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Retreat.-'Tis pleasant through the loopholes of RETREAT
To peep at such a world.-COWPER, The Task, book iv. 1. 88.
Revelry.-Midnight shout and REVELRY,

Tipsy dance and jollity.-MILTON, Comus, 1. 103.

There was a sound of REVELRY by night,
And Belgium's capital had gathered then,
Her Beauty and her Chivalry, and bright
The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men;
A thousand hearts beat happily; and when
Music arose with its voluptuous swell,

Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again,
And all went merry as a marriage-bell.

BYRON, Childe Harold, canto iii. st. 21.
These our actors,

Revels. Our REVELS now are ended.
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep.-SHAKESPERE, Tempest, act iv. sc. 1.
Revenge.- REVENGE, at first though sweet,
Bitter ere long back on itself recoils.

MILTON, Paradise Lost, book ix. 1. 171.

Sweet is REVENGE especially to women.

BYRON, Don Juan, canto i. st. 124.

Revolutions.-Vain REVOLUTIONS, why lavish your cruelty on the great? Oh that we-we, the hewers of wood and drawers of water-had been swept away, so that the proud might learn what the world would be without us!-LYTTON, Lady of Lyons.

Rhetoric.-For RHETORIC he could not ope

His mouth, but out there flew a trope.

BUTLER, Hudibras, part i. canto i. 1. 81.

Rhine. The river RHINE, it is well known,
Doth wash your city of Cologne ;

But tell me, nymphs! what power divine

Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine ?-COLERIDGE, Cologne.

Rhyme.—

He knew

Himself to sing, and build the lofty RHYME.-MILTON, Lycidas.

RHYME the rudder is of verses,

With which, like ships, they steer their courses.

BUTLER, Hudibras, part i. canto i. 1. 463.

Rhyme nor Reason.-Pierre Patelin, quoted by TYNDALE (1530). SPENSER On his Promised Pension. PEELE, Edward I. SHAKESPERE, As You Like It, act iii. sc. 2; Merry Wives of Windsor, act v. sc. 5; Comedy of Errors, act ii. sc. 2. Sir Thomas More advised an author, who had sent him a manuscript to read, “to put it in rhyme." This being done, Sir Thomas said, 'Yea, marry, now it is somewhat, for now it is rhyme: before it was neither RHYME NOR REASON."

Rhyming. I was not born under a RHYMING planet.

66

SHAKESPERE, Much Ado, act v. sc. 2.

Riband. A narrow compass! and yet there
Dwelt all that's good, and all that's fair:
Give me but what this RIBAND bound,
Take all the rest the sun goes round.

E. WALLER, On a Girdle.

Rich.-Pretty! in amber to observe the forms
Of hairs, or straws, or dirt, or grubs, or worms!
The things, we know, are neither RICH nor rare,
But wonder how the devil they got there.

POPE, To Arbuthnot, 1. 169.

RICH and rare were the gems she wore,
And a bright gold ring on her wand she bore.

Riches.-Let none admire

MOORE, Rich and Rare.

That RICHES grow in hell: that soil may best Deserve the precious bane.--MILTON, book i. 1. 690. Right. The RIGHT divine of kings to govern wrong.

POPE, The Dunciad, book iv. 1. 188.

Whatever is, is RIGHT.-Ibid., Essay on Man, ep. i. 1. 294. Righteous. Be not RIGHTEOUS overmuch.-Ecclesiastes vii. 16.

Rights of Man.-They made and recorded a sort of institute and digest of anarchy, called the RIGHTS OF MAN.-ED. BURKE, On the Army Estimates.

Roads. Had you but seen these ROADS before they were made,
You'd lift up your hands and bless General Wade.

Attributed to CAPTAIN GROSE by CAUFIELD.

Robb'd. He that is ROBB'D, not wanting what is stolen,
Let him not know 't, and he's not robb'd at all.

SHAKESPERE, Othello, act iii. sc. 3.
and hoped to

Robbing.-By ROBBING Peter he paid Paul

catch larks if ever the heavens should fall.-RABELAIS, book i.

ch. 5.

Robin-Redbreast-Call for the ROBIN-REDBREAST and the wren,

Since o'er shady groves they hover,

And with leaves and flowers do cover
The friendless bodies of unburied men.

WEBSTER, The White Devil, act i. sc. 2. Robinson, Jack.-A name used in the phrase "Before one could say JACK ROBINSON," meaning a very short time. This saying is said by Grose to have originated from a very volatile gentleman of that appellation who would call on his neighbours and be gone before his name could be announced. The following lines "from an old play" are elsewhere given as the original phrase :

"A warke it ys as easie to be doone,

As tys to saye, Jack! robys on.”

:

Rocket.-The final event to himself (Mr. Burke) has been that, as he rose like a ROCKET, he fell like the stick.-THOMAS PAINE, Letter to the Addressers.

Rod. Love is a boy by poets styl'd;

Then spare the ROD and spoil the child.

BUTLER, Hudibras, pt. ii. canto i. 1. 843. Rogues. When ROGUES fall out, honest men get their own.

In a

case before Sir Matthew Hale, the two litigants unwittingly let out, that at a former period, they had, in conjunction, leased a ferry to the injury of the proprietor, on which Sir Matthew made the above remark.

Roman. I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon,

Than such a ROMAN.—SHAKESPERE, Julius Cæsar, act iv. sc. 3.
Rome. In the most high and palmy state of ROME,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,

The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets.

Ibid., Hamlet, act i. sc. 1.

While stands the Coliseum, ROME shall stand;
When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall;
And when Rome falls,-the World.

BYRON, Childe Harold, canto iv. st. 145. When they are at ROME, they do there as they see done.BURTON, Anatomy of Melancholy, part iii. sec. 4, mem. 2, subs. 1. St. Augustine was in the habit of dining upon Saturday as upon Sunday; but, being puzzled with the different practices then prevailing (for they had began to fast at Rome on Saturday), he consulted St. Ambrose on the subject. Now at Milan they did not fast on Saturday, and the answer of the Milan saint was this: "When I am here, I do not fast on Saturday; when at Rome I do fast on Saturday." "Quando hic sum, non jejuno Sabbato; quando Romæ sum, jejuno Sabbato."-ST. AUGUSTINE, Epistle XXXVI. to Casulanus.

Room.-Weave the warp, and weave the woof,

The winding-sheet of Edward's race;
Give ample ROOM, and verge enough,
The characters of hell to trace.

Rose. 'Tis the last ROSE of summer,

GRAY, The Bard, II. 1, line 1.

Left blooming alone.-MOORE, Last Rose of Summer.

Ross, Man of.-Rise, honest muse! and sing the MAN OF Ross. POPE, Moral Essays, epistle iii. 1. 250.

Round Table.-A huge circular marble table, at which, according to the old romancers, King Arthur and his knights were accustomed to sit. Some say there were only thirteen seats around it, in memory of the thirteen apostles. Twelve only were occupied, and by knights of the highest fame. The thirteenth represented the seat of the traitor Judas. According to others there were seats for fifty or sixty, and an empty place was left for the sangreal.

Rowland for an Oliver.-Rowland and Oliver were two of the most famous in the list of Charlemagne's twelve peers; and their exploits are rendered so ridiculously and equally extravagant by the old romancers that from thence arose that saying, amongst our plain and sensible ancestors, of giving one a "ROWLAND FOR HIS OLIVER," to signify the matching one incredible lie with another. -THOMAS WARBURTON.

Rubicon.-Passing the RUBICON. Taking up a decisive position. The Rubicon was a small stream in the northern boundary of Italy, which the Roman generals were prohibited from passing while in command of an armed force. Cæsar crossed it at the breaking out of the civil war.

Rubies,-Some asked me where the RUBIES grew

And nothing I did say,

But with my finger pointed to

The lips of Julia.

HERRICK, The Rock of Rubies and Quarrie of Pearls.

Ruffles.-Give RUFFLES to a man who wants a shirt.-SORBIERE, The French Anas. TOM BROWN, Laconics.

Such dainties to them, their health it might hurt;

It's like sending them RUFFLES, when wanting a shirt.

GOLDSMITH, The Haunch of Venison.

Rump Parliament.-A derisive epithet applied to a remnant of the famous Long Parliament of England, which re-assembled on the 6th of May, 1659, after the dissolution of the Parliament summoned by Richard Cromwell on the 27th of January, and dissolved by him on the 22nd of April of the same year.

S.

Sabbath.-Hail SABBATH! thee I hail, the poor man's day.

GRAHAME, The Sabbath, 1. 40.

Sack.-Oh monstrous! but one halfpenny-worth of bread to this intol

erable deal of SACK!

SHAKESPERE, Henry IV. part 1, act ii. sc. 4.

Safe Bind.-Dry sun, dry wind,

SAFE BIND, safe find.-TUSSER, Points of Husbandry.

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Saints. That SAINTS will aid if men will call:
For the blue sky bends over all!

COLERIDGE, Christabel, conclusion of part i.

Salt.-Alas! you know the cause too well

The SALT is spilt, to me it fell.-GAY, Fable 37.

Sambo. A cant designation of the negro race.

No race has ever

shown such capabilities of adaptation to varying soil and circumstances as the negro. Alike to them the snows of Canada, the hard, rocky land of New England, or the gorgeous profusion of the Southern States. SAMBO and Cuffey expand under them all.—H. B. Stowe.

Sang. Perhaps it may turn out a SANG,

Perhaps turn out a sermon.-BURNS, Epistle to a Young Friend. Sangreal. A vessel made of a single precious stone (usually said to be an emerald), from which our Saviour was supposed to have drunk at the last supper, and which was afterwards filled with the blood which flowed from the wounds with which he was pierced at the crucifixion. It is fabled to have been preserved by Joseph of Arimathea. Various miraculous properties are attributed to this dish, such as the power of prolonging life, preserving chastity, and the like; and it is a frequent subject of allusion in some of the old romances as an object in search of which numerous knights-errant, particularly those of the Round Table, spent their lives.

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