Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 114

=Rig'olette= (3 _syl._), a grisette and courtezan.--Eugene Sue, _Mysteries of Paris_ (1842-3).

_Rigoletto_, an opera, describing the agony of a father obliged to witness the violation of his own daughter.--Verdi, _Rigoletto_ (1852).

? The libretto of this opera is borrowed from Victor Hugo's drama _Le Roi s'Amuse_.

=Rimegap= (_Joe_), one of the miners of Sir Geoffrey Perveril[TN-127] of the Peak.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

=Rimini= (_Francesca di_), a woman of extraordinary beauty, daughter of the lord of Ravenna. She was married to Lanciotto Malatesta, signore of Rimini, a man of great bravery, but deformed. His brother, Paolo, was extremely handsome, and with him Francesca fell in love. Lanciotto, detecting them in criminal intercourse, killed them both (1389).

This tale forms one of the episodes of Dante's _Inferno_; is the subject of a tragedy called _Francesca di Rimini_, by Silvio Pellico (1819); and Leigh Hunt, about the same time, published his _Story of Rimini_, in verse.

=Rimmon=, seventh in order of the hierarchy of h.e.l.l: (1) Satan, (2) Beelzebub, (3) Moloch, (4) Chemos, (5) Thammuz, (6) Dagon, (7) Rimmon, whose chief temple was at Damascus (2 _Kings_ v. 18).

Him [_Dagon_] followed Rimmon, whose delightful seat Was fair Damascus on the fertile banks Of A'bana and Pharpar, lucid streams.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, i. 467, etc. (1665).

=Rinaldo=, son of the fourth Marquis d'Este, cousin of Orlando, and nephew of Charlemagne. He was the rival of Orlando in his love for Angelica, but Angelica detested him. Rinaldo brought an auxiliary force of English and Scotch to Charlemagne, which "Silence" conducted safely into Paris.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

_Rinaldo_, the Achilles of the Christian army in the siege of Jerusalem.

He was the son of Bertoldo and Sophia, but was brought up by Matilda.

Rinaldo joined the crusaders at the age of 15. Being summoned to a public trial for the death of Gernando, he went into voluntary exile.--Ta.s.so, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).

? Pulci introduces the same character in his burlesque poem ent.i.tled _Morgante Maggiore_, which holds up to ridicule the romances of chivalry.

_Rinaldo_, steward to the countess of Rousillon--Shakespeare, _All's Well that Ends Well_ (1598).

=Rinaldo of Montalban=, a knight who had the "honor" of being a public plunderer. His great exploit was stealing the golden idol of Mahomet.

In this same _Mirror of Knighthood_ we meet with Rinaldo de Montalban and his companions, with the twelve peers of France, and Turpin, the historian.... Rinaldo had a broad face, and a pair of large rolling eyes; his complexion was ruddy, and his disposition choleric. He was, besides, naturally profligate, and a great encourager of vagrants.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. i. 1, 6 (1605).

=Ring= (_Dame Liones's_), a ring given by Dame Liones to Sir Gareth, during a tournament.

"That ring," said Dame Liones, "increaseth my beauty much more than it is of itself; and this is the virtue of my ring: that which is green it will turn to red, and that which is red it will turn green; that which is blue it will turn white, and that which is white it will turn blue; and so with all other colors. Also, whoever beareth my ring can never lose blood."--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 146 (1470).

_Ring_ (_Luned's_). This ring rendered the wearer invisible. Luned or Lynet gave it to Owain, one of King Arthur's knights. Consequently, when men were sent to kill him he was nowhere to be found, for he was invisible.

Take this ring, and put it on thy finger, with the stone inside thy hand; and close thy hand upon the stone; and as long as thou concealest it, it will conceal thee.--_The Mabinogion_ ("Lady of the Fountain," twelfth century).

_Ring_ (_The Steel_), made by Siedel-Beckir. This ring enabled the wearer to read the secrets of another's heart.--Comte de Caylus, _Oriental Tales_ ("The Four Talismans," 1743).

_Ring_ (_The Talking_), a ring given by Tartaro, the Basque Cyclops, to a girl whom he wished to marry. Immediately she put it on, it kept incessantly saying, "You there, and I here;" so, to get rid of the nuisance, she cut off her finger and threw both ring and finger into a pond.--Rev. W. Webster, _Basque Legends_, 4 (1876).

The same story appears in Campbell's _Popular Tales of the West Highlands_, i. 111, and in Grimm's tale of _The Robber and His Sons_.

When the robber put on the ring, it incessantly cried out, "Here I am;"

so he bit off his finger, and threw it from him.

_Ring_ (_The Virgin's Wedding Ring_), kept in the Duomo of Perugia, under fourteen locks.

=Ring and the Book= (_The_), an idyllic epic, by Robert Browning, founded on a _cause celebre_ of Italian history in 1698. The case was this: Guido Franceschini, a Florentine count of shattered fortune, married Pompilia, thinking her to be an heiress. When the young bride discovered that she had been married for her money only, she told her husband she was no heiress at all, but was only the supposit.i.tious child of Pietro (2 _syl._), supplied by one Violante, for the sake of keeping in his hands certain entailed property. The count now treated Pompilia so brutally that she ran away from home, under the protection of Caponsacchi, a young priest, and being arrested at Rome, a legal separation took place. Pompilia sued for a divorce, but, pending the suit, gave birth to a son. The count now murdered Pietro, Violante, and Pompilia, but being taken red-handed, was brought to trial, found guilty, and executed.

=Ring the Bells Backwards= (_To_), to ring a m.u.f.fled peal, to lament.

Thus, John Cleveland, wishing to show his abhorrence of the Scotch, says:

How! Providence! and yet a Scottish crew!...

Ring the bells backwards. I am all on fire; Not all the buckets in a country quire Shall quench my rage.

_The Rebel Scot_ (1613-1659).

=Ringdove= (_The Swarthy_). The responses of the oracle of Dodona, in Epiros, were made by old women called "pigeons," who derived their answers from the cooing of certain doves, the bubbling of a spring, a rustling of the sacred oak [or _beech_], and the tinkling of a gong or bell hung in the tree. The women were called pigeons by a play on the word _peliae_, which means "old women" as well as "pigeons;" and as they came from Libya they were _swarthy_.

According to the fable, Zeus gave his daughter, Thebe, two black doves endowed with the gift of human speech; one of them flew into Libya, and the other into Dodona. The former gave the responses in the temple of Ammon, and the latter in the oracle of Dodona.

... beach or lime, Or that Thessalian growth, In which the swarthy ringdove sat, And mystic sentence spoke.

Tennyson.

=Ringhorse= (_Sir Robert_), a magistrate at Old St. Ronan's.--Sir W.

Scott, _St. Ronan's Well_ (time, George III.).

=Ringwood=, a young Templar.--Sir W. Scott, _Fortunes of Nigel_ (time, James I.).

=Rintherout= (_Jenny_), a servant at Monkbarns to Mr. Jonathan Oldbuck, the antiquary.--Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time, George III.).

=Riou= (_Captain_), called by Nelson "The Gallant and the Good;" fell in the battle of the Baltic.

Brave hearts! to Britain's pride Once so faithful and so true, On the deck of fame that died, With the gallant, good Riou.

Campbell, _Battle of the Baltic_ (1777-1844).

=Rip van Winkle= slept twenty years in the Catskill Mountains, of North America. (See WINKLE.)

Epimenides, the Gnostic, slept for fifty-seven years.

Gyneth slept 500 years, by the enchantment of Merlin.