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

is a slab of basalt that was unearthed in Egypt during
Napoleon’s military campaign in the country
in 1799. Because it bore the same script in both
Greek and hieroglyphics, the French scholar Jean
François Champillon (1790–1832) was able (after
many years’ work) to translate the hitherto
unknown hieroglyphic characters. <strong>The</strong> stone itself
is now preserved in the British Museum. “Perhaps
we shall be lucky and discover another ‘dictionary’
like the Rosetta Stone” ( John Grant, <strong>The</strong> Great
Unsolved Mysteries of Science, 1990).
Rosinante See don quixote.
Rose Without a Thorn An epithet of the Virgin
Mary. <strong>The</strong> name alludes to the fact that according to
Catholic tradition Mary is deemed to be without the
taint of Original Sin, just as the rose lacked thorns
when it fi rst grew in Paradise; it acquired its thorns
(sins) when planted on Earth after the expulsion of
Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, thus coming
to represent the moral imperfections of the
human race. To the other villagers she was a perfect example
of innocence and virtue, a Rose Without a Thorn.
Rothschild (rothschild) A fabulously wealthy
person. <strong>The</strong> fortune of the Rothschild banking
family was founded during the Napoleonic Wars
by Meyer Amschel Rothschild (1743–1812) and
was subsequently substantially consolidated by his
sons and their successors. Over the years the family
has used some of its vast wealth to benefi t a
range of Jewish and non- Jewish causes. Unfortunately,
like many third world countries, there are no
native Rothschilds to whom to make appeals for additional
local fi nance.
rounceval (rownsival) Very large or strong. Also
spelled rouncival, the word is probably an
round up the usual suspects
anglicization of Roncesvalles, in Spain, where
roland and his colleagues fell in their fi nal battle.
Years later various large bones found at the site
were rumored to belong to these great heroes.
Large marrowfat peas are sometimes called
rounceval peas, and substantially built women
may sometimes be dubbed rouncevals. <strong>The</strong> abbess
was of such imposing proportions that Rounceval, nay,
Gargantuan, would not have been misplaced.
round table A meeting at which all attending are
considered equal, with no one having pre ce dence
over the others. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to the fabled circular
table that king arthur provided for his knights,
the so- called knights of the Round Table: because
of its shape no one could sit at its head and thus
claim se niority over all present. A round table
(allegedly made by the wizard merlin) kept on
permanent display inside Castle Hall in the En glish
city of Winchester was formerly claimed to be
that of King Arthur, but has since been proved to
have been made in the 13th century, probably on
the orders of King Edward I, who wished to link
his kingship with that of the legendary Arthur
(Henry VIII later had it repainted to show it off to
Francis I of France). <strong>The</strong> two leaders fi rst met at a
round table or ga nized to bring together many of the most
infl uential po liti cal fi gures of the developed world. See
also fi rst among equals; galahad.
round up the usual suspects To make a show of
investigating a problem or wrongdoing without
any real intention of fi nding out who or what is
actually to blame. <strong>The</strong> phrase is a quotation from
the 1942 Humphrey Bogart movie Casablanca, in
which it is delivered by slippery French policeman
Captain Reynaud (played by Claude Rains), making
it plain to Bogart’s Rick that there will be no
thorough police investigation into who (actually
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