Chapter Remigius to Revulsion of R by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Remigius to Revulsion

Remigius (St.). Rémy, bishop and confessor, is represented as carrying a vessel of holy oil, or in the act of anointing therewith Clovis, who kneels before him. When Clovis presented himself for baptism, Rémy said to him, “Sigambrian, henceforward burn what thou hast worshipped, and worship what thou hast burned.” (438-533.)

Remis atque Velis (Latin). With oars and sails. Tooth and nail; with all despatch.

“We were going remis atque velis into the interests of the Pretender, since a Scot had presented a Jacobite at court.”- Sir W. Scott: Redgauntlet (conclusion).

Renaissance (French). A term applied in the arts to that peculiar style of decoration revived by Raphael, and which resulted from ancient paintings exhumed in the pontificate of Leo X. (16th century). The French Renaissance is a Gothic skeleton with classic details.

Renaissance Period (The). That period in French history which began with the Italian wars in the reign of Charles VIII. and closed with the reign of Henri II. It was the intercourse with Italy, brought about by the Italian war (1494-1557), which “regenerated” the arts and sciences in France; but as everything was Italianised- the language, dress, architecture, poetry, prose, food, manners, etc.- it was a period of great false taste and national deformity.

Renard Une queue de renard. A mockery. At one time a common practical joke was to fasten a fox's tail behind a person against whom a laugh was designed. “Panurge never refrained from attaching a fox's tail or the ears of a leveret, behind a Master of Arts or Doctor of Divinity, whenever he encountered them.”- Rabelais: Gargantua, ii. 16. (See Reynard .)

“Cest une petite vipère
Qui n'epargneroit pas son père,
Et qui par nature ou par art
Scait couper la queue au renard.”
Beaucaire: L'Embarras de la Foire.

Renarder (French). To vomit, especially after too freely indulging intoxicating drinks. Our word fox means also to be tipsy.

“Il luy visite la machoire,
Quand l'autre luy renarde aux yeux.
Le baume qu'ils venoient de boire
Pour se le rendre a qui mieux mieux.”
Sieur de St. Amant: Chambre de Desbauche.

Renata Renée, daughter of Louis XII. and Anne of Bretagne, married Hercules, second son of Lucretia Borgia and Alphonso.

Renaud French form of Rinaldo (q.v.).

Renault of Montauban In the last chapter of the romance of Aymon's Four Sons, Renault, as an act of penance, carries the hods of mortar for the building of St. Peter's, at Cologne.

“Since I cannot improve our architecture, ... I am resolved to do like Renault of Montauban, and I will wait on the masons. ... As it was not in my good luck to be cut out for one of them, I will live and die the admirer of their divine writings.”- Rabelais: Prologue to Book V. of Pantagruel.

Rendezvous The place to which you are to repair, a meeting, a place of muster or call. Also used as a verb. (French, rendez, betake; vous, yourself.)
   His house is a grand rendezvous of the élite of Paris.
   The Imperial Guard was ordered to rendezvous in the Champs de Mars.

Rene (2 syl.). Le bon Roi René. Son of Louis II., Duc d'Anjou, Comte de Provence, father of Margaret of Anjou. The last minstrel monarch, just, joyous, and debonair; a friend to chase and tilt, but still more so to poetry and music. He gave in largesses to knights-errant and mistrels (so says Thiebault) more than he received in revenue. (1408-1480.)

“Studying to promote, as far as possible, the immediate mirth and good humour of his subjects ... he was never mentioned by them excepting as Le bon Roi René, a distinction ... due to him certainly by the qualities of his heart, if not by those of his head.”- Sir Walter Scott: Anne of Geierstein, chap. xxix.

Rene Leblanc Notary-public of Grand Pré (Nova Scotia), the father of twenty children and 159 grandchildren. (Longfellow: Evangeline.)