OVARY OVERTURE. 



377 



oept the shot against the same, and to afford a lateral 

 defence. All outworks must, therefore, be so con- 

 structed, 1 . that the enemy must attack them before 

 he can reach the principal wall ; 2. that they give 

 lateral defence to the principal wall ; 3. that they 

 completely cover all parts of the principal wall from 

 the enemy's batteries erected beyond the glacis ; 4. 

 that they shall be conspicuous from the principal 

 wall. For the most part, though not always, they 

 are some feet lower than the principal wall. The 

 most common outworks are, 1. the tenaille, which 

 lies in the ditch, between two bastions, before the 

 curtain, and has usually the form of a re-entering 

 angle , 2. the ravelin ; by it are sometimes placed, 

 3. lunettes ; 4. counterguards (couvrefaces) serve as 

 a protection to the faces of the bastion, sometimes in 

 the form of a saliant angle before the bastion. Be- 

 yond the principal ditch, yet united with it by their 

 ditches, are situated (to strengthen important points), 



5. horn-works, which consist of two demi-bastions 

 joined with a curtain, and these, again, are attached 

 to the fortress by two wings, i. e. walls with moats ; 



6. crown-works, where a whole and two demi-bas- 

 tions are employed, instead of two half bastions only; 



7. tenailles, consisting of a re entering angle, which 

 is appended to the fortress by wings. If there are 

 two neighbouring re-entering angles, then the work 

 is called, 8. a double '-tenaille ; if the two wings are 

 not parallel, but converging or diverging, then they 

 are called, 9. sivallow's tails, and, 10. bonnet-d-pretre, 

 &c. In the places of arms, of the covered way, as 

 in almost all other out-works, there are frequently 

 constructed works of various forms, which are called, 

 11. redoubts. On the glacis, or near its foot, fre- 

 quently stand, 12. fteches, or, 13. lunettes, which 

 have a shape resembling the bastion, and are not to 

 be confounded with No. 3; 14. detached works; 

 they become, 15. forts, or detached forts, when they 

 are distant 500 paces, and more, from the glacis, are 

 larger and more substantial, and, for the most part, 

 fortified also behind. 



OVARY (diminutive of ovum, an egg). The 

 ovaria are two flat oval bodies, about one inch in 

 length, and rather more than half in breadth and 

 thickness, suspended in the broad ligaments, about 

 the distance of one inch from the uterus behind, and 

 a little below the Fallopian tubes. They include a 

 number of vesicles or ova, to the amount of twelve 

 to twenty, of different sizes, joined to the internal 

 surface of the ovaria by cellular threads or pedicles, 

 and contain a fluid which has the appearance of thin 

 lymph. The ovaria prepare whatever the female 

 supplies towards the formation of the foetus : this is 

 proved by the operation of spaying, which consists 

 in the extirpation of the ovaria, after which the ani- 

 mal not only loses the power of conceiving, but de- 

 sire is for ever extinguished. These 'vesicles have 

 been generally regarded as little eggs, which detach 

 themselves from the ovary after fecundation, and are 

 carried into the cavity of the womb by the Fallopian 

 tubes. 



OVATION. See Triumph. 



OVERBURY, SIR THOMAS, principally known by 

 the tragic circumstances of his death, was descended 

 from an ancient family in Gloucestershire. He was born 

 in 1581, in Warwickshire, and, in 1595, vas entered 

 a fellow-commoner of Queen's college, Oxford. 

 After taking a degree, he removed to the Middle 

 Temple, for the study of the law ; but his inclination 

 being more turned to polite literature, he preferred 

 the chance of pushing his fortune at court. In 1604, 

 he contracted an acquaintance with Robert Car, 

 the worthless favourite of James I. The ignorance 

 and mean qualifications of this minion rendered the 

 services of a man of parts and education, like Over- 



bury, exceedingly welcome, and he repaid his ser- 

 vices by procuring for him, in 1G08, the honour of 

 knighthood, and the place of a Welsh judge for his 

 father. The intimacy continued to be mutually ad- 

 vantageous, until the favourite engaged in his amour 

 with the countess of Essex. Sir Thomas counte- 

 nanced this gallantry in the first instance ; but when 

 that infamous woman had, by a series of disgraceful 

 proceedings (but too much countenanced by the king 

 himself), procured a divorce from her husband, he 

 opposed the projected marriage between her and her 

 gallant, by the strongest remonstrances. This coun- 

 sel Car (then become viscount Rochester) communi- 

 cated to the lady, who immediately exercised her 

 influence for the removal of her adversary. An 

 attempt was made to place him at a distance, by 

 appointing him to a foreign mission ; but, relying 

 upon his ascendency with the favourite, which he 

 exercised with considerable arrogance, he refused to 

 accept it. On the ground of disobedience in declin- 

 ing the king's service, he was immediately arrested, 

 and committed a close prisoner to the Tower, in 

 April, 1613, and all access of his friends was debarred. 

 At length, fear of his resentment and disclosures, if 

 released, induced Car and the countess (now become 

 his wife) to cause infected viands to be administered, 

 at various times, to the unhappy prisoner, who 

 finally fell a sacrifice to a poisoned clyster, Septem- 

 ber 15, 1613. All these facts afterwards appeared 

 in evidence, when the accomplices in the murder 

 were tried, and Sir Gervase Elways, the lieutenant 

 of the Tower, a creature of Car's, with several others, 

 were condemned and executed. Car and his lady 

 (then become earl and countess of Somerset) were 

 also convicted and condemned, but, to the disgrace 

 of James, pardoned for no assignable cause that will 

 not add to the ignominy of the proceeding. Sir 

 Thomas Overbury wrote both in verse and in prose, 

 and his poem, entitled the Wife, has been much 

 admired. 



OVERT ; the same with open. Thus an overt act 

 signifies an act which, in law, must be clearly proved, 

 and such as is to be alleged in every indictment for 

 high treason. 



OVERTURE, in music; an introductory sym- 

 phony, chiefly used to precede great musical com- 

 positions, as oratorios and operas, and intended to 

 prepare the hearer for the following composition. 

 But the Germans have even composed overtures for 

 poetical works, as Beethoven's overture to Goethe '^ 

 EgmonL Overtures are often played independently 

 of the work for which they were written, as at the 

 beginning of concerts ; but their highest office is to 

 convey to the intelligent lover of music the whole 

 character of the following piece, or to concentrate 

 its chief musical ideas, so as to give a sort of outline 

 of it in instrumental music. The latter mode of 

 composing overtures was first conceived by the 

 French, and such is the character of the overtures 

 of their great composers, particularly Cherubini. 

 Carle Maria von Weber, in the overtures to the 

 Freischutz and Oberon, has observed this rule, which 

 did not exist when Mozart composed his admirable 

 overtures to Figaro and Don Juan, in which the 

 general character of the following piece is given. 

 In the eldest overtures the fugue was the chief pnrt, 

 preceded by a grave in ^ time, not too much pro- 

 longed, and closing in the dominante. The grave 

 was often repeated after the fugue. Most of the 

 overtures of Handel's oratorios have this form. 

 Another form came into vogue at a later period 

 three musical parts, in different movements an 

 allegro, an andante, and again an allegro, or presto, 

 were united. At present, the most usual form is a 

 brilliant and passionate allegro, preceded by a short, 



