--, 



OPILITTS. 



OPPIAN. 



67 



taleota, and she gave tome of her leisure to literature, writing one or two 

 tngrdier , which however wen never published, tome poetry, and a novel, 

 call, d ' lie Dangers of Coquetry,' which was published anonymously, 

 and attracted no attention. In 1798 she married Mr. Opie, and, encou- 

 r*K*d by her husband, in 1801 appeared before the world as an author, 

 with * a simple moral tale," as she herself styled it, entitled ' Father and 

 Daughter.' It was very popular at the time, and furnished the pjot of 

 the opera of ' Agnee,' by Paer ; yet it has little power, even of pathos, 

 but is told in an easy unpretending style, while its chief merit is now 

 that it details, though with no conviction of its impropriety, the 

 hanhcen with which lunatics were then treated, and the instinctive 

 kindness which led her to ehow by the fictitious example the possi- 

 bility of governing them by k induces. In 1802 she published 'Poems,' 

 a volume in which, without striking poetic genius, there is much 

 natural grace and sweetness. In the autumn of 1802 she and her 

 husband visited France, and of this, her first journey, she published 

 an account in 'Tait's Magazine' in 1831. In 1804 she published the 

 novel of 'Adeline Mowbray; or Mother and Daughter,' in 3 vols., 

 which added considerably to her reputation, and Borne passages of 

 which are highly pathetic ; but she still wanted art in grouping and 

 developing her characters, and in combining her incidents. In 1805 

 ' Simple Tale*,' in 4 vols. were issued. With virtuous principles and 

 good feelings, an artlessness that steals into the heart, and language 

 easy and simple though not always strictly accurate, there is still 

 the same want of logical coherence; the talcs want reality. The 

 characters are ill-defined and often extravagant, yet the ' Human Boy' 

 and ' Murder will out' will always produce an interest. In 1807 after 

 the death of her husband, she returned to the home of her father. In 

 1808 she published 'The Warrior's Return and other Poems,' and in 

 the following year her husband's ' Lectures on Painting,' to which she 

 prefixed a memoir. In 1812 appeared 'Temper,' a tale in which she 

 introduced many of her impressions of France ; and in 1813 ' Tales of 

 Real Life,' which however are not more real than her former tales. 

 In 1816 ' Valentine's Eve,' a novel in 8 vole, was published, developing 

 some of her religious views, now becoming more decided. In 1818 

 < Tales of the Heart,' and in 1822 'Madeline,' neither of them rising 

 above the average of.tbe preceding. Her next work, ' Illustrations of 

 Lying,' appeared in 1825, nnd was dedicated to her father ; they consist 

 of short talee, made for her avowed purpose, with dissertations, nud 

 show more decidt dly than any the great defect in her reasoning Dowel's, 

 though all evince the most praiseworthy intentions. 



Early in life Mr*. Opie had been intimate with the Quaker family 

 of the Fry*, particularly with Mrs. Fry, and through them with the 

 Gurneys. In 1814 a letter from J. J. Gurney appears to have made much 

 impression on her mind, she commenced attending the Quaker meet- 

 ing*, and in 1825, with her father's consent, she formally joined their 

 society. In 1825 her father died, but she continued to make Norwich 

 her abiding place, varied by frequent visits to her friends, to Scotland, 

 and the Continent. She had adopted the style and dress of the society 

 she bad joined, but did not give up her literary pursuits. She still 

 wrote occasional poems, and in 1828 'Detraction Displayed' was 

 published. In 1829 she visited Paris, and her old political feelings 

 aeem to have revived. She wrote some verses on the tricolor, 

 addressed to Lafayette, in which she says that at the sight of it, " I 

 aeem to feel youth's hours return." In 1830, on thu expulsion of 

 Charles X., she agsin went to Parix, and has given a lively account of 

 what she saw. In 1883 ' Lays for the Dead,' a volume of poems, was 

 published. In 1835 she made a tour to Belgium and Switzerland, of 

 which she gave an account in ' Tait's Magazine,' in 1840. She con- 

 tinued active and beneficent for some years, contributing occasionally 

 as she bad done through previous yean, to various periodical works, 

 and after an illness of some duration, the died at Norwich Dec. 2, 1863. 

 Her Life has been written with much care by an attached friend, MUs 

 C. L. Bright well, and published in 1854. It may perhaps be added 

 that Mrs. Opie waa cousin to Sir K. H. Alderson, the late Baron of 

 the Exchequer, the son of her father's younger brother, who died 

 in 1857. 



OPILlUa [MACRJKUS.] 



OPITZ, MAHT1N, considered the father of modern German poetry, 

 waa born at liunzlau in Silesia, in 1597. While at the gymnasium at 

 Brealau be produced several Latin poems, which were printed. On 

 luittiug Bnslau he studied successively at Beutben, Frankfurt, and 

 Heidelberg ; and it was tit the first-mentioned place that he composed 

 his dusertation entitled ' Aristarchus, tive do Contemptu Lingua) 

 Teutonic*.' 1418, in which he vindicates the merits of his native 

 tongue. At Heidelberg be formed many literary friendships, and met 

 with patrons whose attachment afterwards proved highly servicable 

 to him. 



Having renounced his legal studies, he began to employ his pen 

 very industriously both in Latin and German composition. Yet, 

 whether from mtlessnws of disposition or some other cause, he was 

 continually changing his place of abode. Scarcely had he been a year 

 at Heidelberg when he quitted it for Strasbourg, and in the course of 

 a short time after (1620) visited the Netherlands, when he became 

 acquainted with Vowius, Kutgenius, and Dan. Heinsiui. The exam- 

 ple of this last eminent scholar determined him to cultivate his 

 native tongue with still greater assiduity, and to do for the German 

 language and poetry what had already been accomplished in that of 



Holland. In the following year he accompanied his friend Heinrich 

 Albert Hamilton, a young Dane of noble family, to Holstcin ; and 

 while he was his guest composed bis ' Trostgedicht,' or poem on 

 Consolation hi the Disasters of War, which however he did not publish 

 until nearly thirteen yean afterwards (1633), when war was raging in 

 Germany. In 1622 he was invited by the Prince of SiebenbUrgen 

 (Gabriel Bethlen) to become teacher of philosophy and humanities at 

 the school of Weisscnburg. It was during his residence there that he 

 commenced his ' Dacia Antiqua,' an historical work of great labour 

 and research, on which he employed himself for sixteen years, but 

 which was left incomplete, and lost when his manuscripts were dis- 

 persed after his death. He returned to Lieguitz in 1623, and in the 

 following year appeared the firet edition of his poems. Not very 

 long after he spent some time in travelling through Saxony, and sub- 

 sequently proceeded to Vienna, where he was noticed by Ferdinand II., 

 who bestowed a laurel crown upon him for his poem on the death of 

 the archduke, which production however was rather a triumphal song 

 in honour of the Austrian monarchy. 



In 1626 he accepted the post of private secretary to Count von 

 Dohna, a nobleman equally eminent as a soldier, a statesman, and a 

 scholar ; and notwithstanding bis patron was a Itoman Catholic and 

 Opitz a Lutheran, with very little taste moreover for military affairs, 

 they lived together upon the best footing', and the poet was enabled to 

 gratify his passion for travelling by accompanying the count to Paris, 

 where he became acquainted with Hugo Grotiu* and other eminent 

 literary persons. His patron dying shortly after (1633) their return 

 from France, Opitz (who had previously had a patent of nobility con- 

 ferred upon him by the emperor, with the style of Opitz von Bober- 

 feld) met with another protector in the Duke of Brieg, who enabled 

 him to visit Prussia, in order that he might there punue his studies 

 at a distance from the troubles which then agitated Germany. For 

 some time he settled at Danzig, where, having recommended himself 

 to Uladialaua IV. of Poland, by a poem on his campaign against 

 Russia one of his most masterly and energetic productions he was 

 appointed Polish historiographer. But while his literary reputation 

 waa daily increasing, and his circumstances becoming more prosperous, 

 a dreadful plague broke out in Danzig, to which he fell a victim on 

 the 20th of August 1639, in his forty -second year. Owing to the fear 

 of contagion, his papers and manuscripts were put away and irrecover- 

 ably lost. 



His published works however sufficiently attest the important 

 services he performed for German literature, more especially as 

 regards the language and its mechanical structure. As a poet be can 

 be considered great only by comparison with his predecessors and 

 contemporaries. Though strong native good sense and amiable 

 feelings display themselves in his productions, together with great 

 correctness and purity of style, and occasional felicity of expression, 

 there is more of the orator than of the poet in his compositions 

 more of elaborate study and sound judgment thau impassioned 

 feeling. Still, but for his labours in refining the language, the poets 

 of the 18th century would have had to contend with nearly all the 

 difficulties which the labours of Opitz had helped to remove. Opitz 

 succeeded best in moral and didactic subjects, such as his ' Preia der 

 Gemutharuhe,' ' Vielgut,' tic. Among his lyric productions his version 

 of the Psalms contains some of his most successful efforts. His prose 

 style has also much merit, and recommends itself by the qualities of 

 correctness, precision, and clearness, in which respect his traimlatiou 

 of Barclay's 'Argenis* (1626) is a masterpiece, considering in what 

 condition the language was at the time when it was produced. 



OPPIAN ('Onrioi'bs), an eminent grammarian and poet of Cilicia 

 (Hierouymus, in 'Ezek.,' 47; Athen., 'Diepnos.,' lib. i. p. 13 b., ed, 

 Casaub.), two of whose works are still extant under the titles ' Cyne- 

 getica' and ' Halieutica.' His father's name was Agesilaus, and his 

 mother's Zenodota, but as to the time and place of his birth authorities 

 arc not quite agreed. Syncellus ('Chronogr.,' pp. 352, 353) and Jerome 

 (in 'Chronic.') place him in the reign of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus; 

 but Sozomen ('Prafat ad Hut. Kccles.'), Suidas (in vooe 'Omnwi;), 

 and others, state him to have lived iu the time of Sevcrus; and 

 though Oppian in both his poems (' Halieut,' lib. i. v. 3 ; and lib. iv. 

 v. 5; 'Cyneget,' lib. i. v. 3) addresses the emperor by the name 

 ' Antoninus,' it is probable that Caracalla is meant, as this appellation 

 was conferred upon him when be was associated with his father in 

 the empire, A.O. 198 (Herodian, lib. iii. cap. 10), and is the name by 

 which he is commonly designated by the ancient historians, Herodian, 

 Dion Caseins, Ac. As to his birthplace, Suidas supposes it to have 

 been Corycus, but the anonymous author of the Greek life of Oppian 

 and most other authorities aay that he was born at Anazarba, a city 

 which also gave birth to Dioscorides. Indeed Oppian himself seems 

 to refute the assertion of Suidas, for in the third book of the 

 ' Halieutlcs,' v. 205, sq., ho distinguishes bis fellow-countrymen from 

 their neighbours the (Jorycians. His father appears to have been a 

 penon of some consideration in his native city, for he wax banished to 

 the island of Melita in the Hadriatio by Severus, for suffering himself 

 to be so entirely engrossed by his philosophical studies as to neglect 

 coming in person along with bis fellow-citizens to pay his renpecta to 

 the emperor when, in taking a progress through Cilicia, he made his 

 entrance into Anazarba. He wan accompanied in his exile by his son 

 Oppian, who had enjoyed the advantage of an excellent education 



