Rosalind is the protagonist and heroine of Shakespeare's As You Like It. Daughter of the exiled Duke Senior and niece of his usurper, Duke Frederick, Rosalind disguises herself as a shepherd named Ganymede.

Especially known for his wild, dramatic landscapes and battle scenes, Italian painter Salvator Rosa influenced many Romantic writers’ literary evocations of the sublime.

Originally a historical character who served under Charlemagne, Roland is the legendary hero of the French chanson de geste La Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland) and, as Orlando, in the L'Orlando Innamorato of Boiardo and Ariosto's Orlando Furioso.

Rogers, later Royal Governor of The Bahamas, led the Dampier expedition against the Spanish which rescued Alexander Selkirk on February 1, 1709. His book, A Cruising Voyage Round the World (1712), sold well due largely to public fascination with Selkirk's rescue.

Rodríguez de Montalvo's Amadis de Gaula (1508) is a romance narrative reworked from a previously existing story dating from at least the late thirteenth century. Robert Southey's translation into English appeared in 1803.

Regarded by many of his time as one of the day's best poets, Rochester was known for his ribald wit, elegance, cynicism, and incisive satire, which he exhibited in works that circulated in a coterie associated with the court of Charles II. His work presents a particularly impressive example of the collaborative composition and resulting complexities of attribution associated with coterie poetry.

French aristocrat known for his sometimes acerbic Maximes, which he revised and added to until the end of his life.

See Grantham, Thomas Robinson, Baron.

Mary Robinson was a novelist, poet, actress, and notable personality in British fashionable society. Married at fifteen after her father became insolvent in a whaling venture, Mary lived a fashionable life in London until the gambling and financial incompetence of her husband Thomas Robinson forced them into exile in Wales. Soon after, the Robinsons arranged publication of Mary's Poems (1775) as a means of raising money to satisfy creditors. Nevertheless, Thomas Robinson was arrested for debt and Mary and her infant daughter joined him for ten months in King's Bench Prison.

A French lawyer and persuasive public speaker who rose to power during the French Revolution, Robespierre was the primary force responsible for the bloody Reign of Terror and the guillotining of tens of thousands. Robespierre himself lost his life to the guillotine in July 1794.