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Rare Ben

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So Shakespeare called Ben Jonson, the dramatist. (1574–1637.) Aubrey says that this inscription on his tablet in the “Poetsʹ Corner,ʹ Westminster Abbey, “was done at the charge of Jack Young (afterwards knighted), who, walking there when the grave was covering, gave the fellow eighteenpence to cut it.” At the late relaying of the pavement, this stone was unhappily removed. When Sir William Davenant was interred in Westminster Abbey, the inscription on his covering-stone was, “O rare Sir William Davenant”—showing how nearly the sublime and the ridiculous often meet.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Rantipole
Ranz des Vaches
Rap
Rape
Rape of the Lock
Raphael
Raphael of Cats (The)
Rapparee
Rappee
Rara Avis (Latin, a rare bird)
Rare Ben
Raree Show
Rascal
Rascal Counters
Rasher
Rashleigh Osbaldistone
Rasiel
Raspberry
Rasselas
Rat
Rat (To)