Literary notes about Rodomontade (AI summary)
In literature, rodomontade is employed to signify extravagant boasting and bombastic language that often lacks genuine substance. Its use ranges from depicting theatrical, empty bravado to critiquing outlandish political rhetoric, as when grand speeches are dismissed as nothing more than unfounded assertions [1] or when a character’s talk is deemed mere castles in the air [2]. The word also conveys a sense of ironic exaggeration—highlighting the gap between grandiloquent promises and real action—whether in historical narratives of revolutionary hubris [3] or in lively social discourse marked by over-the-top self-promotion [4]. In each instance, rodomontade functions as a succinct label for language that, while striking, ultimately falls short of veracity or purpose [5].
- Through all this rodomontade we perceive not a single attempt at proof, only an unbroken tissue of unsupported assertion.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 21, April, 1875, to September, 1875A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science by Various - His plans were castles in the air: his talk was rodomontade.
— from Critical, Historical, and Miscellaneous Essays; Vol. 4
With a Memoir and Index by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron - One could hear in it a far-off echo of revolutionary rodomontade.
— from Play-Making: A Manual of Craftsmanship by William Archer - they must stay the night over, there they domineer lustily with them, and play the part of a Rodomontade.
— from The Ten Pleasures of Marriage
and the Second Part, The Confession of the New Married Couple by A. Marsh - This rodomontade, as Horace Walpole terms it, reached the ears of George II.
— from Life of George Washington — Volume 01 by Washington Irving