The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

usinessmen who amassed vast fortunes in various
capitalist enterprises in the second half of the 19th
century by Matthew Josephson in his book <strong>The</strong>
Robber Barons: <strong>The</strong> Great American Capitalists 1861–
1901 (1934). <strong>The</strong>se tycoons acquired notorious
reputations for their grasping ways and they remain
today archetypal examples of the greedy capitalist
making his fortune off the backs of his toiling
employees. In those days the very presidency of the
United States remained largely in the gift of America’s
robber barons.
Robert the Bruce (broos) A person who perseveres
after initial failure. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to the tale
of Robert I (1274–1329), king of Scotland, who at
one point early in his reign is said to have gone
into hiding from his En glish enemies on the island
of Rathlin. <strong>The</strong>re he noticed a spider struggling to
fi x its web to a beam in the ceiling; after six failed
attempts, the spider fi nally succeeded, inspiring
Bruce himself to make renewed efforts to rally his
followers and lead them to victory at the Battle of
Bannockburn in 1314. Like Robert the Bruce, he kept
on trying until he eventually passed the examination.
Robespierre (robzpyair) A tyrannical despot.
Maximilian Marie Isidore de Robespierre (1758–
94) emerged as one of the radical leaders of the
French Revolution that swept away the French
aristocracy in 1789. It was Robespierre who instituted
the bloody reign of terror that led to the
deaths of thousands of people on the guillotine
including, after his rivals became jealous of his
growing power, Robespierre himself. <strong>The</strong> mob had
created its own Robespierre, who had no hesitation in
engineering the arrest and execution of anyone who
opposed his policies. See also jacobin.
Robin See batman and robin.
Robin Goodfellow See puck.
Robin Hood A person who takes from the rich
and gives to the poor. Robin Hood was an En glish
folk hero whose historical existence, allegedly during
the reign of King John (1167–1216), has been
a subject of heated discussion for centuries. He is
variously claimed to have been a dispossessed
nobleman who lived in Yorkshire or in Sherwood
Forest near Nottingham and there to have gathered
round him a band of merry men—including
friar tuck and Little John—with whom he
waylaid wealthy men traveling through the forest,
later sharing among the poor any wealth they had
seized. Numerous tales of his life and death, and
his love for the beautiful Maid Marian, were
recorded in ballads and poems, and various locations
in northeast En gland bear his name. “Backless
Hill, to the north of the loch, was the
18th- century lair of a Caithness ‘Robin Hood’ said
to have robbed the rich and given to the poor”
(Bruce Sandison, Tales of the Loch, 1990). See also
sheriff of nottingham.
Robinson, Heath See heath robinson.
Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe (robinsbn krooso) A person
who lives in either voluntary or enforced isolation,
especially on a desert island or in some other
remote spot. Robinson Crusoe is the eponymous
central character, a castaway on a remote desert
island, in the classic best- selling novel <strong>The</strong> Life and
Strange Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719) by Daniel
Defoe (1660–1731). Defoe based his famous
character upon a real person, Alexander Selkirk
(1676–1721), who was marooned on the island of
Más a Tierra in the South Pacifi c after falling foul
of his shipmates, though only for four years compared
to the 24 endured by the fi ctional Crusoe.
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