Chapter Rostocostojambedanesse to Royal Mottoes of R by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Rostocostojambedanesse to Royal Mottoes

Rostocostojambedanesse (M. N.), author of After Beef, Mustard.—Rabelais: Pantagruel, ii. 7 (1533).

Rothmar, chief of Tromlo. He attacked the vassal kingdom of Croma while the under-king Crothar was blind with age, resolving to annex it to his own dominion. Crothar’s son, Fovar-Gormo, attacked the invader, but was defeated and slain. Not many days after, Ossian (one of the sons of Fingal) arrived with succours, renewed the battle, defeated the victorious army, and slew the invader.—Ossian: Croma.

Rothsay (The duke of), prince Robert, eldest son of Robert III. of Scotland.

Margaret duchess of Rothsay.—Sir W. Scott: Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).

Rou (The Roman de), a metrical and mythical history, in Norman-French, of the dukes of Normandy from Rollo downwards, by Robert Wace (author of Le Brut).

(Rou’, that is, Roul, the same as Rollo.)

Roubigne (Julie de), the heroine and title of a novel by Henry Mackenzie (1783).

Rougedragon (Lady Rachel), the former guardian of Lilias Redgauntlet.—Sir W. Scott: Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

Rouncewell (Mrs.), housekeeper at Chesney Wold to lord and lady Dedlock, to whom she is most faithfully attached.—Dickens: Bleak House (1852).

Round Table (The), a table made at Carduel by Merlin for Uther the pendragon. Uther gave it to king Leodegraunce of Camelyard, and when Arthur married Guinever (the daughter of Leodegraunce) he received the table with a hundred knights as a wedding present (pt. i. 45). The table would seat 150 knights (pt. iii. 36), and each seat was appropriated. One of them was called the “Siege Perilous,” because it was fatal for any one to sit therein except the knight who was destined to achieve the holy graal (pt. iii. 32). King Arthur instituted an order of knighthood called “the knights of the Round Table,” the chief of whom were sir Launcelot, sir Tristram, and sir Lamerock or Lamorake. The “Siege Perilous” was reserved for sir Galahad, the son of sir Launcelot by Elaine.—Sir T. Malory: History of prince Arthur (1470).

N. B.—There is a table shown at Winchester as “Arthur’s Round Table,” but it corresponds in no respect with the Round Table described in the History of Prince Arthur. Round tables were not unusual, as Dr. Percy has shown, with other kings in the times of chivalry. Thus, the king of Ireland, father of Christabelle, had his “knights of the Round Table.” (See “Sir Cauline,” in percy’s Reliques.)

In the eighth year of Edward I., Roger de Mortimer established at Kenilworth a Round Table for “the encouragement of military pastimes.” Some seventy years later, Edward III. had his Round Table at Windsor; it was 200 feet in diameter!!

Round Table (The), 52 essays, 12 by Hunt and the rest by Hazlitt (1778–1830). The original design was to obtain essays from several contributors.

Harcourt’s Round Table, a private political conference in the house of sir William Harcourt (January 14, 1887). Its object was, if possible, to reunite the radical party broken up by Mr. Gladstone’s “Home Rule Bill.”

This sense of “Round Table” is American, and is about equal to the French cercle, a club held at the private house of one of the members.

Roundabout Papers (The), a series of essays by Thackeray, contributed to the Cornhill Magazine.