Roderick Random (See RANDOM, p.898.)
Roderigo or Roderi, a Venetian gentleman in love with Desdemona. When Desdemona eloped with
Othello, Roderigo hated the “noble Moor,” and Iago took advantage of this temper for his base ends.—Shakespeare:
Othello (1611).
Roderigo’s suspicious credulity and impatient submission to the cheats
which he sees practised on him, and which, by persuasion, he suffers to be repeated, exhibit a strong
picture of a weak mind betrayed by unlawful desires to a false friend.—Dr. Johnson.
Rodhaver, the sweetheart of Zal, a Persian. Zal being about to scale her bower, she let down her long
tresses to assist him, but Zal managed to fix his crook into a projecting beam, and thus made his way to
the lady of his devotion.—Champion: Ferdosi.
Rodilardus, a huge eat, which attacked Panurge, and which he mistook for “a young soft-chinned devil.”
The word means “gnaw-lard” (Latin, rodere lardum).—Rabelais: Pantagruel, iv. 67 (1545).
He saw in a
fine painting the stories of the most famous cats: as Rodillardus [sic] hung by the heels in a council of
rats, puss in boots, the marquis de Carabas, Whittington’s cat, the writing cat, the cat turned woman,
witches in the shape of cats, and so on.—Comtesse D’Aulnoy: Fairy Tales, (“The White Cat,” 1682).(“The
marquis de Carabas.” See PUSS IN BOOTS, p. 884.)
Rodmond, chief mate of the Britannia, son of a Northumbrian engaged in the coal-trade; a hardy, weather-
beaten seaman, uneducated, “boisterous of manners,” and regardless of truth, but tender-hearted. He
was drowned when the ship struck on cape Colonna, the most southern point of Attica.
Bold without caution, without honours proud,
In art unschooled, each veteran rule he prized,
And all improvement haughtily despised.
—Falconer: The Shipwreck, i. (1756).