Chapter Rose to Rosse of R by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Whereupon Warwick plucked a white rose and joined the Yorkists, while Suffolk plucked a red one and joined the Lancastrians.—Shekespeare: 1 Henry VI. act ii.sc.4 (1589).

Rosemond, daughter of Cunimond king of the Gepidæ She was compelled to m arry Alboin king of the Lombards, who put her father to death A.D. 567. Alboin compelled her to dri nk from the skull of her own father, and Rosemond induced Perideus (the secretary of Helmichild her lover) to murder the wretch (573). She then married Helmichild, fled to Ravenna, and sought to poison her second husband, that she might marry Longin the exarch; but Helmichild, apprised of her intention, forced her to drink the mixture she had prepared for him. This lady is the heroine of Alfieris tragedy called Rosemonde (1749–1803). (See Rosamond.)

Rosencrantz, a courtier in the court of Denmark, willing to sell or betray his friend and schoolfellow, prince Hamlet, to please a king.—Shakespeare: Hamlet (1596).

Rosetta, the wicked sister of Brunetta and Blondina, the mothers of Chery and Fairstar. She abetted the queen-mother in her wicked designs against the offspring of her two sisters, but, being found out, was imprisoned for life.—Comtesse D’Aulnoy. Fairy Tales (“Princess Fairstar,” 1682).

Rosetta, a bright, laughing little coquette, who runs away from home because her father wants her to marry young Meadows whom she has never seen. She enters the service of justice Woodcock. Now, it so happens that sir William Meadows wishes his son to marry Rosetta, whom she has never seen, and he also runs away from home, and under the name of Thomas becomes gardener to justice Woodcock. Rosetta and young Meadows here fall in love with each other, and the wishes of the two fathers are accomplished.—Bickerstaff: Love in a Village (1763).

In 1786 Mrs. Billington made her début in “Rosetta, at once dazzling the town with the brilliancy of her vocalization and the flush of her beauty.—Leslie.

Rosetta [Belmont], daughter of sir Robert Belmont. Rosetta is high spirited, witty, confident, and of good spirits. “If you told her a merry story, she would sigh; if a mournful one, she would laugh. For yes she would say ‘no,’ and for no, ‘yes.”’ She is in love with colonel Raymond, but shows her love by teasing him, and colonel Raymond is afraid of the capricious beauty.—E. Moor: The Foundling (1748).

Rosiclear and Donzel del Phebo, the heroine and hero of the Mirror of Knighthood, a mediæval romance.

Rosinante , the steed of don Quixote. The name implies “that the horse had risen from a mean condition to the highest honour a steed could achieve, for it was once a cart-horse, and rose to become the charger of a knighterrant.”—Cervantes: Don Quixote, I. ii. I (1605).

Rosinante was admirably drawn, so lean, lank, meagre, drooping, sharp-backed, and raw-boned, as to excite much curiosity and mirth.—Pt. I. ii. I.

Rosiphele, princess of Armenia; of surpassing beauty, but insensible to love. She is made to submit to the yoke of Cupid by a vision which befell her on a May-day ramble.—Gower: Confessio Amantis (1393).

Rosmonda, a tragedy in Italian, by John R. Rucellai (1525). This is one of the first regular tragedies of modern times. Sophonisba, by Trissino, preceded it, being produced in 1514 and performed in 1515.

Rosny (Sabina), the young wife of lord Sensitive. “Of noble parents, who perished under the axe in France.” The young orphan, “as much to be admired for her virtues as to be pitied for her misfortunes,” fled to Padua, where she met lord Sensitive.—Cumberland: First Love (1796).

Ross, a Scotch nobleman who tells Macduff that his castle has been besieged, and his wife and children savagely murdered by Macbeth.—Shakespeare: Macbeth (1606).