Chapter Rudiger to Russet of R by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Cato used to say, “We rule all other men; our wives rule us; and our children rule our wives.”—Plutarch: Morals, p. 428 (1603).

Dr. Busby said, “Tailors [milliners] rule the world; for milliners overrule the wisest women; and women overrule the wisest men; and the wisest men overrule the world; in the same way as the mayor’s infant son is the chief magistrate of the city.”

The mayor’s youngest son Jack overrules his mother; and Jack’s mother overrules the mayor; and the mayor overrules the town.—Barnabe Rich: Honestie of this Age, p. 18 (1616).

Dr. Keats used to say that he governed all England: “I rule the Eton boys; the boys rule their mothers; their mothers rule their husbands; and their husbands rule Great Britain.”

Rumolt, the chief cook of prince Günther of Burgundy.—Nibelungen Lied, 800 (1210).

Rumpelstilzchen [Rumple-stiltzskin], an irritable, deformed dwarf. He aided a miller’s daughter, who had been enjoined by the king to spin straw into gold; and the condition he made with her for this service was that she should give him for wife her first daughter. The miller’s daughter married the king, and when her first daughter was born the mother grieved so bitterly that the dwarf consented to absolve her of her promise, if within three days, she could find out his name. The first day passed, but the secret was not discovered; the second passed, with no better success; but on the third day some of the queen’s servants heard a strange voice singing—

Little dreams my dainty dame
Rumpelstilzchen is my name.

The queen, being told thereof, saved her child, and the dwarf killed himself from rage.—German Popular Stories.

Run-About Raid (The), Murray’s insurrection against lord Darnley. So called from the hasty and incessant manner in which the conspirators posted from one part of the kingdom to another.

Runa, the dog of Argon and Ruro, sons of Annir king of Inis-Thona an island of Scandinavia.—Ossian: The War of Inis-Thona.

Runners.

(1) Iphiclês, son of Phylakos and Klymenê. Hesiod says he could run over ears of corn without bending the stems; and Demaratos says that he could run on the surface of the sea.—Argonauts, i. 60.

(2) Camilla queen of the Volsci was so swift of foot that she could run over standing corn without bending the ears, and over the sea without wetting her feet.—Virgil: Æneid, vii. 803; xi. 433.

Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain,
Flies o er th’ unbending corn, and skims along the main.
   —Pope.

(3) Ladas, the swift runner of king Alexander. He ran so fast that he never left a foot-print on the ground. Lord Rosebery gave this name to one of his horses.

(4) Phidippidês, a professional courier, ran from Athens to Sparta (150 miles) in two days.

(5) Theagenês, a native of Thasos, was noted for his swiftness of foot.

(The Greek hemerodromos would run from twenty to thirty-six leagues in a day.)

The last running footman of England died (at the age of 94) in 1896. His name was Sam Cliff. His general run was sixty miles a day.