snub me,
When in scarlet I'm arrayed;
Or my feyther 'temp to drub me--
Let him frown, but who's afraid?

Bickerstaff, _The Maid of the Mill_ (1647).

_Ralph_ or RALPHO, the squire of Hudibras. Fully described in bk. i.
457-644.--S. Butler, _Hudibras_ (1663-78).

The prototype of "Ralph" was Isaac Robinson, a zealous butcher, in
Morefields. Ralph represents the independent party, and Hudibras the
Presbyterian.

[Asterism] In regard to the pronunciation of this name, which, in 1878,
was the subject of a long controversy in _Notes and Queries_, Butler
says:

A squire he had whose name was Ralph,
That in th' adventure went his half: ...
And when we can, with metre safe,
We'll call him Ralpho, or plain Ra'ph.

Bk. l. 456.

_Ralph_ (_Rough_), the helper of Lance Outram, park-keeper at Sir
Geoffrey Peveril's of the Peak.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_
(time, Charles II.).

_Ralph_ (_James_), an American, who came to London and published a poem
entitled _Night_ (1725).

Silence, ye wolves! while Ralph to Cynthia howls,
Making night hideous; answer him ye owls.

Pope, _The Dunciad_, iii. 165 (1728).

_Ralph_ [DE LASCOURS], captain of the _Uran'ia_, husband of Louise de
Lascours. Ralph is the father of Diana and Martha, _alias_ Orgari'ta.
His crew having rebelled, Ralph, his wife, infant [Martha], and servant,
Bar'abas, were put into a boat, and turned adrift. The boat ran on a
huge iceberg, which Ralph supposed to be a small island. In time, the
iceberg broke, when Ralph and his wife were drowned, but Martha and
Barabas escaped. Martha was taken by an Indian tribe, who brought her
up, and named her Orgarita ("withered corn"), because her skin was so
white and fair.--E. Stirling, _Orphan of the Frozen Sea_ (1856).

=Ralph Roister Doister=, by Nicholas Udall, the first English comedy,
about 1534. It contains nine male and four female characters. Ralph is a
vain, thoughtless, blustering fellow, who is in pursuit of a rich widow
named Custance, but he is baffled in his intention.

=Ramble= (_Sir Robert_), a man of gallantry, treats his wife with such
supreme indifference that she returns to her guardian, Lord Norland, and
resumes her maiden name of Marie Wooburn. Subsequently, however, she
returns to her husband.

_Mrs. Ramble_, wife of Sir Robert, and ward of Lord Norland.--Inchbald,
_Every One Has His Fault_ (1794).

=Ram'iel= (3 _syl._), one o