Chapter Rewe to Richard of Cirencester of R by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Rewe to Richard of Cirencester

Rewe A roll or slip; as Ragman's Rewe. (See Ragman .)

“There is a whole world of curious history contained in the phrase `ragman's rewe,' meaning a list, roll, catalogue, ... charter, scroll of any kind. In Piers Plowman's Vision it is used for the pope's bull.”- Edinburgh Review, July, 1870.

“In Fescenium was first invented the joylitee of mynstrelsie and syngyng merrie songs for makyng laughter, hence called `Fescennia Carmina,' which I translate a `Ragman's Rewe' or Bible.”- Udall.

Reynard the Fox The hero in the beast-epic of the fourteenth century. This prose poem is a satire on the state of Germany in the Middle Ages. Reynard typifies the church; his uncle, Isengrin the wolf, typifies the baronial element; and Nodel the lion, the regal. The word means deep counsel or wit. (Gothic, raginohart, cunning in counsel; Old Norse, hreinn and ard; German, reineke.) Reynard is commonly used as a synonym of fox. (Heinrich von Alkmaar.)

“Where prowling Reynard trod his nightly round.”
Bloomfield: Farmer's Boy.

   Reynard the Fox. Professedly by Hinreck van Alckmer, tutor of the Duke of Lorraine. This name is generally supposed to be a pseudonym of Hermann Barkhusen, town clerk and book printer in Rostock. (1498.)
   False Reynard. So Dryden describes the Unitarians in his Hind and Panther. (See Renard.)

“With greater guile
False Reynard fed on consecrated spoil;
The graceless beast by Athanasius first
Was chased from Nice, then by Socinus nursed.”
Part i. 51-54.

Reynardine (3 syl.). The eldest son of Reynard the Fox, who assumed the names of Dr. Pedanto and Crabron. (Reynard the Fox.)

Reynold of Montalbon One of Charlemagne's knights and paladins.

Rezio (See Doctor Rezio .)

Rhadamanthos One of the three judges of hell; Minos and AEacos being the other two. (Greek mythology.)

Rhampsinitos The Greek form of Rameses III., the richest of the Egyptian kings, who amassed seventy- seven millions sterling, which he secured in a treasury of stone, but by an artifice of the builder he was robbed every night.
   Herodotos (bk. ii. chap. 121) tells us that two brothers were the architects of the treasury, and that they placed in the wall a removable stone, through which they crept every night to purloin the store. The king, after a time, noticed the diminution, and set a trap to catch the thieves. One of the brothers was caught in the trap, but the other brother, to prevent detection, cut off his head and made good his escape.
    This tale is almost identical with that of Trophonios, told by Pausanias. Hyrieus (3 syl.) a Boeotian king employed Trophonios and his brother to build him a treasury. In so doing they also contrived to place in the wall a removable stone, through which they crept nightly to purloin the king's stores. Hyrieus also set a trap to catch the thief, and one of the brothers was caught; but Trophonios cut off his head to prevent detection, and made good his escape. There cannot be a doubt that the two tales are in reality one and the same.

Rhapsody means songs strung together. The term was originally applied to the books of the Iliad and Odyssey, which at one time were in fragments. Certain bards collected together a number of the fragments, enough to make a connected “ballad,” and sang them as our minstrels sang the deeds of famous heroes. Those bards who sang the Iliad wore a red robe, and those who sang the Odyssey a blue one. Pisistratos of Athens had all these fragments carefully compiled into their present form (Greek rapto, to sew or string together; ode, a song.)

Rhene (1 syl.). The Rhine. (Latin, Rhenus.)

“To pass
Rhene or the Danaw [Danube].”
Milton: Paradise Lost, bk. i. 353.

Rhine or Rhineland. The country of Gunther, King of Burgundy, is so called in the Nibelungen-Lied.

“Not a lord of Rhineland could follow where he flew.”
Lettsom's Nibelungen-Lied, st. 210.

Rhino Ready