Rouncewell (Mrs.), housekeeper at Chesney Wold to Lord and Lady Dedlock, to whom she is most faithfully attached.—C. Dickens, Bleak House (1823).
Round Table (The), a table made at Carduel, by Merlin, for Uther, the pendragon. Uther gave it to King Leodegraunce, of Camelyard, and when Arthur married Guinever (the daughter of Leodegraunce), he received the table with a hundred knights as a wedding present (pt. i. 45). The table would seat 150 knights (pt. iii. 36), and each seat was appropriated. One of them was called the “Siege Perilous,” because it was fatal for any one to sit therein, except the knight who was destined to achieve the Holy Graal (pt. iii. 32). King Arthur instituted an order of knighthood called “the knights of the Round Table,” the chief of whom were Sir Launcelot, Sir Tristram, and Sir Lamerock, or Lamorake. The “Siege Perilous” was reserved for Sir Galahad, the son of Sir Launcelot by Elaine.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur (1470).
*** There is a table shown at Winchester, as “Arthur’s Round Table,” but it corresponds in no respect with the Round Table described in the History of Prince Arthur. Round Tables are not unusual, as Dr. Percy has shown, with other kings in the times of chivalry. Thus, the king of Ireland, father of Christabelle, had his “knights of the Round Table.”—See “Sir Cauline,” in Percy’s Reliques.
In the eighth year of Edward I., Roger de Mortimer established at Kenilworth, a Round Table for “the encouragement of military pastimes.” Some seventy years later, Edward III. had his Round Table at Windsor; it was 200 feet in diameter.
Rousseau (Jean Jacques) used to say that all fables which ascribe speech and reason to dumb animals ought to be withheld from children, as being only vehicles of deception.
I shall not ask Jean Jacques Rousseau
If birds confabulate or no;
’Tis clear that they were always able
To hold discourse—at least in fable.
Cowper, Pairing-Time Anticipated (1782).
Roustam or Rostam, the Persian Herculês. He was the son of Zal, and a descendant of Djamshid At one time Roustam killed 1000 Tartars at a blow; he slew dragons, overcame devils, captured cities, and performed other marvellous exploits. This mighty man of strength fell into disgrace for refusing to receive the doctrines of Zoroaster, and died by the hand of one of his brothers named Scheghad (sixth century B.C.).
Routledge (Harold). First love of Lilian Westbrook, in The Banker’s Daughter. They have a lover’s quarrel and separate. Lilian, to save her father from poverty, marries another man. Meeting Harold in after years, her love revives. When he challenges a Frenchman who has spoken lightly of her, she follows him to the field in time to receive his last breath and sob in his ear—“I have loved you—you only—from the first.”—Bronson Howard, The Banker’s Daughter, (1878).
Rover, a dissolute young spark, who set off vice “as naughty but yet nice.”—Mrs. Behn, The Rover (1680).
William Mountford [1660-1692] had so much in him of the agreeable, that when he played “The Rover,” it was remarked by many, and particularly by Queen Mary, that it was dangerous to see him act—he made vice so alluring.—C. Dibdin, History of the Stage.