Part 117 (1/2)

Another tradition is that it carries in its bill dew to those shut up in the burning lake, and its breast is red from being scorched by the fire of Gehenna.

He brings cool dew in his little bill, And lets it fall on the souls of sin; You can see the mark on his red breast still, Of fires that scorch as he drops it in.

J. G. Whittier, _The Robin_.

=Robin Redb.r.e.a.s.t.s=, Bow Street officers. So called from their red vests.

=Robin Roughhead=, a poor cottager and farm laborer, the son of Lord Lackwit. On the death of his lords.h.i.+p, Robin Roughhead comes into the t.i.tle and estates. This brings out the best qualities of his heart--liberality, benevolence and honesty. He marries Dolly, to whom he was already engaged, and becomes the good genius of the peasantry on his estate.--Allingham, _Fortune's Frolic_.

=Robin and Makyne= (2 _syl._), an old Scotch pastoral. Robin is a shepherd, for whom Makyne sighs, but he turns a deaf ear to her, and she goes home to weep. In time, Robin sighs for Makyne, but she replies, ”He who wills not when he may, when he wills he shall have nay.”--Percy, _Reliques, etc._, II.

=Robin of Bagshot=, _alias_ Gordon, _alias_ Bluff Bob, _alias_ Carbuncle, _alias_ Bob Booty, one of Macheath's gang of thieves, and a favorite of Mrs. Peachum's.--Gay, _The Beggar's Opera_ (1727).

=Robins= (_Zerubbabel_), in Cromwell's troop.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).

=Robinson Cru'soe= (2 _syl._), a tale by Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe ran away from home, and went to sea. Being wrecked, he led for many years a solitary existence on an uninhabited island of the tropics, and relieved the weariness of life by numberless contrivances. At length he met a human being, a young Indian, whom he saved from death on a Friday. He called him his ”man Friday,” and made him his companion and servant.

Defoe founded this story on the adventures of Alexander Selkirk, sailing-master of the _Cinque Ports Galley_, who was left by Captain Stradling on the desolate island of Juan Fernandez for four years and four months (1704-1709), when he was rescued by Captain Woodes Rogers and brought to England.

=Robsart= (_Amy_), countess of Leicester. She was betrothed to Edmund Tressilian. When the earl falls into disgrace at court for marrying Amy, Richard Varney loosens a trap-door at c.u.mnor Place; and Amy, rus.h.i.+ng forward to greet her husband, falls into the abyss and is killed.

_Sir Hugh Robsart_, of Lidcote Hall, father of Amy.--Sir W. Scott, _Kenilworth_ (time, Elizabeth).

=Roc=, a white bird of enormous size. Its strength is such that it will lift up an elephant from the ground and carry it to its mountain nest, where it will devour it. In the _Arabian Nights' Entertainments_, it was a roc which carried Sindbad the sailor from the island on which he had been deserted by his companions (”Second Voyage”). And it was a roc which carried Agib from the castle grounds of the ten young men who had lost their right eyes (”The Third Calender's Story”). Sindbad says one claw of the roc is as ”big as the trunk of a large tree,” and its egg is ”fifty paces [_150 feet_] in circ.u.mference.”

? The ”rukh” of Madagascar, lays an egg equal to 148 hen's eggs.--_Comptes Rendus_, etc., x.x.xii. 101 (1851).

=Rocco=, the jailer sent with Fidelio (_Leonora_) to dig the grave of Fernando Florestan (_q.v._)[TN-131]--Beethoven, _Fidelio_ (1791).

=Roch'dale= (_Sir Simon_), of the manor-house. He is a J.P., but refuses to give justice to Job Thornberry, the old brazier, who demands that his son, Frank Rochdale, should marry Mary [Thornberry], whom he has seduced. At this crisis, Peregrine appears, and tells Sir Simon he is the elder brother, and, as such, is heir to the t.i.tle and estates.

_Frank Rochdale_, son of the baronet, who has promised to marry Mary Thornberry, but Sir Simon wants him to marry Lady Caroline Braymore, who has 4000 a year. Lady Caroline marries the Hon. Tom Shuffleton, and Frank makes the best reparation he can by marrying Mary.--G. Colman, Jr., _John Bull_ (1805).

=Roche's Bird= (_Sir Boyle_), which was ”in two places at the same time.”

The tale is that Sir Boyle Roche said in the House of Commons, ”Mr.

Speaker, it is impossible I could have been in two places at once, unless I were a bird.” This is a quotation from Jevon's play, _The Devil of a Wife_ (seventeenth century).

_Wife._ I cannot be in two places at once.

_Husband_ (Rowland). Surely no, unless thou wert a bird.