Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 118

=Rodilardus=, a huge cat, which attacked Panurge, and which he mistook for "a young, soft-chinned devil." The word means "gnaw-lard" (Latin, _rodere lardum_).--Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, iv. 67 (1545).

? The[TN-132] marquis de Carabas." (See PUSS IN BOOTS.)

=Rodrigo=, king of Spain, conquered by the Moors. He saved his life by flight, and wandered to Guadalete, where he begged food of a shepherd, and gave him in recompense his royal chain and ring. A hermit bade him, in penance, retire to a certain tomb full of snakes and toads, where, after three days, the hermit found him unhurt; so, going to his cell, he pa.s.sed the night in prayer. Next morning, Rodrigo cried aloud to the hermit, "They eat me now; I feel the adder's bite." So his sin was atoned for, and he died.

? This Rodrigo is Roderick, the last of the Goths.

_Rodrigo_, rival of Pe'dro, "the pilgrim," and captain of a band of outlaws.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Pilgrim_ (1621).

=Rodri'go de Mondragon= (_Don_), a bully and tyrant, the self-const.i.tuted arbiter of all disputes in a tennis-court of Valladolid.

Don Rodrigo de Mondragon was about 30 years of age, of an ordinary make, but lean and muscular; he had two little twinkling eyes that rolled in his head, and threatened everybody he looked at; a very flat nose, placed between red whiskers that curled up to his very temples; and a manner of speaking so rough and pa.s.sionate that his words struck terror into everybody.--Lesage, _Gil Bias_, ii. 5 (1715).

=Rodhaver=, the sweetheart of Zal, a Persian. Zal being about to scale her bower, she let down her long tresses to a.s.sist him, but Zal managed to fix his crook into a projecting beam, and thus made his way to the lady of his devotion.--Champion, _Ferdosi_.

=Rodman= (_Keeper, The_), an ex-colonel of the Federal army, who has become the keeper of a national cemetery at the south. "At sunrise, the keeper ran up the stars and stripes, and ... he had taken money from his own store to buy a second flag for stormy weather, so that, rain or not, the colors should float over the dead.... It was simply a sense of the fitness of things." He deviates so far from his rule as to fall in love with a Southern girl, whose nearest relative he has nursed through his last illness. She despises him as a Yankee too much to suspect this; she will not even write her name as a visitor to the National Cemetery. She goes to Tennessee to teach school, and Rodman offers to buy the uprooted vines discarded by the new owner of her cottage. "Wuth about twenty-five cents, I guess," said the Maine man, handing them over.--Constance Fenimore Woolson (1880).

=Rodmond=, chief mate of the _Brittania_, son of a Northumbrian, engaged in the coal trade; a hardy, weather-beaten seaman, uneducated, "boisterous of manners," and regardless of truth, but tender-hearted. He was drowned when the ship struck on Cape Colonna, the most southern point of Attica.

Unskilled to argue, in dispute yet loud, Bold without caution, without honors proud, In art unschooled, each veteran rule he prized, And all improvement haughtily despised.

Falconer, _The Shipwreck_, i. (1756).

=Ro'dogune=, =Rhodogune=, or =Rho'dogyne= (3 _syl._), daughter of Phraa'tes, king of Parthia. She married Deme'trius Nica'nor (the husband of Cleopat'ra, queen of Syria) while in captivity.

? P. Corneille has a tragedy on the subject ent.i.tled _Rodogune_ (1646).

=Rodolfo= (_Il conte_). It is in the bedchamber of this count that Ami'na is discovered the night before her espousal to Elvi'no. Ugly suspicion is excited, but the count a.s.sures the young farmer that Amina walks in her sleep. While they are talking Amina is seen to get out of a window and walk along a narrow edge of the mill-roof while the huge wheel is rapidly revolving. She crosses a crazy bridge, and walks into the very midst of the spectators. In a few minutes she awakens and flies to the arms of her lover.--Bellini, _La Sonnambula_ (opera, 1831).

=Rodomont=, king of Sarza or Algiers. He was Ulien's son, and called the "Mars of Africa." His lady-love was Dor'alis, princess of Grana'da, but she eloped with Mandricardo, king of Tartary. At Rogero's wedding Rodomont accused him of being a renegade and traitor, whereupon they fought, and Rodomont was slain.--_Orlando Innamorato_ (1495); and _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

Who so meek? I'm sure I quake at the very thought of him; why, he's as fierce as Rodomont!--Dryden, _Spanish Fryar_, v. 2 (1680).

? Rodomontade (4 _syl._), from Rodomont, a bragging although a brave knight.

=Rogel of Greece= (_The Exploits and Adventures of_), part of the series called _Le Roman des Romans_, pertaining to "Am'adis of Gaul." This part was added by Feliciano de Silva.

=Roger=, the cook who "cowde roste, sethe, broille, and frie, make mortreux, and wel bake a pye."--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ (1388).

_Roger_ (_Sir_), curate to "The Scornful Lady" (no name given).--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Scornful Lady_ (1616).

=Roger Armstrong=, clerical lover of Faith Gartney, and her preferred suitor.--A. D. T. Whitney, _Faith Gartney's Girlhood_.

=Roger Bontemps=, the personation of contentment with his station in life, and of the buoyancy of good hope. "There's a good time coming, John."

Vous pauvres, pleins d'envie; Vous rich, desireux; Vous dont le char devie Apres un cours heureux; Vous qui perdrez peut-etre Des t.i.tres eclatans; Eh! gai! prenez pour maitre Le gros Roger Bontemps.

Beranger (1780-1856).

Ye poor, with envy goaded; Ye rich, for more who long; Ye who by fortune loaded Find all things going wrong; Ye who by some disaster See all your cables break; From henceforth, for your master Sleek Roger Bontemps take.

=Roger Chillingworth=, deformed husband of Hester Prynne. He returns to Boston from a long sojourn with the Indians, and sees his wife in the pillory with a baby--not his--in her arms. From that instant he sets himself to work to discover the name of her seducer, and, suspecting Arthur Dimmesdale, attaches himself to the oft-ailing clergyman as his medical attendant. He it is who first suspects the existence of the cancer that is devouring the young clergyman's life, and when the horrible thing is revealed, kneels by the dying man with the bitter whisper, "Thou hast escaped me!"--Nathaniel Hawthorne, _The Scarlet Letter_ (1850).

=Roger de Coverley= (_Sir_), an hypothetical baronet of Coverley or Cowley, near Oxford.--Addison, _The Spectator_ (1711, 1712, 1714).

? The prototype of this famous character was Sir John Pakington, seventh baronet of the line.

=Roge'ro=, brother of Marphi'sa; brought up by Atlantes, a magician. He married Brad'amant, the niece of Charlemagne. Rogero was converted to Christianity, and was baptized. His marriage with Bradamant and his election to the crown of Bulgaria concludes the poem.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

Who more brave than Rodomont? who more courteous than Rogero?--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. i. (1605).

_Rogero_, son of Roberto Guiscardo, the Norman. Slain by Tisaphernes.--Ta.s.so, _Jerusalem Delivered_, xx. (1575).

_Rogero_ (3 _syl._), a gentleman of Sicilia.--Shakespeare, _The Winter's Tale_ (1604).

? This is one of those characters which appear in the _dramatis personae_, but are never introduced in the play. Rogero not only does not utter a word--he does not even enter the stage all through the drama. In the Globe edition his name is omitted. (See VIOLENTA.)

=Rogers= (_Mr._), illiterate, tender-hearted, great-souled old father of _Louisiana_. When she begs his pardon for having been ashamed of, and having disowned him, he tells her, "It's _you_ as should be a-forgivin'

_me_ ... I hadn't done ye no sort o' justice in the world, an' never could."--Frances Hodgson Burnett, _Louisiana_ (1880).

=Roget=, the pastoral name of George Wither in the four "eglogues" called _The Shepheards Hunting_ (1615). The first and last "eglogues" are dialogues between Roget and w.i.l.l.y, his young friend; in the second pastoral Cuddy is introduced, and in the third Alexis makes a fourth character. The subject of the first three is the reason of Roget's imprisonment, which, he says, is a hunt that gave great offence. This hunt is in reality a satire called _Abuses Stript and Whipt_. The fourth pastoral has for its subject Roget's love of poetry.

? "w.i.l.l.y" is his friend, William Browne, of the Inner Temple (two years his junior), author of _Britannia's Pastorals_.

=Roi Panade= ("_king of slops_"), Louis XVIII. (1755, 1814-1824).

=Roister Doister= (_Ralph_), a vain, thoughtless, bl.u.s.tering fellow, in pursuit of Custance, a rich widow, but baffled in his endeavor.--Nicholas Udall, _Ralph Roister Doister_ (the first English comedy, 1534).