Chapter Romano to Rory o' the Hill of R by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Rope of Ocnus (A, profitless labour. Ocnus was always twisting a rope with unwearied diligence, but an ass ate it as fast as it was twisted.

(This allegory means that Ocnus worked hard to earn money, which his wife squandered by her extravagance.)

The work of Penelopê’s web was “never ending, still beginning,” because Penelopê pulled out at night all that she had spun during the day. Her object was to defer doing what she abhorred but knew not how to avoid.

Rope-dancer (The), Yvo de Grentmesnil, the crusader, one of the leaders of Robert duke of Normandy’s party against Henry I. of England. Yvo was one of those who escaped from Antioch when it was besieged. He was let down over the wall by a rope, and to this the sobriquet refers.

Rope-maker (The Beautiful), a soubriquet of Louise Labé (1526–1565), a poetess who wrote in three languages, and who was distinguished for her courage at the siege of Perpignan.

Rope-Walk (Gone into the), taken up Old Bailey practice. The “rope” refers to the hangman’s cord.—Barristers’ Slang.

Roper (Margaret) was buried with the head of her father, sir Thomas More, between her hands.

Her, who clasped in her last trance
Her murdered father’s head.
   —Tennyson.

Roque , a blunt kind-hearted old servitor to donna Floranthê.—Colman: The Mountaineers (1793).

Roque Guinart, a freebooter, whose real name was Pedro Rocha Guinarda. He is introduced by Cervantês in Don Quixote.

Rory O’More , a novel by Lover (1836). It was dramatized. Lover wrote a ballad on the same subject.

Rory o’ the Hill, the signature adopted in 1880 by the writer of threatening letters to Irish landlords, to those who paid their rents, to those who occupied the farms of ejected tenants, etc. These letters were written under the authority of the “Irish Land League.”

(Like the Fenians, the Land Leaguers wanted to sever Ireland from the British crown.)