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.
Rodman (Keeper, The), an ex-colonel of the Federal army, who has become the keeper of a national cemetery at the south. “At sunrise, the keeper ran up the stars and stripes, and ... he had taken money from his own store to buy a second flag for stormy weather, so that, rain or not, the colors should float over the dead.... It was simply a sense of the fitness of things.” He deviates so far from his rule as to fall in love with a Southern girl, whose nearest relative he has nursed through his last illness. She despises him as a Yankee too much to suspect this; she will not even write her name as a visitor to the National Cemetery. She goes to Tennessee to teach school, and Rodman offers to buy the uprooted vines discarded by the new owner of her cottage. “Wuth about twenty-five cents, I guess,” said the Maine man, handing them over.—Constance Fenimore Woolson (1880).
Rodmond, chief mate of the Brittania, 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.
Unskilled to argue, in dispute yet loud,
Bold without caution, without honors proud,
In art unschooled, each veteran rule he prized,
And all improvement haughtily despised.
Falconer, The Shipwreck, i. (1756).
Ro´dogune, Rhodogune, or Rho´dogyne (3 syl.), daughter of Phraa´tês, king of Parthia. She married Deme´trius Nica´nor (the husband of Cleopat´ra, queen of Syria) while in captivity.
*** P. Corneille has a tragedy on the subject entitled Rodogune (1646).
Rodolfo (Il conte). It is in the bedchamber of this count that Ami´na is discovered the night before her espousal to Elvi´no. Ugly suspicion is excited, but the count assures the young farmer that Amina walks in her sleep. While they are talking Amina is seen to get out of a window and walk along a narrow edge of the mill-roof while the huge wheel is rapidly revolving. She crosses a crazy bridge, and walks into the very midst of the spectators. In a few minutes she awakens and flies to the arms of her lover.—Bellini, La Sonnambula (opera, 1831).
Rodomont, king of Sarza or Algiers. He was Ulien’s son, and called the “Mars of Africa.” His lady-love was Dor´alis, princess of Grana´da, but she eloped with Mandricardo, king of Tartary. At Rogero’s wedding Rodomont accused him of being a renegade and traitor, whereupon they fought, and Rodomont was slain.—Orlando Innamorato (1495); and Orlando Furioso (1516).
Who so meek? I’m sure I quake at the very thought of him; why, he’s as fierce as Rodomont!—Dryden, Spanish Fryar, v. 2 (1680).
*** Rodomontade (4 syl.), from Rodomont, a bragging although a brave knight.