Chapter Ring the Bells Backwards to Road to Ruin of R by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Riquet with the Tuft, the beauideal of ugliness, but with the power of bestowing wit and intelligence on the person he loved best. Riquet fell in love with a most beautiful woman, who was as stupid as Riquet was ugly, but she possessed the power of giving beauty to the person she loved best. The two married, whereupon Riquet gave his bride wit, and she bestowed on him beauty. This, of course, is an allegory. Love sees through a couleur de rose.—Perrault: Contes des Fées (“Riquet à la Houppe,” 1697).

(This tale is borrowed from the Nights of Straparola. It is imitated by Mme. Villeneuve in her Beauty and the Beast.)

Risingham (Bertram), the vassal of Philip of Mortham. Oswald Wycliffe induced him to shoot his lord at Marston Moor; and for this deed the vassal demanded all the gold and movables of his late master. Oswald, being a villain, tried to outwit Bertram, and even to murder him; but it turned out that Philip of Mortham was not killed, neither was Oswald Wycliffe his heir, for Redmond O’Neale (Rokeby’s page) was found to be the son and heir of Philip of Mortham. —Sir W. Scott: Rokeby (1812).

Ritho or Rython, a gian t who had made himself furs of the beards of kings killed by him. He sent to king Arthur to meet him on mo unt Aravius, or else to send his beard to him without delay. Arthur met him, slew him, and took “fur” as a spoil. Drayton says it was this Rython who carried off Helena the niece of duke Hoel; but Geoffrey of Monmouth says that king Arthur, having killed the Spanish giant, told his army “he had found none so great in strength since he killed the giant Ritho;” by which it seems that the Spanish giant and Ritho are different persons, although it must be confessed the scope of the chronicle seems to favour their identity.—Geoffrey: British History, x. 3 (1142).

As how great Rython’s self he [Arthur] slew—
Who ravished Howell’s niece, young Helena the fair.
   —Drayton: Polyolbion, iv. (1612)

Ritsonism, malignant and insolent criticism. So called from Joseph Ritson (1752–1803).
Ritson’s assertion must be regarded as only an example of that peculiar species of malignant and brutal insolence in criticism, which ought from him to be denominated “Ritsonism.”—Southey.

Rival Queens (The), Statira and Roxana. Statira was the daughter of Darius, and wife of Alexander the Great. Roxana was the daughter of Oxyartês the Bactrian; her, also, Alexander married. Roxana stabbed Statira and killed her.—Lee: Alexander the Great or The Rival Queens (1678). (See ROXANA AND STATIRA, p. 937.)

Rivals (The), a comedy by Sheridan (1775). The rivals are Bob Acres and ensign Beverley (alias captain Absolute), and Lydia Languish is the lady they contend for. Bob Acres tells captain Absolute that ensign Beverly is a booby; and if he could find him out, he’d teach him his place. He sends a challenge to the unknown by sir Lucius O’Trigger, but objects to forty yards, and thinks thirty-eight would suffice. When he finds that ensign Beverley is captain Absolute, he declines to quarrel with his friend; and when his second calls him a coward, he fires up and exclaims, “Coward! Mind, gentlemen, he calls me ‘a coward,’ coward by my valour!” and when dared by sir Lucius, he replies, “I don’t mind the word ‘coward;’ ‘coward’ may be said in a joke; but if he called me ‘poltroon,’ ods daggers and balls—” “Well, sir, what then?” “Why,” rejoined Bob Acres, “I should certainly think him very ill-bred.” Of course, he resigns all claim to the lady’s hand.

One day, as I was walking with my customary swagger, Says a fellow to me, “Pistol, you’re a coward, though a bragger.”
Now, this was an indignity no gentleman could take, sir,
So I told him flat and plump, “You lie—under a mistake, sir.”

River of Juvenescence. Prester John, in his letter to Manuel Comnenus emperor of Constantinople, says there is a spring at the foot of mount Olympus which changes its flavour hour by hour, both night and day. Whoever tastes thrice of its waters will never know fatigue or the infirmities of age.

River of Paradise, St. Bernard abbot of Clairvaux (1091–1153).