“Rosalinde” is an anagram for Rose Daniel, evidently a well-educated young lady of the north, and probably the “Lady Mirabella” of the Faëry Queen, vi. 7, 8. Spenser calls her “the widow’s daughter of the glen” (ecl. iv.), supposed to be either Burnley or Colne, near Hurstwood, in Yorkshire. Ecl. i. is the plaint of Colin for the loss of Rosalind. Ecl. vi. is a dialogue between Colin and Hobbinol, his friend, in which Colin laments, and Hobbinol tries to comfort him. Ecl. xii. is a similar lament to ecl. i. Rose Daniel married John Florio, the lexicographer, the “Holofernês” of Shakespeare.
Rosalind, daughter of the banished duke who went to live in the forest of Arden. Rosalind was retained in her uncle’s court as the companion of his daughter, Celia; but when the usurper banished her, Celia resolved to be her companion, and, for greater security, Rosalind dressed as a boy, and assumed the name of Ganymede, while Celia dressed as a peasant girl, and assumed the name of Aliēna. The two girls went to the forest of Arden, and lodged for a time in a hut; but they had not been long there when Orlando encountered them. Orlando and Rosalind had met before at a wrestling match, and the acquaintance was now renewed; Ganymede resumed her proper apparel, and the two were married, with the sanction of the duke.—Shakespeare, As You Like It (1598).
Nor shall the griefs of Lear be alleviated, or the charms and wit of Rosalind be abated by time.—N. Drake, M.D., Shakespeare and His Times, ii. 554 (1817).
Rosaline, the niece of Capulet, with whom Romeo was in love before he saw Juliet. Mercutio calls her “a pale-hearted wench,” and Romeo says she did not “grace for grace and love for love allow,” like Juliet.—Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1598).
*** Rosaline is frequently mentioned in the first act of the play, but is not one of the dramatis personæ.
Rosaline, a lady in attendance on the princess of France. A sharp wit was wedded to her will, and “two pitch balls were stuck in her face for eyes.” Rosaline is called “a merry, nimble, stirring spirit.” Biron, a lord in attendance on Ferdinand, king of Navarre, proposes marriage to her, but she replies:
You must be purged first, your sins are racked ...
Therefore if you my favor mean to get,
A twelvemonth shall you spend, and never rest,
But seek the weary beds of people sick.
Shakespeare, Love’s Labor’s Lost (1594).
Rosalu´ra, the airy daughter of Nantolet, beloved by Belleur.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Wild-goose Chase (1652).
Ros´amond (The Fair), Jane Clifford, daughter of Walter, Lord Clifford. The lady was loved, not wisely, but too well, by Henry II., who kept her for concealment in a labyrinth at Woodstock. Queen Eleanor compelled the frail fair one to swallow poison (1777).
She was the fayre daughter of Walter, Lord Clifford.... Henry made for her a house of wonderfull working, so that no man or woman might come to her. This house was named “Labyrinthus,” and was wrought like unto a knot, in a garden called a maze. But the queen came to her by a clue of thredde, and so dealt with her that she lived not long after. She was buried at Godstow, in a house of nunnes, with these verses upon her tombe: