RALEIGH 



Hamilton, and G. R. Sims, or 

 alone, as in The Sins of Society, 

 1907 ; The Whip, 1909 ; and 

 Sealed Orders, 1913. He died 

 Nov. 10, 1914. 



Raleigh OR RALEGH, SIR WALTER 

 (c. 1552-1618). English soldier, 

 sailor, courtier, and writer. Son 

 of Walter Raleigh, he was born at 

 Hayes Barton, near Budleigh 

 Salterton, south Devonshire, and 

 educated at Oriel College, Oxford. 

 After service with the Huguenots 

 in France and the Netherlands, 

 1569-78, he went on a voyage of 

 discovery' with his half-brother, 

 Sir Humphrey Gilbert, reaching 

 the West Indies. He next took 

 part in the suppression of Des- 

 mond's rebellion in Ireland, where 

 later he was granted large tracts of 

 confiscated land in Munster, ac- 

 quired the famous house known as 

 Myrtle Grove at Youghal, and built 

 another house at Lismore. He 

 appeared at the English court in 

 1581, and became a prime favourite 

 with Elizabeth, who knighted him 

 in 1584. For the story that he first 

 gained the queen's favour by plac- 

 ing his cloak over a muddy pool in 

 her path, there is no earlier 

 authority than Fuller's Worthies 

 of England, 1662. 



In 1578 and 1583 Raleigh was 

 associated with the unsuccessful 

 attempts of Sir Humphrey Gilbert 

 to plant a colony in N. America. 

 Gilbert was lost at sea, 1583, and 

 in 1584 Raleigh, though not per- 

 mitted to go himself, fitted out an 

 expedition which planted itself in 

 what is now known as North 

 Carolina, probably on the island of 

 Roanoke. Raleigh named the 

 colony Virginia, a name given for 

 many years to the whole seaboard 

 from Florida to Newfoundland. 

 Other expeditions followed in suc- 

 cessive years, one under Raleigh's 

 cousin Sir Richard Grenville, and 

 from Virginia tobacco and potatoes 

 were first introduced into England 

 and Ireland. The patent granted 

 to Raleigh in 1584 lapsed to the 

 crown in 1603, and the realization 

 of his dream of a Greater England 

 overseas was postponed until he 

 was a prisoner in the Tower and 

 the idea was taken up by others 

 as a commercial enterprise. 



Appointed vice-admiral of Devon 

 and Cornwall, 1585, Raleigh helped 

 to draw up a plan of defence against 

 invasion in 1588, but it is doubtful 

 if he took any personal part in the 

 fight with the Spanish Armada. 

 Meanwhile Essex, with whom he 

 quarrelled, superseded him in the 

 queen's favour, and he was com- 

 mitted to the Tower, July, 1592, 

 for an intrigue with Elizabeth 

 Throgmorton, one of the queen's 

 maids of honour, his subsequent 



6479 



marriage to whom caused him to 

 be ostracised from court. M.P. 

 for Michael, Cornwall, 1593, he 

 made his famous voyage to the 

 Orinoco in quest of El Eldorado 

 in 1595, and in 1596, being restored 

 to favour, he took a leading part, 

 with Essex, in the Cadiz expedi- 

 tion, and distinguished himself at 

 the Azores in 1597. M.P. for Dorset, 



After Zucchero 



1597, and for Cornwall, 1601, in 

 1600-3 he was governor of Jersey. 

 On the accession of James I, 

 1603, when the air was thick with 

 political intrigues, Raleigh was 

 charged with plotting against 

 the new king, and favouring the 

 cause of Arabella Stuart. After a 

 scandalously unfair trial he was 

 found guilty and condemned to 

 death. Reprieved on the scaffold, 

 he was sent to the Bloody Tower, 

 where, with his wife and son, he 

 lived until Jan. 30, 1616, when he 

 was released to lead another ex- 

 pedition to the Orinoco. As was 

 inevitable, he came into collision 

 with the Spaniards. The ex- 

 pedition left England in April, 



1617. Raleigh returned June, 1618, 

 and his punishment being de- 

 manded by the Spanish minister, 

 he was arrested, and Bacon, then 

 lord chancellor, acquiescing, he was 

 arraigned on the old charge of 

 treason,, and executed in Old 

 Palace Yard, Westminster, Oct. 29, 



1618, his remains being interred 

 in S. Margaret's (q.v.) The tercen- 

 tenary of his death was celebrated 

 in England and America in 1918. 



Raleigh was the incarnation of 

 the spirit of the Elizabethan era. 

 As courtier, soldier, sailor, politi- 

 cian, poet, historian, chemist, he 

 took rank among the foremost of 

 his fellows. He was the pioneer of 

 British colonial empire. A friend 

 of Spenser, who called him Shep- 

 herd of the Ocean, and whom he 

 visited at Kilcolman, he was also 



RALPH 



a friend of Marlowe, and the 

 foundation of the Mermaid Club 

 (q.v.), in Friday Street, Cheapside, 

 is attributed to him. His works 

 include The Last Fight of the 

 Revenge, 1591 ; The Discovery of 

 Guiana, 1596 ; Relation of Cadiz 

 Action, first printed 1805 ; History 

 of the World (to the second Mace- 

 donian War), 1614, in which he 

 was assisted by Jonson and other 

 scholars, a work written in the 

 Tower, and ending with the cele- 

 brated apostrophe- ,to death ; 

 The Prerogative of Parliaments, 

 first published 1628 ; The Cabinet 

 Council, pub. 1658 ; A Discourse 

 of War; Apology for the Voyage 

 to Guiana ; and a number of 

 poems, of which the most notable 

 are The Pilgrimage ; The Lie ; Reply 

 to Marlowe's Come Live With Me 

 and Be My Love; and A Poesy 

 to prove Affection is Not Love. 



Bibliography. Works, 8 vols., 

 with Lives by Oldys and Birch, 

 ] 829 ; Poeins, with Life by Sir 

 E. Brydges, 1813 ; Poems, ed. J. 

 Hannah, 1892 ; Lives, E. Edwards, 

 1868 ; J. A. St. John, 1868 ; E. 

 Gosse, 1886 ; M. A. S. Hume, 1897 ; 

 W. Stebbing, new ed. 1899 ; J. B. 

 Rodd, 1904; H. de Selincourt, 1908; 

 Sir W. Raleigh in Ireland, Sir J. 

 Pope Hennossy, 1883 ; State Trials, 

 ed. H. L. Stephen, 1899; Great 

 Englishmen of the 16th century, 

 Sir S. Lee, 1904 ; Bibliography of 

 Sir Walter Raleigh, T. N. Brush- 

 field, 1886, new ed. 1908. 



Raleigh, Sm WALTER (1861- 

 1922). British scholar. Son of a 

 Congregational minister, A. Ral- 

 eigh, he was educated at Univer- 

 sity College, London, and King's 

 College, Cambridge. He became 

 professor of modern literature at 

 University College, Liverpool, and 

 in 1890 of English literature at Glas- 

 gow. In 1904 Raleigh moved to 

 Oxford as professor of English lit- 

 erature. He was knighted in 1911. 

 Raleigh's writings include The 

 English Novel, 1894 ; Style, 1897 ; 

 Romance, 1917 ; and books on 

 Stevenson, Milton, Wordsworth. 

 He died, May 13, 1922. 



Rales (Fr., rattlings). Sounds 

 heard through the stethoscope, or 

 on applying the ear to the chest, in 

 certain diseases of the lungs or 

 bronchi. Pron. rahl. 



Rallentando. Musical term. Of 

 Italian origin, it signifies gradually 

 decreasing the speed of music, 

 most frequently at the end of a 

 piece or of an important section 

 thereof, but also employed towards 

 the close of a phrase and other 

 places, cf. Ritardando. 



Ralph Roister Doister. Early 

 English comedy. Written by 

 Nicholas Udall (q.v.), and first pro- 

 duced about 1551 at Westminster 

 School, where it was revived in 



