René, the old king of Provence, father of Queen Margaret of Anjou (wife of Henry VI. of England). A minstrel-monarch, friend to the chase and tilt, poetry, and music. Thiebault says he gave in largesses to knights-errant and minstrels more than he received in revenue (ch. xxix.).—Sir W. Scott, Anne of Geierstein (time, Edward IV.).
René (2 syl.), the hero and title of a romance by Châteaubriand (1801). It was designed for an episode to his Génie du Christianisme (1802). René is a man of social inaction, conscious of possessing a superior genius, but his pride produces in him a morbid bitterness of spirit.
René [Leblanc], notary public of Grand Pré, in Arcadia (Nova Scotia). Bent with age, but with long yellow hair flowing over his shoulders. He was the father of twenty children, and had a hundred grandchildren. When Acadia was ceded by the French to England, George II. confiscated the goods of the simple colonists, and drove them into exile. René went to Pennsylvania, where he died, and was buried.—Longfellow, Evangeline (1849).
Renton (Dr.). A Boston physician, whose best friend, dying, leaves a letter charging Renton, “In the name of the Saviour, be true and tender to mankind.” The doctor believes himself to be haunted by the ghost of this man, intent upon inforcing the admonition, and the needy and the afflicted profit by the hallucination.—William D. O’Connor, The Ghost.
Rentowel (Mr. Jabesh), a covenanting preacher.—Sir W. Scott, Waverley (time, George II.).
With vehemence of some pulpit-drumming Gowkthrapple, or “precious” Mr. Jabesh Rentowel.—Carlyle.
Renzo and Lucia, the hero and heroine of an Italian novel by Alessandro Manzoni, entititled The Betrothed Lover (“I Promessi Sposi”). This novel contains an account of the Bread Riot and plague of Milan. Cardinal Borro´meo is also introduced. There is an English translation (1827).
Republican Queen, (The), Sophie Charlotte, wife of Frederick I. of Prussia.
Resequenz, wily major-domo to the duke of Romagna, audacious, unscrupulous and treacherous.—William Waldorf Astor, Valentino (1886).
Resolute (The), John Florio, philologist (1545?-1625). Translated Montaigne’s Essays and wrote a French and English Dictionary called a World of Words. One of the few autographs of Shakespeare is in a copy of Florio’s Montaigne in the British Museum.