Chapter Rewe to Richard of Cirencester of R by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

money. (See Nose .) May not this explain the phrase “paying through the nose” (par le nez), that is, paying ready rhino. Rhino = money is very old.

“Some, as I know,
Have parted with their ready rhino.”
The Seaman's Adieu (1670).

Rhodalind A princess famous for her “knightly” deeds; she would have been the wife of Gondibert, but he wisely preferred Birtha, a country girl, the daughter of the sage Astragon.

Rhodian Bully (The). The colossus of Rhodes.

“Yet fain wouldst thou the crouching world bestride
Just like the Rhodian bully o'er the tide.”
Peter Pindar: The Lusiad, canto 2.

Rhodian Law The earliest system of marine law known to history; compiled by the Rhodians about 900 B.C.

Rhone The Rhone of Christian eloquence. St. Hillary; so called from the vehemence of his style. (300- 368.)

Rhopalic Verse (wedge-verse). A line in which each successive word has more syllables than the one preceding it (Greek, rhopalon, a club, which from the handle to the top grows bigger.)

Rem	tibi	confeci,	doctissime,	dulcisonorum.
Spes	deus	aeternae-est	stationis	conciliator.
Hope	ever	solaces	miserable	individuals.
1	2	3	4	5

Rhyme Neither rhyme nor reason. Fit neither for amusement nor instruction. An author took his book to Sir Thomas More, chancellor in the reign of Henry VIII, and asked his opinion. Sir Thomas told the author to turn it into rhyme. He did so, and submitted it again to the lord chancellor. “Ay! ay!” said the witty satirist, “that will do, that will do. 'Tis rhyme now, but before it was neither rhyme nor reason.”

Rhymer Thomas the Rhymer. Thomas Learmount, of Ercildoune, who lived in the thirteenth century. This was quite a different person to Thomas Rymer, the historiographer royal to William III. (who flourished 1683). (See True Thomas .)

Rhyming to Death The Irish at one time believed that their children and cattle could be “eybitten,” that is, bewitched by an evil eye, and that the “eybitter,” or witch could “rime” them to death. (R. Scott: Discovery of Witchcraft.) (See Rats .)

Ribaldry is the language of a ribald. (French, ribaud; Old French, ribaudie; Italian, ribalderia, the language of a vagabond or rogue.)

Ribbon Dodge (The). Plying a person secretly with threatening letters in order to drive him out of the neighbourhood, or to compel him to do something he objects to. The Irish Ribbon men sent threatening letters or letters containing coffins, cross-bones, or daggers, to obnoxious neighbours.

Ribbonism A Catholic association organised in Ireland about 1808. Its two main objects were (1) to secure “fixity of tenure,” called the tenant-right; and (2) to deter anyone from taking land from which a tenant has been ejected. The name arises from a ribbon worn as a badge in the button-hole.

Ribston Pippin So called from Ribston, in Yorkshire, where Sir Henry Goodricke planted three pips, sent to him from Rouen, in Normandy. Two pips died, but from the third came all the Ribston apple- trees in England.

Ricardo, in the opera of I Puritani, is Sir Richard Forth, a Puritan, commander of Plymouth fortress. Lord Walton promised to give him his daughter Elvira in marriage, but Elvira had engaged her affections to Lord Arthur Talbot, a Cavalier, to whom ultimately she was married.

Ricciardetto Son of Agmon and brother of Bradamante. (Ariosto: Orlando Furioso.)

Rice Christians Converts to Christianity for worldly benefits, such as a supply of rice to Indians. Profession of Christianity born of lucre, not faith.