Mfl 



RHYMER 



KIBBON 



for this greater strictness being the same.' 

 It is chiefly, perhaps, frnin failing to satisfy this 

 nnnomirj condition that modern unrimed verse in 

 found unsatisfactory, at least for popular poetry ; 

 ami it may IK- doubted whether it is not owing to 

 the classical prejudices of scholars (lint our common 

 English blank verse got or maintained the hold it 

 hH. 



The objection that rime was ' the invention of a 

 barbarous age, to set off wretched matter and lame 

 metre,' rests mainly on ignorance of its real history. 

 It cannot be considered as the exclusive invention 

 of any particular people or age. It bMHMtUng 

 human, and universal as poetry or music tlu< 

 result of the instinctive craving for well-marked 

 recurrence and accord. The oldest poems of the 

 Chinese, Indians, and Arabs are rimed ; so are 

 those of the Irish and Welsh. In the few frag- 

 ments of the earliest Latin poetry that are extant, 

 in which the metre was of an accentual, not quanti- 

 tatixe kind, there is a manifest tendency to ter- 

 minations of similar sound. This native tendency 

 was overlaid for a time by the importation from 

 Greece of the quantitative metres ; yet even tinder 

 the dominance of this exotic system riming verses 

 were not altogether unknown ; Ovid especially 

 shows a liking for them : 



Quot cerium lUllu, tot habet tiu Roma puellu ; 



and in the decline of classicality they become more 

 common. At last, when learning began to decay 

 under the irruptions of the northern nut ions, and 

 a knowledge of the quantity of words a tiling in a 

 great measure arbitrary, and requiring to be learned 

 to be lost, the native and more natural property 

 of accent gradually reappeared as the ruling prin- 

 ciple of Latin rhythm, and along with it the tend- 

 ency to rime. It was in this new vehicle that the 

 early Christian poete sought to convey their new 

 ideas and aspirations. The rimes were at first' 

 often rude, and not sustained throughout, as if 

 lighted upon by chance. Distinct traces of the 

 adoption of rime are to ! seen as early as the 

 hymns of Hilary ( died 368 ), aud the system attained 

 its greatest perfection in the 12th and 13th cen- 

 turies. In refutation of the common opinion that 

 the I .at in hvmnologists of the middle ages Iwrrowed 

 the art of nine from the Teutonic nations, Dr (iuest 

 brings the conclusive fact that no poem exists 

 written in a Teutonic dialect with final rime before 

 i )i fried 's Evangely, which was written in Prankish 

 about 870. Alliteration hod previously been the 

 guiding principle of Teutonic rhythms : but after a 

 straggle, longer protracted in Kngland than <in the 

 Continent, it was superseded by cud-rime.-.. 



See the articles ALLITERATION, BLANK VERSE, HEXA- 

 METER, METIIK, ODE, POETRY, and SONNET; al*> Cucst'n 

 ButoryofEnilwh Xhythnu(ed. by Professor Skeat, 1882), 

 when the whole lubjeot is learnedly and elaborately 

 treated; Trench'. Soured Latin Poetry (1864); F. Wolf, 

 Urlxr die Lai*. Seguemen, unit Leiehr ( Heid. 1841 ) ; 

 and Sehipper's Englucke Metrik ( Bonn, 1881 G 



Rhymer. See THOMAS THK RIIYMKR. 



ltli> innry. a town of Monmouthshire, on the 

 river Rhymncy (running to the Hristol Channel 

 near Cardiff), 21 miles W. of Tredegar. It is the 

 seat of ironworks. Pop. ( 1861 ) 7030 ; ( 1891 ) 7733. 



Rhynrhonrlla. Bee BRACIIIOPODA. 



RhyiM'hophora. See WEEVIL. 



Itlix ll<-|l<t|>s. See SkiMMi i:. 



Kbvolilr. See LIPAIIITK. 



Rhys -I'lHN, was born near Ponterxvvd in 

 Cardiganshire, June 21, 1840, sowed a 'pupil- 

 teacher's apprenticeship, and after the course at 

 Bangor Normal College kept a school in Ang' 

 down to (lie end of 1865, when he enteriil Jesus 

 College, Oxford. He was electee! to a fellow- 



at Merton in 1869, and next continued hi* 

 studies at the Sorbonne, Heidelberg, Leipzig, and 

 Gottingen, returning in 1871 to become inspector of 

 schools for Flint and Denbigh. In 1877 he was 

 appointed professor of Celtic in the University of 

 Oxford, in Issl \v a i elected a fellow, and in MM 

 principal, of Jesu- College. II i- //><% mi \\'tlsk 



Philology ( 1877) and Celtic Britain ( I SKI' ) ( tinned 



a reputation already gained by contributions to 

 Kulin's Beitriige zur vergl. SprachfortcJiunn, the 

 Uffiif I'rlti'/iif, and the Archifologi'i ('n/nlirfntit. 

 llegave theHihhert Lectures on ( 'rltirllciitln IK/OM 

 in I SKI>, and at the close of |ss!l the Rhind Lectures 

 at Edinburgh. 1'rofrssor Hhys is a contributor to 

 the present work. 



Rhythm may 1* defined as measured or timed 

 movements, regulated succession. In order that a 

 number of parts may constitute a pleasing whole. 

 a certain relation or proportion must !* felt to per 

 vode them, and this exemplified in the arrange- 

 ment of matter into visible objects, as in M-ulptuie, 

 architecture, and other plastic arts, produces a 

 rhythm which is usually called symmetry. Rhythm 

 applied to the movement* of the body produces the. 

 i/<iiirc. 'The rhythmical arrangement of sounds 

 not articulated produces mnxi<; while from the like 

 arrangement of articulate sounds we get the 

 cadences of prose, and the measures of vene. Verse 

 may be defined as a succession of articulate sounds, 

 regulated by a rhythm so definite that we can 

 readily foresee the results which follow from its 

 application. Rhythm is also met with in prose ; 

 but in the latter its range is so wide that we ne\er 

 can anticipate its flow, while the pleasure we derive 

 from verse is founded on this very anticipation.' 



The rhythm of verse is marked in various ways. 

 In Greek and Latin, during their classic periods. 

 quantity, or the regulated succession of long and 

 short syllables, was the distinguishing mark of 

 xeise. "in the languages descended from these the 

 rhythm depends upon accent. The recurrence of 

 similar sounds, or rime, is also used, along with 

 accent, to render certain points of the rliytlun more 

 distinct, as well as to embellish it, See METRE, 

 RHYME. 



RIlYtilia, a genus of Sirenia, akin to the 

 dvgOOg and manatee, of which only one species 

 has been made known- tin- L'/iiitiim \trllcri, dis- 

 covered by liehring and the naturalist Sieller 

 when they were wrecked on liehring Island in 

 1741, and described very fully by Steller. At that 

 date they were extremely plentiful in this part 

 of the northern Pacific, but were soon almost, 

 extirpated bv the Russian hunters ami traders. 

 Nordenskiohi's inquiries led him to believe that 

 individuals were seen till the middle of I lie litth 

 century. The species was distinguished by its 

 large size, sluggishness, and its having horny plates 

 in place of teeth. The skin was rough and hair- 

 less. The Vega expedition brought home many 



skeletons. 



Rind. See WAHAIHS. 



lti:i/:ill. a town of Russia and capital of a gov- 

 ernment, stands near the right bank of the Oka, 

 115 miles by rail SK. of Moseoxv. A sliaggling, 

 ill-built town of wooden houses, it sends wheat to 

 Moscow. 1'op. 30,327. 



Rihnltn. FRANCISCO (1550-1628), and JUAH 

 (lS97-l(i-'H), painters of the school of Valencia. 



Kiblllr. See 1'RESTON. 



Kihbon. Riband, or RIBBAND (a Critic word ). 

 The principal ribbon manufacturing centre is Cov- 

 entry in Kngland, and St Ktienne and Basel abroad, 

 as also, more recently, tin- middle Rhine. Ribbons 

 were also formerly mode in Derby and Leek. In 

 Coventry the ribbon industry was commenced 



