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

Rigaud (Mons.), a Belgian, 35 years of age, confined in a villainous prison at Marseilles for murdering his wife. He had a hooked nose, handsome after its kind but too high between the eyes, and his eyes, though sharp, were too near to one another. He was, however, a larger, tall man, with thin lips, and a goodly quantity of dry hair shot with red. When he spoke, his moustache went up under his nose, and his nose came down over his moustache. After his liberation from prison, he first took the name of Lagnier, and then of Blandois, his name being Rigaud Lagnier Blandois.—Dickens: Little Dorrit(1857).

Rigdum-Funnidos, a courtier in the palace of king Chrononhotonthologos. After the death of the king, the widowed queen is advised to marry again, and Rigdum-Funnidos is proposed to her as “a very proper man.” At this Aldiborontephoscophornio takes umbrage, and the queen says, “Well, gentlemen, to make matters easy, I’ll have you both.”—H. Carey: Chrononhotonthologos (1734).

N.B.—John Ballantyne, the publisher, was so called by sir W. Scott. He was “a quick, active, intrepid little fellow, full of fun and merriment…all over quaintness and humorous mimicry.”

Right-Hitting Brand, one of the companions of Robin Hood, mentioned by Mundy.

Rightful Heir (The), the play called the Sea-Captain re-christened, by lord Lytton (1868).

Rights of Man (The), by Thomas Paine (1791-2). It was written in answer to Burke’s attack on the French Revolution.

Rigmarole, a confused series of statements; an incoherent story. The word was suggested by the Rageman or Rigman Rolls, which were statements of the value of the benefices of Scotland returned by the Scotch clergy. Rageman or Rigman was a legate of Scotland, employed to collect an account of Scotch benefices, that they might be taxed at Rome according to their value.

Subsequently the term was applied to four great rolls of parchment recording the acts of fealty and homage done by the Scotch nobility to Edward I. in 1296. These four rolls consisted of thirty-four pieces sewed together. The originals have perished, but a record of them is preserved in the Rolls House, Chancery Lane.

Rigolette, a grisette and courtezan.—Sue: Mysteries of Paris (1842-3).

Rigoletto, an opera, describing the agony of a father obliged to witness the prostitution 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 Peveril of the Peak.—Sir W. Scott: Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Rimini (Francesca di), a woman of extraordinary beauty, daughter of a signore 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 intercouse, killed them both (1839).

(This tale forms one of the episodes of Dantê’s Inferno. It 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 hell: (1) Satan, (2) Beëlzebub, (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 Al’bana and Pharphar, lucid streams.
   —Milton: Paradise Lost, i. 467, etc. (1665).