Silence, ye wolves! while Ralph to Cynthia howls,
Making night hideous; answer him ye owls.
Pope, The Dunciad, iii. 165 (1728).
Ralph [de Lascours], captain of the Uran´ia, husband of Louise de Lascours. Ralph is the father of Diana and Martha, alias Orgari´ta. His crew having rebelled, Ralph, his wife, infant [Martha], and servant, Bar´abas, were put into a boat, and turned adrift. The boat ran on a huge iceberg, which Ralph supposed to be a small island. In time, the iceberg broke, when Ralph and his wife were drowned, but Martha and Barabas escaped. Martha was taken by an Indian tribe, who brought her up, and named her Orgarita (“withered corn”), because her skin was so white and fair.—E. Stirling, Orphan of the Frozen Sea (1856).
Ralph Roister Doister, by Nicholas Udall, the first English comedy, about 1534. It contains nine male and four female characters. Ralph is a vain, thoughtless, blustering fellow, who is in pursuit of a rich widow named Custance, but he is baffled in his intention.
Ramble (Sir Robert), a man of gallantry, treats his wife with such supreme indifference that she returns to her guardian, Lord Norland, and resumes her maiden name of Marie Wooburn. Subsequently, however, she returns to her husband.
Mrs. Ramble, wife of Sir Robert, and ward of Lord Norland.—Inchbald, Every One Has His Fault (1794).
Ram´iel (3 syl.), one of the “atheist crew” overthrown by Ab´diel. (The word means, according to Hume, “one who exalts himself against God.”)—Milton, Paradise Lost, vi. 371 (1665).
Raminago´bris. Lafontaine, in his fables, gives this name to a cat. Rabelais, in his Pantag´ruel, iii. 21, satirizes under the same name Guillaume Crétin, a poet.
Rami´rez, a Spanish monk, and father confessor to Don Juan, duke of Braganza. He promised Velasquez, when he absolved the duke at bed-time, to give him a poisoned wafer prepared by the Carmelite Castruccio. This he was about to do, when he was interrupted, and the breaking out of the rebellion saved the duke from any similar attempt.—Robert Jephson, Braganza (1775).
Rami´ro (King) married Aldonza, who, being faithless, eloped with Alboa´zar, the Moorish king of Gaya. Ramiro came disguised as a traveller to Alboazar’s castle, and asked a damsel for a draught of water, and when he lifted the pitcher to his mouth, he dropped in it his betrothal ring, which Aldonza saw and recognized. She told the damsel to bring the stranger to her apartment. Scarce had he arrived there when the Moorish king entered, and Ramiro hid himself in an alcove. “What would you do to Ramiro,” asked Aldonza, “if you had him in your power?” “I would hew him limb from limb,” said the Moor. “Then lo! Alboazar, he is now skulking in that alcove.” With this, Ramiro was dragged forth, and the Moor said, “And how would you act if our lots were reversed?” Ramiro replied, “I would feast you well, send for my chief princes and counsellors, and set you before them and bid you blow your horn till you died.” “Then be it so,” said the Moor. But when Ramiro blew his horn, his “merry men” rushed into the castle, and the Moorish king, with Aldonza and all their children, princes, and counsellors, were put to the sword.—Southey, Ramiro (a ballad from the Portuguese, 1804).
Ramona, young Indian woman, who, in defiance of her duenna’s fierce opposition, goes out into the wide world with gallant Alessandro. The struggles and disappointments of the wedded pair, and their oppression by Indian agents are told in Helen Hunt Jackson’s novel, Ramona, (1884).