Part 108 (1/2)

=Red-Cap= (_Mother_), an old nurse at the Hungerford Stairs.--Sir W.

Scott, _Fortunes of Nigel_ (time, James I.).

_Red-Cap_ (_Mother_). Madame Bufflon was so called, because her bonnet was deeply colored with her own blood in a street fight at the outbreak of the French Revolution.--W. Melville.

=Red Cross Knight= (_The_) represents St. George, the patron saint of England. His adventures, which occupy bk. i. of Spenser's _Faery Queen_, symbolize the struggles and ultimate victory of holiness over sin (or protestantism over popery). Una comes on a white a.s.s to the court of Gloriana, and craves that one of the knights would undertake to slay the dragon which kept her father and mother prisoners. The Red Cross Knight, arrayed in all the armor of G.o.d (_Eph._ vi. 11-17), undertakes the adventure, and goes, accompanied for a time, with Una; but, deluded by Archimago, he quits the lady, and the two meet with numerous adventures.

At last, the knight, having slain the dragon, marries Una; and thus holiness is allied to the Oneness of Truth (1590).

=Red Hand of Ulster.=

Calverley, of Calverley, Yorks.h.i.+re. Walter Calverley, Esq., in 1605, murdered two of his children, and attempted to murder his wife and a child ”at nurse.” This became the subject of _The Yorks.h.i.+re Tragedy_. In consequence of these murders, the family is required to wear ”the b.l.o.o.d.y hand.”

The Holt family, of Lancas.h.i.+re, has a similar tradition connected with their coat armor.

=Red Knight= (_The_), Sir Perimo'nes, one of the four brothers who kept the pa.s.sages leading to Castle Perilous. In the allegory of Gareth, this knight represents noon, and was the third brother. Night, the eldest born, was slain by Sir Gareth; the Green Knight, which represents the young day-spring, was overcome, but not slain; and the Red Knight, being overcome, was spared also. The reason is this: darkness is _slain_, but dawn is only _overcome_ by the stronger light of noon, and noon decays into the evening twilight. Tennyson in his _Gareth and Lynette_, calls Sir Perimones ”Meridies,” or ”Noonday Sun.” The Latin name is not consistent with a British tale.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 129 (1470); Tennyson, _Idylls_.

=Red Knight of the Red Lands= (_The_), Sir Ironside. ”He had the strength of seven men, and every day his strength went on increasing till noon.”

This knight kept the Lady Liones captive in Castle Perilous. In the allegory of Sir Gareth, Sir Ironside represents death, and the captive lady ”the Bride,” or Church triumphant. Sir Gareth combats with Night, Morn, Noon, and Evening, or fights the fight of faith, and then overcomes the last enemy, which is death, when he marries the lady, or is received into the Church, which is ”the Lamb's Bride.” Tennyson, in his _Gareth and Lynette_, makes the combat with the Red Knight (”Mors,”

or ”Death”) to be a single stroke; but the _History_ says it is endured from morn to noon, and from noon to night--in fact, that man's whole life is a contest with moral and physical death.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 134-137 (1470); Tennyson, _Idylls_ (”Gareth and Lynette”).

=Red Pipe.= The Great Spirit long ago called the Indians together, and, standing on the red pipe-stone rock, broke off a piece, which he made into a pipe, and smoked, letting the smoke exhale to the four quarters.

He then told the Indians that the red pipe-stone was their flesh, and they must use the red pipe when they made peace; and that when they smoked it, the war-club and scalping-knife must not be touched. Having so spoken, the Great Spirit was received up into the clouds.--_Indian Mythology._

The red pipe has blown its fumes of peace and war to the remotest corners of the continent. It visited every warrior, and pa.s.sed through its reddened stem the irrevocable oath of war and desolation. Here, too, the peace-breathing calumet was born, and fringed with eagle's quills, which has shed its thrilling fumes over the land, and soothed the fury of the relentless savage.--Catlin, _Letters on ... the North Americans_, ii. 160.

=Red Ridinghood= (_Little_), a child with a red cloak, who went to carry cakes to her grandmother. A wolf placed itself in the grandmother's bed, and when the child remarked upon the size of its eyes, ears, and nose, replied it was the better to see, hear, and smell the little grandchild.

”But, grandmamma,” said the child, ”what a great mouth you have got!”

”The better to eat you up,” was the reply, and the child was devoured by the wolf.

This nursery tale is, with slight variations, common to Sweden, Germany, and France. In Charles Perrault's _Contes des Fees_ (1697) it is called ”Le Pet.i.t Chaperon Rouge.”

=Red Swan= (_The_). Odjibwa, hearing a strange noise, saw in the lake a most beautiful red swan. Pulling his bow, he took deliberate aim, without effect. He shot every arrow from his quiver with the same result; then, fetching from his father's medicine sack three poisoned arrows, he shot them also at the bird. The last of the three arrows pa.s.sed through the swan's neck, whereupon the bird rose into the air and sailed away towards the setting sun.--Schoolcraft, _Algic Researches_, ii. 9 (1839).

=Redgauntlet=, a story told in a series of letters, about a conspiracy formed by Sir Edward Hugh Redgauntlet, on behalf of the ”Young Pretender,” Charles Edward, then above 40 years of age. The conspirators insist that the prince shall dismiss his mistress, Miss Walkingshaw, and, as he refuses to comply with this demand, they abandon their enterprise. Just as a brig is prepared for the prince's departure from the island, Colonel Campbell arrives with the military. He connives, however, at the affair, the conspirators disperse, the prince embarks, and Redgauntlet becomes the prior of a monastery abroad. This is one of the inferior novels, but is redeemed by the character of Peter Peebles.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (1824).

_Redgauntlet_ embodies a great deal of Scott's own personal history and experience.--Chambers, _English Literature_, ii. 589.

_Redgauntlet_ (_Sir Alberick_), an ancestor of the family.

_Sir Edward Redgauntlet_, son of Sir Alberick; killed by his father's horse.

_Sir Robert Redgauntlet_, an old tory, mentioned in Wandering Willie's tale.