Part 107 (1/2)

Bleddynt Vardd, _Myvyrian Archaiology_, i. 365.

=Ravens once White.= One day a raven told Apollo that Coro'nis, a Thessalian nymph whom he pa.s.sionately loved, was faithless. Apollo, in his rage, shot the nymph, but hated the raven, and ”bade him prate in white plumes never more.”--Ovid, _Metam._, ii.

=Ravenswood= (_Allan, lord of_), a decayed Scotch n.o.bleman of the royalist party.

_Master Edgar Ravenswood_, the son of Allan. In love with Lucy Ashton, daughter of Sir William Ashton, lord-keeper of Scotland. The lovers plight their troth at the ”Mermaid's Fountain,” but Lucy is compelled to marry Frank Hayston, laird of Bucklaw. The bride, in a fit of insanity, attempts to murder the bridegroom, and dies in convulsions. Bucklaw recovers, and goes abroad. Colonel Ashton appoints a hostile meeting with Edgar; but young Ravenswood, on his way to the place appointed, is lost in the quicksands of Kelpies Flow, in accordance with an ancient prophecy.--Sir W. Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_ (time, William III.).

? In Donizetti's opera of _Lucia di Lammermoor_, Bucklaw dies of the wound inflicted by the bride, and Edgar, heart-broken, comes on the stage and kills himself.

The catastrophe in the _Bride of Lammermoor_, where [_Edgar_]

Ravenswood is swallowed up by a quicksand, is singularly grand in romance, but would be inadmissible in a drama.--_Encyc. Brit._, Art. ”Romance.”

=Rawhead and b.l.o.o.d.y-Bones=, two bogies or bugbears, generally coupled together. In some cases the phrase is employed to designate one and the same ”shadowy sprite.”

Servants awe children ... by telling them of Rawhead and b.l.o.o.d.y-bones.--Locke.

=Ray.= One of two brothers, divided by the civil war. Beltran is in the Southern army, Ray in the Northern. Both love the same woman whose heart is Beltran's. The brothers met[TN-117] in battle and Beltran falls. Ray is wounded and left for dead; recovers and makes his way homeward. There he lives--undergoing volcanic changes, now pa.s.sionless lulls, and now rages and spasms of grief; ”gradually out of them all he gathers his strength about him,” and wins Vivia's hand.--Harriet Prescott Spofford, _Ray_.

_Ray_ (_Will_), popular officer in a frontier brigade who steals through the deadly line of Cheyennes drawn about a handful of U. S. soldiers, and, followed by shots and yells, rides for his life and his comrades'

lives to the nearest encampment of troops and brings succor to the devoted little band with the dawn of the day that, but for him, would have been the last on earth for those left behind.--Charles King, _Marion's Faith_ (1886).

=Rayland= (_Mrs._), the domineering lady of the _Old Manor-House_, by Charlotte Smith (1749-1806).

Mrs. Rayland is a sort of Queen Elizabeth in private life.--Sir W.

Scott.

=Raymond=, count of Toulouse, the Nestor of the crusaders. He slays Aladine, king of Jerusalem, and plants the Christian standard on the tower of David.--Ta.s.so, _Jerusalem Delivered_, xx. (1516).

? Introduced by Sir W. Scott in _Count Robert of Paris_, a novel of the period of Rufus.

_Raymond_ (_Sir Charles_), a country gentleman, the friend and neighbor of Sir Robert Belmont.

_Colonel Raymond_, son of Sir Charles, in love with Rosetta Belmont.

Being diffident and modest, Rosetta delights in tormenting him, and he is jealous even of William Faddle ”a fellow made up of knavery, noise and impudence.”

_Harriet Raymond_, daughter of Sir Charles, whose mother died in giving her birth. She was committed to the care of a gouvernante, who changed her name to Fidelia, wrote to Sir Charles to say that she was dead, and sold her at the age of 12 to a villain named Villard. Charles Belmont, hearing her cries of distress, rescued her and took her home. The gouvernante at death confessed the truth, and Charles Belmont married her.--Edward Moore, _The Foundling_ (1748).

=Raz'eka=, the giver of food, one of the four G.o.ds of the Adites (2 _syl._).

We called on Razeka for food.

Southey, _Thalaba, the Destroyer_, i. 24 (1797).