Chapter Richland to Rinaldo of Montalban of R by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Richland to Rinaldo of Montalban

Richland (Miss), intended for Leontine Croaker, but she gives her hand in marriage to Mr. Honeywood, “the good-natured man,” who promises to abandon his quixotic benevolence, and to make it his study in future “to reserve his pity for real distress, his friendship for true merit, and his love for her who first taught him what it is to be happy.”—Goldsmith: The Good-natured Man (1768).

Richmond (The duchess of), wife of Charles Stuart, in the court of Charles II. The line became extinct, and the title was given to the Lennox family.—Sir W. Scott: Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Richmond (The earl of), Henry of Lancaster.—Sir W. Scott: Anne of Geierstein (time, Edward IV.).

Richmond Hill (The Lass of), Miss I’Anson, of Hill House, Richmond, Yorkshire. Words by M’Nally; music by James Hook, who married the young lady.

The Lass of Richmond Hill is one of the sweetest ballads in the language.—John Bull.

Rickets (Mabel), the old nurse of Frank Osbaldistone.—Sir W. Scott: Rob Roy (time, George I.).

Riderhood (Rogue), the villain in Dickens’s novel of Our Mutual (1864).

Rides on the Tempest and Directs the Storm. Joseph Addison, speaking of the duke of Marlborough and his famous victories, says that he inspired the fainting squadrons, and stood unmoved in the shock of battle—

So when an angel by divine command,
With rising tempests shakes a guilty land,
Such as of late O’er pale Britannia past,
Calm and serene he drives the furious blast;
And, pleased th’ Almighty’s orders to perform,
Rides on the tempest and directs the storm.
   —The Campaign (1705).

N.B.—The “tempest” referred to by Addison in these lines is that called “The Great Storm,” November 26-7, 1703, the most terrible on record. The loss of property in London alone exceeded two millions sterling. Above 8000 persons were drowned, 12 men-of-war were wrecked, 17,000 trees in Kent alone were uprooted, Eddystone lighthouse was destroyed, 15,000 sheep were blown into the sea, and the bishop of Bath and Wells with his wife were killed in bed in their palace in Somersetshire.

Ridicule (Father of). Francois Rabelais is so styled by sir William Temple (1495–1553).

Ridolphus, one of the band of adventurers that joined the crusaders. He was slain by Argantês (bk. vii.).—Tasso: Jerusalem Delivered (1575).

Rienzi (Nicolo Gabrini) or Cola Di Rienzi, last of the tribunes, who assumed the name of “Tribune of Liberty, Peace, and Justice” (1313–1354).

(Cola di Rienzi is the hero of a novel by lord Bulwer Lytton, entitled Rienzi, or the Last of the Tribunes, 1849.)

Rienzi, an opera by Wagner (1841). It opens with a number of the Orsini breaking into Ri enzi’s house, in order to abduct his sister Irenê; but in this they are foiled by the arrival of the Colonna and his followers. The outrage provokes a general insurrection, and Rienzi is appointed leader. The nobles are worsted, and Rienzi becomes a senator; but the aristocracy hate him, and Paolo Orsini seeks to assassinate him, but without success. By the machinations of the German emperor and the Colonna, Rienzi is excommunicated and deserted by all his adherents. He is ultimately fired on by the populace and killed on the steps of the capitol. The libretto is by J. P. Jackson.

(Mary Russell Mitford produced a tragedy called Rienzi in 1828.)

The English Rienzi, William with the Long Beard, alias Fitzosbert (*-1196).