Chapter Royston to Rue of R by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Rubric (from the Latin rubrica, “red ochre,” or “vermilion”). An ordinance or law was by the Romans called a rubric, because it was written with vermilion, in contradistinction to praetorian edicts or rules of the court, which were posted on a white ground. (Juvenal, xiv. 192.)

“Rubrica vetavit” = the law has forbidden it. (Persius, v. 99.)

“Praetores edicta sua in albo proponebant, ac rubricas [i.e. jus civile] translalerunt.”- Quintilian, xii. 3, 11.

“Rules and orders directing how, when, and where all things in divine service are to be performed were formerly printed in red characters (now generally in italics), and called rubrics.”- Hook: Church Dictionary.

Ruby The King of Ceylon has the finest ruby ever seen. “It is a span long, as thick as a man's arm, and without a flaw.” Kublai-Khan offered the value of a city for it, but the king answered that he would not part with it if all the treasures of the world were laid at his feet. (Marco Polo.)

Ruby (The). The ancients considered the ruby to be an antidote of poison, to preserve persons from plague, to banish grief, to repress the ill effects of luxuries, and to divert the mind from evil thoughts.

Ruby (The Perfect). The philosopher's stone. (See Flower Of The Sun .)

Ruchiel God of the air. (Hebrew, ruch, air; el, god.) ( Jewish mythology.)

Rudder Who won't be ruled by the rudder must be ruled by the rock. Who won't listen to reason must bear the consequences, like a ship that runs upon a rock if it will not answer the helm.

Ruddock The redbreast, “sacred to the household gods.” The legend says if a redbreast finds a dead body in the woods it will “cover it with moss.” Drayton alludes to this tradition-

“Covering with moss the dead's unclosed eye,
The little redbreast teacheth charitie.”
The Owl.

Shakespeare makes Arviragus say over Imogen-

“Thou shalt not lack
The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose; nor
The azured harebell ... the ruddock would
With charitable bill ... bring thee all these.” Cymbeline, iv. 2.

So also in the folk tale of The Babes in the Wood-

“The Robins so red
Fresh strawberry-leaves did over them spread.”

Ruddy-mane [Bloody-hand]. The infant son of Sir Mordant: so called because his hand was red with his mother's blood. She had stabbed herself because her husband had been paralysed by a draught from an enchanted stream. (Spenser: Faërie Queene, bk. ii. 1, 3.)

Rudge (Barnaby). A half-witted lad, who had for his companion a raven. (Dickens: Barnby Rudge.)

Rudiger (3 syl.). Margrave of Bechelaren, a wealthy Hun, liegeman of King Etzel. In the Nibelungen- Lied he is represented as a most noble character. He was sent to Burgundy by King Etzel, to conduct Kriemhild to Hungary if she would consent to marry the Hunnish king. When Gunther and his suite went to pay a visit to Kriemhild, he entertained them all most hospitably, and gave his daughter in marriage to Kriemhild's youngest brother, Giselher; and when the broil broke out in the dining-hall of King Etzel, and Rudiger was compelled to take part against the Burgundians, he fought with Kriemhild's second brother, Gernot. Rudiger struck Gernot “through his helmet,” and the prince struck the margrave “through shield and morion,” and “down dead dropped both together, each by the other slain.”- Nibelungen-Lied.

Rudolphine Tables (The). Tabulae Rudolphinae, 1627. Astronomical calculations begun by Tycho Brahé, and continued by Kepler, under the immediate patronage of Kaiser Rudolph II., after whom Kepler