Part 105 (1/2)
It was no unusual thing for powerful barons to provide 30,000 dishes at a wedding breakfast. The coronation dinner of Edward III., cost 40,000, equal to half a million of money now. The duke of Clarence, at his marriage, entertained 1000 guests, and furnished his table with 36 courses. Archbishop Neville had 1000 egrettes served at one banquet, and the whole species seems to have been extirpated.
After this it will be by no means difficult to understand why Apicius despaired of being able to make two ends meet, when he had reduced his enormous fortune to 80,000, and therefore hanged himself.
? After the winter of 1327 was over, the elder Spenser had left of the stores laid in by him the preceding November and salted down, ”80 salted beeves, 500 bacons, and 600 muttons.”
_Ralph_, son of Fairfield, the miller. An outlandish, ignorant b.o.o.by, jealous of his sister, Patty, because she ”could paint picturs and strum on the harpsicols.” He was in love with f.a.n.n.y, the gypsy, for which ”feyther” was angry with him; but, ”what argufies feyther's anger?”
However, he treated f.a.n.n.y like a brute, and she said of him, ”He has a heart as hard as a parish officer. I don't doubt but he would stand by and see me whipped.” When his sister married Lord Aimworth, Ralph said:
Captain Ralph my lord will dub me, Soon I'll mount a huge c.o.c.kade; Mounseer shall powder, queue, and club me,-- 'Gad! I'll be a roaring blade.
If Fan should offer then to snub me, When in scarlet I'm arrayed; Or my feyther 'temp to drub me-- Let him frown, but who's afraid?
Bickerstaff, _The Maid of the Mill_ (1647).
_Ralph_ or RALPHO, the squire of Hudibras. Fully described in bk. i.
457-644.--S. Butler, _Hudibras_ (1663-78).
The prototype of ”Ralph” was Isaac Robinson, a zealous butcher, in Morefields. Ralph represents the independent party, and Hudibras the Presbyterian.
? In regard to the p.r.o.nunciation of this name, which, in 1878, was the subject of a long controversy in _Notes and Queries_, Butler says:
A squire he had whose name was Ralph, That in th' adventure went his half: ...
And when we can, with metre safe, We'll call him Ralpho, or plain Ra'ph.
Bk. l. 456.
_Ralph_ (_Rough_), the helper of Lance Outram, park-keeper at Sir Geoffrey Peveril's of the Peak.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).
_Ralph_ (_James_), an American, who came to London and published a poem ent.i.tled _Night_ (1725).
Silence, ye wolves! while Ralph to Cynthia howls, Making night hideous; answer him ye owls.
Pope, _The Dunciad_, iii. 165 (1728).
_Ralph_ [DE LASCOURS], captain of the _Uran'ia_, husband of Louise de Lascours. Ralph is the father of Diana and Martha, _alias_ Orgari'ta.
His crew having rebelled, Ralph, his wife, infant [Martha], and servant, Bar'abas, were put into a boat, and turned adrift. The boat ran on a huge iceberg, which Ralph supposed to be a small island. In time, the iceberg broke, when Ralph and his wife were drowned, but Martha and Barabas escaped. Martha was taken by an Indian tribe, who brought her up, and named her Orgarita (”withered corn”), because her skin was so white and fair.--E. Stirling, _Orphan of the Frozen Sea_ (1856).
=Ralph Roister Doister=, by Nicholas Udall, the first English comedy, about 1534. It contains nine male and four female characters. Ralph is a vain, thoughtless, bl.u.s.tering fellow, who is in pursuit of a rich widow named Custance, but he is baffled in his intention.
=Ramble= (_Sir Robert_), a man of gallantry, treats his wife with such supreme indifference that she returns to her guardian, Lord Norland, and resumes her maiden name of Marie Wooburn. Subsequently, however, she returns to her husband.
_Mrs. Ramble_, wife of Sir Robert, and ward of Lord Norland.--Inchbald, _Every One Has His Fault_ (1794).
=Ram'iel= (3 _syl._), one of the ”atheist crew” overthrown by Ab'diel.