When Warwick perished, Edmund de la Pole became the Rose of York, and if this foolish prince should be removed by death ... his young and clever brother [Richard] would be raised to the rank of Rose of York.—W. H. Dixon, Two Queens.
Roses (War of the). The origin of this expression is thus given by Shakepeare:
Plant. Let him that is a true-born gentleman ...
If he supposes that I have pleaded truth,
From off this briar pluck a white rose with me.
Somerset. Let him that is no coward, nor no flatterer,
But dare maintain the party of the truth,
Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me.
Whereupon Warwick plucked a white rose and joined the Yorkists, while Suffolk plucked a red one and joined the Lancastrians.—Shakespeare, 1 Henry VI. act ii. sc. 4 (1589).
Rosemond, daughter of Cunimond, king of the Gepidæ. She was compelled to marry Alboin, king of the Lombards, who put her father to death A.D. 567. Alboin compelled her to drink from the skull of her own father, and Rosemond induced Peride´us (the secretary of Helmichild, her lover), to murder the wretch (573). She then married Helmichild, fled Ravenna, and sought to poison her second husband, that she might marry Longin, the exarch; but Helmichild, apprised of her intention, forced her to drink the mixture she had prepared for him. This lady is the heroine of Alfieri’s tragedy called Rosemonde (1749-1803). (See [Rosamond].)
Ro´sencrantz, a courtier in the court of Denmark, willing to sell or betray his friend and schoolfellow, Prince Hamlet, to please a king.—Shakespeare, Hamlet (1596).
Rosetta, the wicked sister of Brunetta and Blon´dina, the mothers of Cherry and Fairstar. She abetted the queen-mother in her wicked designs against the offspring of her two sisters, but, being found out, was imprisoned for life.—Comtesse D’Aunoy, Fairy Tales (“Princess Fairstar,” 1682).
Rosetta, a bright, laughing little coquette, who runs away from home because her father wants her to marry young Meadows, whom she has never seen. She enters the service of Justice Woodcock. Now, it so happens that Sir William Meadows wishes his son to marry Rosetta, whom he has never seen, and he also runs away from home, and under the name of Thomas becomes gardener to Justice Woodcock. Rosetta and young Meadows here fall in love with each other, and the wishes of the two fathers are accomplished.—Isaac Bickerstaff, Love in a Village (1763).
In 1786 Mrs. Billington made her début in “Rosetta,” at once dazzling the town with the brilliancy of her vocalization and the flush of her beauty.—C. R. Leslie.
Rosetta [Belmont], daughter of Sir Robert Belmont. Rosetta is high-spirited, witty, confident, and of good spirits. “If you told her a merry story, she would sigh; if a mournful one, she would laugh. For yes she would say ‘no,’ and for no, ‘yes.’” She is in love with Colonel Raymond, but shows her love by teasing him, and Colonel Raymond is afraid of the capricious beauty.—Edward Moore, The Foundling (1748).