Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 117

Another tradition is that it carries in its bill dew to those shut up in the burning lake, and its breast is red from being scorched by the fire of Gehenna.

He brings cool dew in his little bill, And lets it fall on the souls of sin; You can see the mark on his red breast still, Of fires that scorch as he drops it in.

J. G. Whittier, _The Robin_.

=Robin Redb.r.e.a.s.t.s=, Bow Street officers. So called from their red vests.

=Robin Roughhead=, a poor cottager and farm laborer, the son of Lord Lackwit. On the death of his lordship, Robin Roughhead comes into the t.i.tle and estates. This brings out the best qualities of his heart--liberality, benevolence and honesty. He marries Dolly, to whom he was already engaged, and becomes the good genius of the peasantry on his estate.--Allingham, _Fortune's Frolic_.

=Robin and Makyne= (2 _syl._), an old Scotch pastoral. Robin is a shepherd, for whom Makyne sighs, but he turns a deaf ear to her, and she goes home to weep. In time, Robin sighs for Makyne, but she replies, "He who wills not when he may, when he wills he shall have nay."--Percy, _Reliques, etc._, II.

=Robin of Bagshot=, _alias_ Gordon, _alias_ Bluff Bob, _alias_ Carbuncle, _alias_ Bob Booty, one of Macheath's gang of thieves, and a favorite of Mrs. Peachum's.--Gay, _The Beggar's Opera_ (1727).

=Robins= (_Zerubbabel_), in Cromwell's troop.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).

=Robinson Cru'soe= (2 _syl._), a tale by Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe ran away from home, and went to sea. Being wrecked, he led for many years a solitary existence on an uninhabited island of the tropics, and relieved the weariness of life by numberless contrivances. At length he met a human being, a young Indian, whom he saved from death on a Friday. He called him his "man Friday," and made him his companion and servant.

Defoe founded this story on the adventures of Alexander Selkirk, sailing-master of the _Cinque Ports Galley_, who was left by Captain Stradling on the desolate island of Juan Fernandez for four years and four months (1704-1709), when he was rescued by Captain Woodes Rogers and brought to England.

=Robsart= (_Amy_), countess of Leicester. She was betrothed to Edmund Tressilian. When the earl falls into disgrace at court for marrying Amy, Richard Varney loosens a trap-door at c.u.mnor Place; and Amy, rushing forward to greet her husband, falls into the abyss and is killed.

_Sir Hugh Robsart_, of Lidcote Hall, father of Amy.--Sir W. Scott, _Kenilworth_ (time, Elizabeth).

=Roc=, a white bird of enormous size. Its strength is such that it will lift up an elephant from the ground and carry it to its mountain nest, where it will devour it. In the _Arabian Nights' Entertainments_, it was a roc which carried Sindbad the sailor from the island on which he had been deserted by his companions ("Second Voyage"). And it was a roc which carried Agib from the castle grounds of the ten young men who had lost their right eyes ("The Third Calender's Story"). Sindbad says one claw of the roc is as "big as the trunk of a large tree," and its egg is "fifty paces [_150 feet_] in circ.u.mference."

? The "rukh" of Madagascar, lays an egg equal to 148 hen's eggs.--_Comptes Rendus_, etc., x.x.xii. 101 (1851).

=Rocco=, the jailer sent with Fidelio (_Leonora_) to dig the grave of Fernando Florestan (_q.v._)[TN-131]--Beethoven, _Fidelio_ (1791).

=Roch'dale= (_Sir Simon_), of the manor-house. He is a J.P., but refuses to give justice to Job Thornberry, the old brazier, who demands that his son, Frank Rochdale, should marry Mary [Thornberry], whom he has seduced. At this crisis, Peregrine appears, and tells Sir Simon he is the elder brother, and, as such, is heir to the t.i.tle and estates.

_Frank Rochdale_, son of the baronet, who has promised to marry Mary Thornberry, but Sir Simon wants him to marry Lady Caroline Braymore, who has 4000 a year. Lady Caroline marries the Hon. Tom Shuffleton, and Frank makes the best reparation he can by marrying Mary.--G. Colman, Jr., _John Bull_ (1805).

=Roche's Bird= (_Sir Boyle_), which was "in two places at the same time."

The tale is that Sir Boyle Roche said in the House of Commons, "Mr.

Speaker, it is impossible I could have been in two places at once, unless I were a bird." This is a quotation from Jevon's play, _The Devil of a Wife_ (seventeenth century).

_Wife._ I cannot be in two places at once.

_Husband_ (Rowland). Surely no, unless thou wert a bird.

=Rochecliffe= (_Dr. Anthony_), formerly Joseph Albany, a plotting royalist.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, commonwealth).

=Rochester= (_The earl of_), the favorite of Charles II., introduced in high feather by Sir W. Scott in _Woodstock_, and in _Peveril of the Peak_ in disgrace.

_Rochester_ (_Edward_). Brusque, cynical lover of _Jane Eyre_. Having married in his early youth a woman who disgraces him and then goes crazy, he shuts her up at Thornhill, and goes abroad. He returns to find a governess there in charge of his child-ward; falls in love with her, and would marry her, but for the discovery of his insane wife. _Jane Eyre_ leaves him, and is lost to him until he is almost blind from injuries received in trying to rescue his wife from burning Thornhill.

_Jane_ marries and ministers unto him.--Charlotte Bronte, _Jane Eyre_ (1847).

=Rock= (_Dr. Richard_), a famous quack, who professed to cure every disease. He was short of stature and fat, wore a white three-tailed wig, nicely combed and frizzed upon each cheek, carried a cane, and halted in his gait.

Dr. Rock, F.U.N., never wore a hat.... He and Dr. Franks were at variance.... Rock cautioned the world to beware of bog-trotting quacks, while Franks called his rival "Dumplin' d.i.c.k." Head of Confucius, what profanation!--Goldsmith, _Citizen of the World_ (1759).

Oh! when his nerves had received a shock, Sir Isaac Newton might have gone to Rock.

Crabbe, _Borough_ (1810).

=Rocket.= _He rose like a rocket, and fell like the stick._ Thomas Paine said this of Mr. Burke.

=Roderick=, the thirty-fourth and last of the Gothic kings of Spain, son of Theod'ofred and Rusilla. Having violated Florinda, daughter of Count Julian, he was driven from his throne by the Moors, and a.s.sumed the garb of a monk with the name of "Father Maccabee." He was present at the great battle of Covadonga, in which the Moors were cut to pieces, but what became of him afterwards no one knows. His helm, sword, and cuira.s.s were found, so was his steed. Several generations pa.s.sed away, when, in a hermitage near Viseu, a tomb was discovered, "which bore in ancient characters King Roderick's name;" but imagination must fill up the gap.

He is spoken of as most popular.

Time has been When not a tongue within the Pyrenees Dared whisper in dispraise of Roderick's name, Lest, if the conscious air had caught the sound, The vengeance of the honest mult.i.tude Should fall upon the traitorous head, and brand For life-long infamy the lying lips.

Southey, _Roderick, etc._, xv. (1814).

_Roderick's Dog_ was called Theron.

_Roderick's Horse_ was Orel'io.

_Roderick_ (_The Vision of Don_). Roderick, the last of the Gothic kings of Spain, descended into an ancient vault near Toledo. This vault was similar to that in Greece, called the cave of Triphonios, where was an oracle. In the vault Roderick saw a vision of Spanish history from his own reign to the beginning of the nineteenth century. _Period I._ The invasion of the Moors, with his own defeat and death. _Period II._ The Augustine age of Spain, and their conquests in the two Indies. _Period III._ The oppression of Spain by Bonaparte, and its succor by British aid.--Sir W. Scott, _The Vision of Don Roderick_ (1811).

=Roderick Dhu=, an outlaw and chief of a banditti, which resolved to win back the spoil of the "Saxon spoiler." Fitz-James, a Saxon, met him and knew him not. He asked the Saxon why he was roaming unguarded over the mountains, and Fitz-James replied that he had sworn to combat with Roderick, the rebel, till death laid one of them prostrate. "Have, then, thy wish!" exclaimed the stranger, "for I am Roderick Dhu." As he spoke, the whole place bristled with armed men. Fitz-James stood with his back against a rock, and cried, "Come one, come all, this rock shall fly from its firm base as soon as I." Roderick, charmed with his daring, waved his hand, and all the band disappeared as mysteriously as they had appeared. Roderick then bade the Saxon fight, "For," said he, "that party will prove victorious which first slays an enemy." "Then," replied Fitz-James, "thy cause is hopeless, for Red Murdock is slain already."

They fought, however, and Roderick was slain (canto v.).--Sir W. Scott, _The Lady of the Lake_ (1810).

=Roderick Random=, a child of impulse, and a selfish libertine. His treatment of Strap is infamous and most heartless.--Smollett, _Roderick Random_ (1748).

=Rod'erigo= or =Roderi'go= (3 _syl._), a Venetian gentleman, in love with Desdemona. When Desdemona eloped with Oth.e.l.lo, Roderigo hated the "n.o.ble Moor," and Ia'go took advantage of this temper for his own base ends.--Shakespeare, _Oth.e.l.lo_ (1611).

Roderigo's suspicious credulity and impatient submission to the cheats which he sees practised on him, and which, by persuasion, he suffers to be repeated, exhibit a strong picture of a weak mind betrayed by unlawful desires to a false friend.--Dr. Johnson.