190 R O K 
ale-houses (cabarets), and places of debauchery; or if not 
totally silenced, that one of the strings of their fiddles 
should be cut off, and they reduced to their ancient level, 
and be allowed to play on no instrument but the three¬ 
stringed rebec. 
They had commenced a suit against the city dancing- 
masters, and obtained a solemn sentence against them, Ja¬ 
nuary 14th, 1667. No company was ever more discordant, 
more tumultuous; all the courts of justice rang with thair 
divisions and quarrels, by which the law was enriched, and 
the public amused, at their expense. The interregnum 
lasted from 1685 to 1741, when the celebrated Guignon, 
the violinist, was ambitious of having the royalty revived in 
his favour. The king had the goodness to comply with 
his request, and honoured him with the minstrel crown, on 
the 15th of June the same year. But his election awaken¬ 
ing a desire to revive certain prerogatives, which he pre¬ 
tended to be inherent in his crown, he had suits and actions 
to defend against a host of musicians, particularly the or¬ 
ganists, who obtained a complete victory; and Guignon, 
willing to give a proof of his love for the arts and disin¬ 
terestedness, generously, and voluntarily, resigned his sove¬ 
reignty of king of the minstrels. 
ROIBON, a town of France, department of the Isere, 
on the river Galaure. Population 2300. It has some manu¬ 
factures of woollens; 22 miles west-north-west of Grenoble. 
ROIN, s. [rogne , Fr. from rogner, to eat, to corrode.] 
A scab; a scurf. Not in use. —Withouten blaine, or scabbe, 
or roine. Chaucer. 
To ROIN. See To Royne. 
ROI'NISH. See Roynish. 
ROINT, or Roynt, adv. Aroynt; begone; standoff. 
See Aroynt. Roynt thee, witch-, i. e. get out of my way, 
witch. North. Grose. 
ROIOC, in botany, a barbarous South American, or 
perhaps Spanish, name, for one of Plumier’s genera, referred 
by other botanists to Morinoa ; see that article. 
ROISELLE, a town of France, department of the 
Somme. Population 1200 ;. 6 miles east of Peronne. 
ROISSY, a village in the north of France, with 1200 in¬ 
habitants. 
To ROIST, To Roister, v. n. [of this word the most 
probable etymology is from hrister , Icelandic, a violent 
man.] To behave turbulently; to act at discretion ; to be 
at free quarter; to bluster. 
Among a crew of roist'ring fellows. 
He’d sit whole evenings at the alehouse. Swift. 
ROI'STER, s. [hrister, Icel. See the verb Rustre, Fr. 
“ a ruffian, swaggerer, saucy, scurvy fellow.” Cot grave .] 
A turbulent, brutal, lawless, blustering fellow. Roisterer 
is used in the noith.—There was, about half a year since, 
one that pretended himself a minister, &c. but at last was 
found to have gone under three names, and in as several 
habits, of a minister, an ordinary lay-man, and a roaster. 
Ahp. Laud. 
ROITSCH, a village of Prussian Saxony, in the govern¬ 
ment of Merseburg, with 2700 inhabitants. 
ROKEBY, a village of England, North Riding of 
Yorkshire, between Barnard Castle and Greta-bridge. 
ROKEJECA, in botany, an Arabic name, applied by 
Forskall, FI. /Egypt. Arab. 90, and adopted by Jussieu, 
Gen. 313, for a supposed genus of the natural order of Por- 
tulacece, found in sandy waste ground about Cairo. Jussieu 
supposes it akin to Trianthema. The capsule however is 
said to have only one cell, and there is a corolla of fivepetals. 
ROKELY, a village of England, in Wiltshire, north¬ 
west of Marlborough. 
ROKIT, Cape, a cape on the north coast of Africa, at the 
entrance into the straits of Babelmande!; 60 miles west of 
cape Guardefai. 
HOKITNO, a town of Lithuania, in the palatinate of 
Brzesk; 72 miles east-south-east of Pinsk. 
ROK1TZAN, or Rokyczany, a to yn of. Bohemia. It 
R O L 
was the native place of John Rokitzany, the celebrated 
Hussite general. Population 23008 miles east of Pilsen, 
and 42 west-south-west of Prague. 
ROKOS, an isle, or rather large rock, which, according 
to M. Kerguelen, is situated in north lat. 57. 50. and long. 
16. west of Paris; or about 5° south-west of St. Kilda. 
ROKOSNIA, a town of Poland, in the palatinate of 
Braclaw, on the Bog; 16 miles west-north-west of Braclaw. 
RO'KY, adj. [ roock , Teut. rook-damp, vapour. Kilian.] 
Misty; cloudy. Prompt. Parv. It is pronounced rooky in 
the north; as, rooky weather. Ray calls it a variation of 
dialect for reeky. 
ROLAND (de la Platiere), J. M., bom at Villafrancho, 
near Lyons, of a family distinguished in the profession of the 
law. He was the youngest of five brothers, left orphans 
and without fortune. To avoid entering into the church, 
like his elder brothers, he left home at the age of nineteen, 
alone, without money, or friends; he traversed a part of 
France on foot, and arrived at Nantes, intending to em¬ 
bark for India. He was, however, dissuaded from this pro¬ 
ject, by a merchant who had seen him throw up blood, and 
who was aware that the climate of the East w’ould infallibly 
kill him. He accordingly went to Rouen, engaged in the 
direction of some manufactories; distinguished himself there 
by his love of study, and his taste for economical and com¬ 
mercial pursuits; and obtained the place of inspector-general 
at Amiens, and then at Lyons. Having travelled in Italy, 
Switzerland, and other countries, he accumulated a great 
mass of valuable information, particularly in what related to 
the arts, which, on his return, gained him admission into 
a great number of learned societies. Early in the revolution 
he became a member of the municipality of Lyons, and 
founded there a club, which he connected with the Jacobin 
club of Paris. In 1790 he went to the capital, took a 
decided share with the popular party, and in March, 1792, 
was raised to the administration of the interior. He seems 
now to have possessed an enthusiastic love andattachment to a 
republican form of government. The first day that he 
appeared before the king, he went with straight undressed 
hair, a black coat, and shoes without buckles; his behaviour 
was, at the same time, so very uncourtly, that his majesty 
dismissed him a very short time before he himself was in¬ 
duced to scenes of adversity and the most piognant distress. 
From this time Roland attached himself more than ever to 
the Jacobins, and was probably deeply implicated in the 
business of the 20th-of June and 10th of August of that 
same year. He deprecated, however, the cruelties of the 
2d of September, and denounced the horrors that were 
transacting under the mask of patriotism. As the violent 
gained ascendency, Roland was declining in credit. On 
the 20th of January, 1793, he, as member of the provisional 
executive council, signed the order for the execution of the 
king: this Vras one of his last official acts: yielding to the 
voice of the Mountain faction he resigned, and v r as involved 
in the proscription which issued against the Brissotines; but 
he contrived to escape from Paris, and conceal himself 
among his friends at Ronen: as soon, however, as he heard 
of his wife’s execution, he determined not to survive her. 
He stabbed himself near the high road, leaving a paper con¬ 
taining the following lines: “ Whoever you may be that find 
me lying here, respect my remains; they are those of a man 
who devoted his whole life to being useful, and who died, 
as he lived, virtuous and hone.t.” Roland was kind and 
obliging to his friends, but the irascibility of his temper made 
him many enemies. He was deeply read in the learned, 
and in several modem languages, and wets author of the 
following works: “ An Essay on the Rearing of Flocks 
and the Improvement of Wool;” “ The Art of the Woollen- 
Cloth Printer, of the Cotton-Velvet Maker,” &e. This 
work forms the Compendium of Mechanical Arts, published 
by the Academy of Sciences. “ Letters written from 
Switzerland, Italy, Sicily, and Malta, in 1782.” A new 
edition of this -work was published in 1800. The latter were 
first addressed to his wife during his courtship. 
ROLAND, 
