unscrupulous and treacherous.--William Waldorf Astor, _Valentino_ (1886).

=Resolute= (_The_), John Florio, philologist (1545?-1625). Translated Montaigne's Essays and wrote a French and English Dictionary called a _World of Words_. One of the few autographs of Shakespeare is in a copy of Florio's Montaigne in the British Museum.

? Florio is said to have been the prototype of Shakespeare's "Holofernes,"

in _Love's Labour's Lost_.

=Resolute Doctor= (_The_), John Baconthorpe (*-1346).

? Guillaume Durandus de St. Pourcain was called "the Most Resolute Doctor[TN-123] (1267-1332).

=Restless= (_Sir John_), the suspicious husband of a suspicious wife.

_Lady Restless_, wife of Sir John. As she has a fixed idea that her husband is inconstant, she is always asking the servants, "Where is Sir John?" "Is Sir John returned?" "Which way did Sir John go?" "Has Sir John received any letters?" "Who has called?" etc.; and, whatever the answer, it is to her a confirmation of her surmises.--A. Murphy, _All in the Wrong_ (1761).

=Reuben Dixon=, a village schoolmaster of "ragged lads."

'Mid noise, and dirt, and stench, and play, and prate, He calmly cuts the pen or views the slate.

Crabbe, _Borough_, xxiv. (1810).

=Reuben and Seth=, servants of Nathan ben Israel, the Jew at Ashby, a friend of Isaac and Rebecca.--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

=Reullu'ra= (_i.e. "beautiful star"_), the wife of Aodh, one of the Culdees, or primitive clergy of Scotland, who preached the gospel of G.o.d in Io'na, an island south of Staffa. Here Ulvfa'gre, the Dane, landed, and, having put all who opposed him to death, seized Aodh, bound him in iron, carried him to the church, and demanded where the treasures were concealed. Just then appeared a mysterious figure all in white, who first unbound Aodh, and then taking the Dane by the arm, led him up to the statue of St. Columb, which immediately fell and crushed him to death. Then turning to the Nors.e.m.e.n, the same mysterious figure told them to "go back and take the bones of their chief with them;" adding, whoever lifted hand in the island again, should be a paralytic for life.

"The[TN-124] "saint" then transported the remnant of the islanders to Ireland; but when search was made for Reullura, her body was in the sea, and her soul in heaven.--Campbell, _Reullura_.

=Reutha'mir=, the princ.i.p.al man of Balclutha, a town belonging to the Britons on the river Clyde. His daughter, Moina, married Clessammor (Fingal's uncle on the mother's side). Reuthamir was killed by Combal (Fingal's father) when he attacked Balcutha and burned it to the ground.--Ossian, _Carthon_.

=Reutner= (_Karl_), young German, serving in the Federal army, finds, on the Gettysburg battle-field, a four-leafed clover, and waves it in the air. The gesture attracts a sharp-shooter, and Reutner falls insensible.

He is taken from hospital to prison, and languishes for weeks, in delirium, all the while haunted by a vision of a woman, dark-eyed and beautiful, who brings him handfuls of four-leaved clover. When he reaches home, he recognizes her in Margaret Warren, a guest in his father's house. The betrothal-ring bears a four-leaved clover of green enamel, set in diamonds.--Helen Hunt Jackson, _A Four-Leaved Clover_ (1886).

=Rev'eller= (_Lady_), cousin of Valeria, the blue-stocking. Lady Reveller is very fond of play, but ultimately gives it up, and is united to Lord Worthy.--Mrs. Centlivre, _The Ba.s.set Table_ (1706).

=Revenge= (_The_), a tragedy by Edward Young (1721). (For the plot, see ZANGA.)

_Revenge_ (_The_), the ship under the command of Sir Richard Grenville, anch.o.r.ed at Flores, in the Azores, when a fleet of fifty-three Spanish ships hove in sight. Lord Thomas Howard, with six men-of-war, sailed off; but Sir Richard stood his ground. He had only a hundred men, but with this crew and his one ship, he encountered the Spanish fleet. The fight was very obstinate. Some of the Spanish ships were sunk, and many shattered; but Sir Richard at length was wounded, and the surgeon shot while dressing the wound. "Sink the ship, master gunner!" cried Sir Richard; "sink the ship, and let her not fall into the hands of Spain!"

But the crew were obliged to yield, and Sir Richard died. The Spaniards were amazed at Grenville's pluck, and gave him all honors, as they cast his body into the sea. _The Revenge_ was then manned by Spaniards, but never reached the Spanish coast, for it was wrecked in a tempest, and went down with all hands aboard.--Tennyson, _The Revenge_, a ballad of the fleet (1878).

? This sea-fight is the subject of one of Froude's essays.

Canon Kingsley has introduced it in _Westward Ho!_ where he gives a description of Sir Richard Grenville.

Lord Bacon says the fight "was memorable even beyond credit, and to the height of heroic fable."