Chapter Reel to Remember of R by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Reel to Remember

Reel Right off the reel. Without intermission. A reel is a device for winding rope. A reel of cotton is a certain quantity wound on a bobbin. (Anglo-Saxon reol.)

Reel A Scotch dance. (Gaelic, righil.)

“We've been travelling best part of twenty-four hours right off the reel.”- Boldrewood: Robbery under Arms, chap. xxxi.

Reeves Tale Thomas Wright says that this tale occurs frequently in the jest and story- books of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Boccaccio has given it in the Decameron, evidently from a fabliau, which has been printed in Barbazan under the title of De Gombert et des Deux Clers. Chaucer took the story from another fabliau, which Wright has given in his Anecdota Literaria, p. 15.

Refresher A fee paid to a barrister daily in addition to his retaining fee, to remind him of the case intrusted to his charge.

Refreshments of public men, etc.
   BRAHAM'S favourite refreshment was bottled porter.
   BYRON almost lived on uncanny foods, such as garlic pottage, raw artichokes and vinegar, broths of bitter herbs, saffron biscuits, eggs and lemons.
   CATALANI'S favourite refreshment was sweetbreads.
   CONTRALTO SINGERS can indulge even in pork and pease-pudding.
   COOK (G. F.) indulged in everything drinkable.
   DISRAELI (Lord Beaconsfield), champagne.
   EMERY, cold brandy and water.
   GLADSTONE, an egg beaten up in sherry.
   HENDERSON, gum arabic and sherry.
   INCLEDON (Mrs.), Madeira.
   JORDAN (Mrs.), Calves'-foot jelly dissolved in warm sherry.
   KEAN (Edmund), beef-tea for breakfast; brandy neat.
   KEMBLE (both John and Charles), rump-steaks and kidneys. John indulged in opium.
   LEWIS, oysters and mulled wine.
   MALIBRAN, a dozen native oysters and a pint of half-and-half.
   SIDDONS (Mrs.), mutton-chops, either neck or chump, and porter.
   SMITH (William), coffee.
   SOPRANOS eschew much butcher's meat, which baritones may indulge in.
   TENORS rarely indulge in beef-steaks and sirloins.
   WOOD (Mrs.), draught porter.

Regale (2 syl.). To entertain like a king. (Latin, regalis, like a king, kingly.)

Regan and Goneril Two of the daughters of King Lear, and types of unfilial daughters. (Shakespeare: King Lear.)

Regatta (Italian). Originally applied to the contests of the gondoliers at Venice.

Regent (The). (See Ships .)

Regent's Park (London). This park was originally attached to a palace of Queen Elizabeth, but at the beginning of the seventeenth century much of the land was let on long leases, which fell in early in the nineteenth century. The present park was formed under the direction of Mr. Nash, and received its name in compliment to George IV., then Prince Regent.

Regime de la Calotte Administration of government by ecclesiastics. The calotte is the small skull-cap worn over the tonsure.

Regiment de la Calotte A society of witty and satirical men in the reign of Louis XIV. When any public character made himself ridiculous, a calotte was sent to him to “cover the bald or brainless part of his noddle.” (See above.)

Regina (St.), the virgin martyr, is depicted with lighted torches held to her sides, as she stands fast bound to the cross on which she suffered martyrdom.

Regiomontanus The Latin equivalent of Königsberger. The name adopted by Johann Müller, the mathematician. (1436-1476.)

Regium Donum (Latin). An annual grant of public money to the Presbyterian, Independent, and Baptist ministers of Ireland. It began in 1672, and was commuted in 1869.