Chapter Rotten Row to Round Table of R by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Rotten Row to Round Table

Rotten Row Muster row. Camden derives the word from rotteran (to muster); hence rot, a file of six soldiers. Another derivation is the Norman Ratten Row (roundabout way), being the way corpses were carried to avoid the public thoroughfares. Others suggest Route du roi; and others the Anglo-Saxon rot, pleasant, cheerful; or rotton, referring to the soft material with which the road is covered.

Rotundity of the Belt (Washington Irving). Obesity; a large projecting paunch; what Shakespeare calls a “fair round belly with good capon lined.” (As You Like It, ii. 7.)

Roue The profligate Duke of Orleans, Regent of France, first used this word in its modern sense. It was his ambition to collect round him companions as worthless as himself, and he used facetiously to boast that there was not one of them who did not deserve to be broken on the wheel- that being the most ordinary punishment for malefactors at the time; hence these profligates went by the name of Orleans' roués or wheels. The most notorious roués were the Dukes of Richelieu, Broglie, Biron, and Brancas, together with Canillac and Nocé; in England, the Dukes of Rochester and Buckingham.
   A notorious roué. A libertine.

Rouen Aller á Rouen. To go to ruin. The French are full of these puns, and our merry forefathers indulged in them also.
   (1) Il a fait son cours à Asnières. He knows nothing; he graduated at Dunse [Dunce] College.
   (2) Aller à Cachan. To give leg-bail, or “se cacher” [de ses créanciers]; to go to Hyde [Hide] Park.
   (3) Aller à Dourdan. To go to be whipped (douder, être battu); to be on the road to Flogny.
   (4) Vous êtes de Lagny, vous n'avez pas hâte. I see you are a man of Laggon. Don't hurry yourself, Mr. Slowcoach.
   (5) Il est de Lunel, Il a une chambre à Lunel, Il est des Luniers d'Orléans, or Il est Logé à la Lune. He îs a lunatic.
   (6) Envoyer à Mortaigne. To be slain, or sent to Deadham.
   (7) Aller à Patras. To die; to be gathered to one's fathers (ad patres).
   (8) Aller à Versailles. To be going to the bad. Here the pun is between Versa-illes and renverser. This wretched pun is about equal to such a phrase as “Going to Downham.”
   The Bloody Feast of Rouen (1356). Charles the Dauphin gave a banquet to his private friends at Rouen, to which his brother-in-law Charles the Bad was invited. While the guests were at table King Jean entered the room with a numerous escort, exclaiming, “Traitor, thou art not worthy to sit at table with my son!” Then, turning to his guards, he added, “Take him hence! By holy Paul, I will neither eat nor drink till his head be brought me!” Then, seizing an iron mace from one of the men-at-arms, he struck another of the guests between the shoulders, exclaiming, “Out, proud traitor! by the soul of my father, thou shalt not live!” Four of the guests were beheaded on the spot.

Rouge (A), i.e. a red cap, a red republican, a democrat.

“She had all the furious prejudices and all the instinctive truths in her of an uncompromising Rouge.”- Ouida: Under Two Flags, chap. xxxiv.

Rouge Croix One of the pursuivants of the heraldic establishment. So called from the red cross of St. George, the patron saint of England.

Rouge Dragon The pursuivant founded by Henry VII.; it was the ensign of Cadwaladyr, the last king of the Britons, an ancestor of Henry Tudor.

Rouge et Noir (French, red and black). A game of chance; so called because of the red and black diamonds marked on the board. The dealer deals out to noir first till the sum of the pips exceeds thirty, then to rouge in the same manner. That packet which comes nearest to thirty-one is the winner of the stakes.

Rough-hewn Shaped in the rough, not finished, unpolished, ill-mannered, raw; as a “rough-hewn seaman” (Bacon); a “rough-hewn discourse” (Howel).

Rough Music called in Somersetshire skimmity-riding, and by the Basques toberac. A ceremony which takes place after sunset, when the performers, to show their indignation against some man or woman