thrown to the wild beasts of the arena. She escapes and eventually marries Vinicius whom Peter and Paul have converted to Christianity.

Quos ego. A threat of punishment for disobedience. The words, from Virgil's Eneid (i. 135), were uttered by Neptune

to the disobedient and rebellious winds, and are sometimes given as an example of aposiopesis, i.e. a stopping short for rhetorical effort, "Whom I-," said Neptune, the " will punish" being left to the imagination.

Qur'an. See Koran.

R's, The Three. Reading, writing and arithmetic; or phonetically "readin', ritin', 'n' rithmetic." Hence the elementary principles; the fundamentals of education.

Ra. The principal deity of ancient Egypt, one of the numerous forms of the sun-god, and the supposed ancestor of all the Pharaohs. He was the creator, the protector of men and the vanquisher of evil; Nut, the sky, was his father, and it was said of him that every night he fought with the serpent, Apepi. He is usually represented as hawk-headed and is crowned with the solar disk and ureus. See Osiris, Amon.

Rab and his Friends. A famous dog story by Dr. John Brown (1858). Rab is a dog fond of his master and mistress, and most faithful to them. He is described as "old, gray, brindled, as big as a little Highland bull."

Rabagas. The title and hero of a comedy by Sardou (1872), a satirical study of the rise and fall of an unscrupulous politician.

Rabbi Ben Ezra. A famous poem by Robert Browning on old age, beginning:

Grow old along with me,

The best is yet to be,

The last of life, for which the first was made.

The supposed speaker, Rabbi Ben Ezra (Abraham ben Meir ben Ezra or Ibn Ezra), was one of the most distinguished Jewish literati of the Middle Ages (c. 1090-1168). Cp. Admirable.

Rabelaisian. Coarsely and boisterously satirical; grotesque, extravagant, and licentious in language; reminiscent in literary style of the great French satirist François Rabelais (1483-1553).

Dean Swift, Thomas Amory (d. 1788, author of John Buncle), and Sterne have all been called the English Rabelais. Melville, the author of Moby Dick (q.v.) is sometimes called the American Rabelais.

Rabican. A famous horse of Carlovingian legend whose exploits are related in the Italian epics, Orlando Innamorato and Orlando Furioso. His first owner

was Argalia; later he came into the possession of Rinaldo. Rabican fed on air alone and was unsurpassed for speed.

Rabourdin. In several of Balzac's novels, notably The Government Clerks (Les Employés), an official whose honesty and industry, carried to excess, caused his downfall.

Raby, Aurora. In Byron's Don Juan a rich young English orphan, Catholic in religion, of virgin modesty, "a rose with all its sweetest leaves yet folded." Aurora Raby is introduced in canto xv, and here and there in the two remaining cantos; but, as the tale was never finished, it is not possible to divine what part the beautiful and innocent girl was designed by the poet to play.

Rachel. In the Old Testament, daughter of Laban and wife of Jacob (q.v.), for love of whom he served her father, in all, fourteen years.

Rachel weeping for her children "and she would not be comforted, for they were not." An allusion to Herod's Massacre of the Innocents (q.v.) after the birth of Christ. The phrase is an Old Testament quotation introduced in the New Testament narrative.

Racine, Jean Baptiste (1639-1699). One of the greatest of French dramatists. His best-known plays are Andromaque, Iphigénie, Phèdre, Esther and Athalie. See those entries.

Rackrent, Castle. See Castle Rackrent. Rackstraw, Ralph. A character in Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera, Pinafore (q.v.).

Radcliffe, Mrs. Ann (1764-1823). English novelist, author of The Mysteries of Udolpho (q.v.) etc.

Rad'igund. Queen of the Amʼazons in Spenser's Faerie Queene (V, iv, 33, etc.), reigning over

A goodly citty and a mighty one,
The which of her owne name she called Radegone.

Getting the better of Sir Art'egal in a single combat, she compelled him to dress in "woman's weeds," and to spin flax. Brit'omart went to the rescue, cut off the Amazon's head, and liberated her knight.

Raeburn, Aldous. A leading character in Mrs. Humphry Ward's Marcella (q.v.) and its sequel Sir George Tressady. Raggedy Man. The hero of one of James Whitcomb Riley's dialect poems

contriving some queer art of church government. He represents the Independent party, and Hudibras the Presbyterian.

Rahab. In the Old Testament (Josh. ii.) the woman of Jericho who protected the twelve spies of the Israelites and managed their escape. She and her family alone were saved when the city was later destroyed.

Ra'hu. The demon that, according to Hindu legend, causes eclipses. He one day quaffed some of the nectar of immortality, but was discovered by the Sun and Moon, who informed against him, and Vishnu cut off his head. As he had already taken some of the nectar into his mouth, the head was immortal, and he ever afterwards hunted the Sun and Moon, which he caught occasionally, causing eclipses.

Railroad City. Indianapolis. See City. Rail-splitter, The. Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was so called because of his early experience as a rail-splitter.

Raison d'être (Fr.). The reason for a thing's existence, its rational ground for being; as "Once crime were abolished there would be no raison d'être for the police."

Rajah. Sanskrit for king, cognate with Lat. rex. The title of an Indian king or prince, given later to tribal chiefs and comparatively minor dignitaries and rulers; also to Malayan and Japanese chiefs, as Rajah Brooke, of Sarawak. Maha-rajah means the "great rajah." Cp. Rulers.

Rak'shas. Evil spirits of Hindu legend, who guard the treasures of Kubera, the god of riches. They haunt cemeteries and devour human beings; assume any shape at will, and their strength increases as the day declines. Some are hideously ugly, but others, especially the female spirits, allure by their beauty.

Raleigh, Sir Walter. A famous historical personage of the time of Queen Elizabeth, introduced by Scott in his Kenilworth. The tradition of Sir Walter laying down his cloak on a miry spot for the Queen to step on, and the Queen's commanding him to wear the "muddy cloak till her pleasure should be further known," is mentioned in Ch. xv.

Ralph or Ralpho. The squire of Hudibras (q.v.) in Butler's satire of that title. The model was Isaac Robinson, a

Ralph Roister Doister. The title of the earliest English comedy; so called from the chief character. It was written by Nicholas Udall about 1533 for performance by the boys at Eton, where he was then headmaster. Ralph is a vain, thoughtless, blustering fellow, who is in pursuit of a rich widow named Custance, but he is baffled in his intention.

Ram. The ram of the Zodiac. This is the famous Chrysomallon, whose golden fleece was stolen by Jason in his Argonautic expedition. It was transposed to the stars, and made the first sign of the Zodiac.

Rama. The seventh incarnation of Vishnu (see Avatar). Rama performed. many wonderful exploits, such as killing giants, demons and other monsters. He won Sita to wife because he was able to bend the bow of Siva. He is the hero of the great Hindu epic, the Ramayana (see below).

Ramachandra. See Avatar.

Ram'adan. The ninth month of the Mohammedan year, and the Mussulmans' Lent or Holy Month (also transliterated Ramazan). No food is touched by pious Mohammedans from sunrise to sundown.

As the Moslem year is calculated on the system of twelve lunar months, Ramazan is liable at times to fall in the hot weather, when abstinence from drinking as well as from food is an extremely uncomfortable and inconvenient obligation. What wonder, then, that the end of the fast is awaited with feverish impatience? H. M. Batson: Commentary on Fitzgerald's "Omar," st. xc.

Ramayana (ie. the deeds of Rama). The history of Rama, the great epic poem of ancient India, ranking with the Mahabharata (q.v.). It is ascribed to the poet Valmiki, and, as now known, consists of 24,000 stanzas in seven books. The young hero, Rama, an incarnation of the deity Vishnu (see Avatar), wins his bride Sita by bending the great bow that had belonged to Rudra, one of the gods. Although heir to the throne of Ayodhya, Rama is exiled for fourteen years through the jealousy of one of his father's wives, who desires the throne for her own son. Sita is now carried off by Ravana, the demon-king of Ceylon, to his capital at Lanka, and a great part of the narrative is concerned with Rama's efforts to win her back. He secures the assistance of Ravana's own brother Vibhishana, and of the great monkey-god, Hanuman, whose

monkeys throw up a bridge across the straits. After the rescue of Sita, Rama is welcomed as the monarch of Ayodhya. But both Rama and the people fear that Sita has been defiled by her sojourn with the demon-king, and although she successfully undergoes certain ordeals, Rama sends her away. She wanders into the forest, finds shelter in the hut of Valmiki (the poet to whom the epic is ascribed) and there gives birth to Rama's two sons, whom she brings up to be brave and noble youths. Eventually she is found by Rama and received back as his wife.

Rambler, The. A famous periodical published twice a week by Dr. Samuel Johnson (1750–1752).

Rambouillet, Hôtel de. The house in Paris where, about 1615, the Marquise de Rambouillet, disgusted with the immoral and puerile tone of the time, founded the salon out of which grew the Académie française. Mme. de Sévigné, Descartes, Richelieu, Bossuet, and La Rochefoucauld were among the members. They gradually developed a language of their own, calling common things by uncommon names, and so on; the women were known as Les précieuses and the men as Esprits doux. Preciosity, pedantry and affectation led to the disruption of the coterie which, after having performed a good and lasting service, was finally demolished by the satire of Molière's Les Précieuses Ridicules (1659) and Les Femmes Savantes (1672). See those entries.

Ramière, Raymonde de. In George In George Sand's Indiana (q.v.), the young lover of the heroine.

Raminago'bris. Rabelais (Gargantua and Pantagruel III. xxi) under this name satirizes Guillaume Crétin, a poet in the reigns of Charles VIII, Louis XII, and François I.

In La Fontaine's fables the name is given to the great cat chosen as judge between the weasel and the rabbit.

Ramona. A historical novel by Helen Hunt Jackson (Am. 1894), dealing with Spanish and Indian life in California. The heroine, Ramona, of mixed Scotch and Indian blood, is brought up by a Spanish señora and jealously loved by her foster brother. She, however, regards him with no more than sisterly affection and finally irrevocably offends the Señora by eloping with a young Temecula Indian, Alessandro. But wherever the couple go, their land is confiscated by the United States government and they are forced to seek another Indian reservation. Because of

his resentment and shame at being forced to submit to such treatment, the proud young Alessandro comes to a tragic end. Ramsay, Allan (1686-1758). Scottish poet.

Ramsey Milholland. A novel by Booth Tarkington, one of his studies of the American boy in his teens.

Ran or Rana. In Norse mythology, goddess of the sea, and wife of Ægir (q.v.). Her name signifies robbery, and it was she who caught seafarers in her net and drew them down to her dwelling beneath the

waves.

Rance, Jack. The sheriff of Belasco's Girl of the Golden West (q.v.) and Puccini's opera of the same title, based on the play. Random, Roderick. See Roderick Ran

dom.

Ranee or Rani. See Rulers, Titles of. Ranievskaia, Madame. The chief character in Chekhov's Cherry Orchard (q.v.). Raoul de Nangis. Hero of Meyerbeer's opera, The Huguenots (q.v.).

Rape of the Lock. A famous poetic satire by Alexander Pope. Lord Petre, in a thoughtless moment of frolic gallantry, cut off a lock of Arabella Fermor's hair (see Belinda); and this liberty gave rise to the bitter feud between the two families, which Pope worked up into the best heroi-comic poem of the language. The heroine, called Belinda, indignantly demanded back the ringlet, but after a fruitless charge it was affirmed that, like Berenice's hair, it had been transported to heaven, and henceforth shall "midst the stars inscribe Belinda's name."

The first sketch was published in 1712 in two cantos, and the complete work in five cantos in 1714.

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Raph'ael. (1) One of the principal angels of Jewish angelology. In the book of Tobit we are told how he travelled with Tobi'as into Me'dia and back again, instructing him on the way how to marry Sara and to drive away the wicked spirit. Milton calls him the sociable spirit,' and the affable archangel" (Paradise Lost, vii. 40), and it was he who was sent by God to advise Adam of his danger. Raphael is usually distinguished in art by a pilgrim's staff, or carrying a fish, in allusion to his aiding Tobias to capture the fish which performed the miraculous cure of his father's eyesight.

(2) The hero of Balzac's novel Le Peau de Chagrin, usually translated under the title The Wild Ass's Skin (q.v.).

The Flemish Raphael. Frans Floris (1520-1570).

The French Raphael. Eustace Lesueur (1617-1655).

The Raphael of Cats. Godefroi Mind, a Swiss painter, famous for his cats (17681814).

The Raphael of Holland. Martin van Hemskerck (1498-1574).

Rappacini's Daughter. A well-known story by Hawthorne in his Mosses from an Old Manse (Am. 1846). As a curious, cold-blooded experiment the scientist Rappacini feeds his daughter Beatrice on poisons, so that she grows up immune to their effect; but when, finally, she is given an antidote by a medical man, the wholesome drug is fatal to her. The suggestion for this story is found in the following quotation from Sir Thomas. Browne, copied into Hawthorne's American Notebook "A story there passeth of an Indian King that sent unto Alexander a faire woman fed with aconytes and other poisons, with this intent complexionally to destroy him."

Ra'ra a'vis (Lat. a rare bird). A phenomenon; a prodigy; a something quite out of the common course. First applied by Juvenal to the black swan, which, since its discovery in Australia, is quite familiar to us, but was quite unknown before.

Rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cygne (a bird rarely seen on the earth, and very like a black swan.) Juvenal, vi. 165.

Rarahu. The Tahitian heroine and the original title of Pierre Loti's Marriage of Loti (Le Mariage de Loti) (q.v.).

Rare Ben. The inscription on the tomb of Ben Jonson, the dramatist (15731637), in the Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey, reads "O rare Ben Jonson." The phrase was first used by Shakespeare.

Raskalnikov. The hero of Dostoievski's novel Crime and Punishment (q.v.).

Ras'selas. Prince of Abyssinia, in Dr. Johnson's philosophical romance of that name (1759). He dwelt in a secluded "Happy Valley," shut off from all contact with the world or with evil. This paradise was in the valley of Amhara, surrounded by high mountains. It had only one entrance, which was by a cavern under a rock concealed by woods, and closed by iron gates. The prince made his 'escape with his sister Nekayah and Imlac, the poet, and wandered about to find out what condition or rank of life was the

he found no lot without its drawbacks, and resolved to return to the "Happy Valley."

Rassendyll, Rudolf. The hero of Anthony Hope's Prisoner of Zenda (q.v.). Rastignac, Eugène de. One of Balzac's best known characters, appearing in several of the novels of the Comédie Humaine, notably Father Goriot (Le Père Goriot) and Cousin Betty (La Cousine Bette). Introduced as a struggling young law student who has come to Paris to make his fortune, Rastignac quickly becomes cynical and determines to conquer society by giving up his ideals and taking advantage of circumstances. By installing himself as the adorer of Madame de Nucingen, the daughter of his poor old fellow-boarder, Père Goriot, and wife of a wealthy financier, he manages to better his fortunes. Later he marries Augusta de Nucingen, the daughter of his former mistress, and in the course of time becomes a prominent statesman, a peer and a millionaire. He is a type of ruthless and cynical ambition.

Rat-wife, The. A hag in Ibsen's Little Eyolf, who is responsible for the death of the child hero.

Ratcliffe, Senator. The chief character in Democracy (Am. 1880), a study of the unscrupulous American politician. The novel was published anonymously, but is now attributed to Henry Adams.

Rattlin, Jack. A famous naval character in Smollett's Roderick Random (1749).

Rautendelein. The nymph in Hauptmann's drama, The Sunken Bell (q.v.).

Rava'na. A gigantic ten-faced demon of Hindu legend, who was fastened down between heaven and earth for 10,000 years by Siva's leg, for attempting to move the hill of heaven to Ceylon. He is prominent in the Hindu epic, the Ramayana (q.v.), especially because of his abduction of Rama's wife, Sita.

Raven. A bird of ill omen; fabled to forebode death and bring infection and bad luck generally. The former notion arises from their following an army under the expectation of finding dead bodies to raven on; the latter notion is a mere offshoot of the former, seeing pestilence kills as fast as the sword.

In Christian art the raven is an emblem of God's Providence, in allusion to the ravens which fed Elijah.

The fatal raven, consecrated to Odin, the Danish war god, was the emblem on