han.= Lover of "Yone" Willoughby, in _The Amber Gods_. He has
super-refined and poetical tastes; delights and revels in beauty, and
until he met Yone had admired her gentle sister. The siren, Yone, sets
herself to win him and succeeds. Marriage disenchants him and the
knowledge of this maddens her into something akin to hatred. Yet she
dies begging him to kiss her. "I am your Yone! I forgot a little
while,--but I love you, Rose, Rose!"--Harriet Prescott Spofford, _The
Amber Gods_ (1863).

=Rose of York=, the heir and head of the York faction.

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:[TN-136]

_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 Gepidae. 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.--Comtes