RON 
RONGERES, a large village in the interior of France, 
department of the Allier, with 1000 inhabitants. 
RONGOS, or Pongos, trumpets, or rather French 
horns, of the kingdom of Loango, in Africa. These in¬ 
struments are made of ivory, and resemble hunting-horns of 
the ancients: their widest diameter at the mouth is an inch 
and a half, or two inches; they are of various kinds, and 
probably serve for treble and base to each other. 
RO'NION, s. A term applied to a woman, meaning, as 
far as can be traced, much the same with sea//, or scab, 
spoken of a man. 
Give me, quoth I; 
Aroynt thee, witch! the rump-fed ronyon cries. 
Shakspeare. 
Out of my door, you witch, you polecat, you ronyon ! 
Shakspeare. 
RONKONKAMA, a small lake of the United States, in 
the central part of Long Island, between Brookhaven and 
Islip; about three miles in circuit, and very deep. It is re¬ 
markable forbeiug subject to a regular rise and fall, eachh of 
which continues seven years. It abounds in fish; 55 miles 
east of New York. 
RONNE, or RONDE, a small town of Denmark, in the 
island of Bornholm, and the residence of the governor of the 
island. It has a manufacture of porcelain, and a fortified, 
but not deep harbour. Population 2200; 93 miles east-south¬ 
east of Copenhagen. 
RONNEBURGH, a small town of the interior of Ger¬ 
many, in the principality of Altenburgh, belonging to Saxe- 
Gotha. It contains 2600 inhabitants, employed partly in 
weavinganddyeing woollens, partly in manufacturing earthen¬ 
ware; 12 miles south-west of Altenburgh, and 60 west of 
Dresden. Lat. 50. 48. N. long. 12. 15. E. . 
RONNEN, a small island of Denmark, near the north¬ 
west coast of Lapland. Lat. 56.5. N. long. 11. 15. E. 
RQNNOW, a small town in the interior of Bohemia; 
7 miles south-east of Czaslau, with 9000 inhabitants. 
RONSARD (Peter de), a French poet of great celebrity 
in his time, was born in 1524 of a noble family at the castle 
la Poissoniere in the Vendemois. He was educated at the 
-college of Navarre in Paris, but he quitted his studies at an 
early age, and became page to the Duke of Orleans. That 
-prince transferred him to the service of James V. of Scot¬ 
land, who was married to Magdalen of France. With that 
king he passed two years, partly in Scotland and partly in 
England; and then returning to France, was again employ¬ 
ed by the Duke of Orleans, He accompanied Lazare du 
Baif, master of requests, to the diet of Spire; and his taste for 
belles-lettres being revived in the society of that learned 
man, he applied with great assiduity to the study of the 
Greek under Dorat, with the son of Baif. He at length en¬ 
tirely devoted himself to poetry, and composed a great num¬ 
ber of works, by which he obtained the title of the Prince 
of the poets of his time. He gained the first prize at the 
floral games of Toulouse; and the ordinary recompence 
being thought unequal to his merit, the city made him a 
present of a Minerva of massy silver. The successive Kings 
Henry. II., Francis II., Charles IX., and, Henry III., all 
patronized him, especially Charles IX., who entertained a 
poetical correspondence with him. Mary Queen of Scots 
also greatly esteemed him, and made him a rich present. He 
•had some benefices conferred upon him, though he was not 
in priest’s orders; and he displayed great zeal in opposing 
those of the reformed religion, against whom, in 1562, he 
fought at the head of some troops in the Vendemois. Like 
many other religious zealots, he made his faith stand in the 
stead of morals, for he was much addicted to licentious 
pleasures, by which he brought on a premature old age. 
He was extremely vain, as well of his birth as his poetry, 
and was a great boaster of his successes with the fair sex. 
He had many admirers, and some enemies. The Calvinist 
ministers have not spared him, on account of his severities 
•towards their sect, and the famous Rabelais maintained a 
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constant warfare of wit against him. He felt contrition is 
in his latter years for the licentiousness of his muse at an 
earlier period, and resolved for the future to confine himself 
to sacred subjects. He died in 1585 at the age of 61, at 
St. Cosme-les-Tours, one of his benefices, and his memory 
was honoured by eulogies from many of the literary cha¬ 
racters of the time. The compositions of Ronsard were 
odes, eclogues, epigrams, sonnets, hymns, and a poem en¬ 
titled “ La Franciade.” It is acknowledged that Ronsard 
had many qualities of a true poet, warmth, invention, en¬ 
thusiasm, and the talent of painting to the imagination : but 
a bad taste rendered him pedantic, turgid and obscure in his 
language, and often extravagant in his thoughts, and his 
works appear at present to live only in traditionary reputa¬ 
tion. Three of the best, entitled “La Promesse,” “ Hymne 
a l’Eternite,” and “ Les Quatre Saisons de l’Annee,” have 
been reprinted in the Anna/es Poetiques. 
RONSBERG, a small town in the south-west of Bohemia; 
24 miles west-north-west of Klattau, with 1300 inhabitants. 
RONSDORF, a small town of the Prussian province of 
Cleves and Berg. It contains 3400 inhabitants, almost all 
employed in manufacturing silks, ribbons, cotton, and linen. 
It was a mere hamlet until 1730, when some religious dis¬ 
putes among the manufacturers at Elberfeld caused part of 
them to remove to this place; 14 miles south-south-east of 
Dusseldorf. 
RQNSENAC, a small town in the west of France, depart¬ 
ment of the Charente. Population 1200. 
RONT, s. An animal stinted in the growth: commonly 
pronounced runt. 
My ragged ronts all shiver and shake. 
As doen high towers in an earthquake; 
They wont in the wind wag their wriggle tails. 
Pearke as a peacock; but now it avales. Spenser. 
RONTO, a village of the east of Hungary, in the county 
of Bihar. 
RONYA, or ROVNANI, a village of the north-west 
of Hungary, near the river Ipola, inhabited by Slowacs. 
ROO, a provincial term signifying rough or coarse, in 
the way of pastures, or the crops on other sorts of 
land. 
ROOAC, a provincial wprd used to signify a fog or mist. 
ROOD, s. [pob. Sax.] The fourth part of an acre in 
square measure, or one thousand two hundred and ten square 
yards. 
No stately larch-tree there expands a shade 
O’er half a rood of Lariss.ean glade. Hartc. 
A pole; a measure of sixteen feet and a half in long 
measure. 
Satan, 
With head uplift above the wave ;- 
His other parts besides— 
Prone on the flood, extended long and large, 
Lay floating many a rood. Milton. 
[pobe, Sax. from the old Goth, and Icel. roda, an image. 
Junius, and Serenius.] The cross; an image or picture of 
our Saviour upon the cross, with those of the Virgin Mary 
and St. John on each side of it. Chaucer writes this word 
rode. 
And nigh thereto a little chappel stoode. 
Which, being all with ivy overspred, 
Deckt all the roofe; and, shadowing the roode. 
Seem’d like a faire grove braunched over hed. Spenser. 
By the holy rood, 
I do not like these several councils. Shakspeare. 
In Scotland, the rood contains 40 square falls. 
ROODERPORE, a town of Hindostan, province of 
Delhi, and district of Moradabad. Lat. 29. 1. N. lone 79 
29. E. 6 
ROO'DLOFT, s. Agallery in the church on which the cross, 
or the representation mentioned under Rood, was set to 
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