O T W 
venues were fecularifed, and given to Bavaria. Near it is 
a market-town, over which it is poflefl'ed of criminal ju- 
rifdi&ion, as a fief of the empire, granted to it in the 
year 1512 by Charles V. It is twenty-five miles fouth- 
fouth-eaft of Ulm, and thirty-one fouth-weft of Augfburg. 
OT'TOK, a town of Croatia; twenty-eight miles 
fouth-fouth-weft of Carlftadt. 
OTTOMAN, or Othoman, an appellation given to 
the empire of the Turks, or rather to their emperors, 
from Othomannus, or Ofman, the firft prince of the fa¬ 
mily. This Ofman, to diltinguifh his followers from 
others, gave them the name of Ofmanles, from which, by 
the change of the s into t, we have made Ottomans; 
which new name foon became formidable to the Greeks of 
Conftantinople, from whom Ofman conquered a fufficient 
extent of territory to found a powerful kingdom. He 
foon bellowed on it that title, by affuming, in 1300, the 
dignity of Sultan, which fignified abfolute fovereign. 
The true era of the Ottoman empire may be dated from 
the conqueft of Prufa. The eftablifhment of the Otto¬ 
mans in Europe took place A.D. 1353.. See Turkey. 
OTTO'NE, a town of Sardinia; twenty-one miles 
north-eaft of Genoa. 
OTTS'BERG, Otzberg, otUtzberg, a town of Hefle 
Darmftadt: twenty-fix miles north of Heidelberg, and 
fix fouth-eaft of Darmftadt. 
OTT'WEILER, late a town of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the Sarre, fituated among mountains ; and con¬ 
taining a caftle, a Proteftant and a Roman-catholic church. 
It is thirteen miles north of Saarbruck, and forty fouth- 
eaft of Treves. 
OTUBU'E, a fmall ifland in the South Pacific Ocean, 
near the coaft of Bolabola. 
OTUGUN'GE, a town of Bengal; twenty-four miles 
fouth of Calcutta. 
OTU'RA, a town of Spain, in the province of Grenada: 
five miles fouth of Grenada, 
OTUTUE'LA. See Maouna. 
OT'WAY (Thomas), an eminent writer of tragedy, 
born in 1651 at Trotten in Suflex, was the fon of the 
reCtor of Woolbeding in that county. He received his 
fchool-education at Winchefter; and was entered a com¬ 
moner of Chrift-church, Oxford, in 1669; but the nar- 
rownefs of his circumftances, and perhaps an irregularity 
of difpofition, caufed him to leave the univerfity without 
a -degree, and without any profeftional determination. 
Going to London, his refource againft want was to com¬ 
mence aCtor; and he made fome attempts in that capacity, 
but with little fuccefs. As he was poflefl'ed of talents for 
poetry, it was natural that he fhould turn his thoughts to 
writing for the ftage; and in 1675 he produced his firft 
tragedy, “ Alcibiades,” which was a fled at the duke’s 
theatre. In the following year, he brought out at the 
fame theatre his “ Don Carlos, Prince of Spain,” which 
proved highly fuccefsful. From fome illiberally-farcaftic 
lines of lord Rochefter in his Seflion of the Poets, it ap¬ 
pears, that the profits of this play refcued the author, for 
a time at leaft, from a ftate of extreme indigence. His 
theatrical exertions alfo introduced him to the acquaint¬ 
ance of men of fafhion and pleafure ; and the patronage 
of the earl of Plymouth, a natural fon of Charles II. pro¬ 
cured him the commiffion of a cornet in the new-raifed 
troops deftined for Flanders in 1677, He accompanied 
his regiment to that country; but foon returned, pur- 
fued by his habitual poverty. He continued to write for 
the ftage as his foie means of fubfiftence, which fmall en¬ 
couragement, or diftolute habits, rendered very fcanty 
and precarious. He translated two pieces from the French, 
compofed licentious and indifferent comedies, and two 
more tragedies, namely, “ The Orphan” in 1680, and 
“ Venice Preferved” in 1682, on which his fame is founded. 
Though he was permitted to join men of quality in 
their parties of debauchery, he obtained no fubftantial 
favour from them; and, to avoid his creditors, was 
obliged to lodge at a public-houfe on Tower-hill, where, 
Vol. XVIII. No. 1224.. 
O T W 61 
in 1685, he miferably terminated his unhappy life, at the 
early age of thirty-four. It is a traditionary Itory, that, 
being nearly famifhed, he begged a (hilling of a gentleman, 
who gave him a guinea, and that he was choked by raven- 
oufly devouring a roll which be then bought. Dr. Johnfon 
hopes the cafe was not fo bad; and Pope was informed 
that Otway died of a fever, occafioned by his exertions in 
the purfuit of a thief who had robbed one of his friends. 
It is not doubted, however, that he clofed his life under 
the preffure of fevere penury. His memory, affociated with 
the tender fcenes that he has written, has been celebrated 
in various pathetic lamentations for his hard fate; but, 
like many of his fellow-fufferers, he was too deficient in 
moral qualities to excite that regard which is the only 
foundation of fober fympathy. Befides the diffolutenefs 
of manners difplayed in his life and writings, he was a 
fhamelefs flatterer of the great, and feems to have had no 
other public principle than a fervile attachment to au¬ 
thority. * 
To Thomas Otway was referved the honour of giving 
tragedy its true and genuine tone of language, diverted 
of unnatural flight and unneceflary pomp. This writer 
began, like the reft of our dramatic poets in that age, 
with tragedy in rhyme. But he wanted the variety and 
harmony of Dryden’s numbers; nor had he his various 
learning, or reafoning faculty, to embellifh and diverfify 
his tragedies in rhyme. He loon followed that poet’s ex¬ 
ample, and relinquilhed his chiming fetters for blank 
verfe, which approaches neareft to the iambic of the an¬ 
cients. Otway, like Dryden, warmed his genius with the 
fire of Shakefpeare; but, not content with borrowing 
from his original, he dole whole fcenes from Romeo and 
Juliet, and incorporated them in his “ Caius Marius 
this, indeed, he acknowledges in his prologue. 
“ But the reputation of Otway for pathetic powers was, 
by the fuccefs of his Orphan, juftly exalted above all the 
dramatifts of his own and fucceeding times. The cha¬ 
racters, by being brought nearer to the condition of the 
audience, more deeply intereft their paflions than the 
fate and fortune of perfons who are eminently placed 
above them. A young lady, deftitute of fortune, and 
who had loft her parents, left, when a child, to the care 
and protection of a nobleman, the friend of her dead 
father, is paflionately folicited by his two fons, Caftalio 
and Polydore. The pretenlions of the elder, unknown 
to his brother, are founded on honourable love. The 
younger, confiding in the fincerity of his brother’s de¬ 
claration, that he would never marry Monimia, but drive 
to gain her for a miltrefs, is impelled to affront her with 
his brutal paffion , as fhe rightly terms it; for his addrefs, 
however juftified in the rank days of Charles II. would 
fcarceiy now be tolerated in a brothel. During the pro- 
grefs of their courtfliip, Chamont, the young lady’s bro¬ 
ther, arrives; and, on the information of an old woman, 
whom the author’s poetical fancy transforms into a witch, 
he queftions his filler on her prefent (iteration. The 
fcene is varied with beautiful imagery and affeCting paf¬ 
fion. Polydore, the younger brother, by the help of a 
page, difcovers Caftalio’s treachery ; and, not knowing 
of their marriage, liltens, and overhears tire appQintment 
of the new-married pair. By a ftratagem, he contrives to 
impofe himfelf, in the dark, on Monimia, for his bro¬ 
ther ; and enjoys her. The diftrefs, raifed in confequence 
of this, ends in the death of the lady and the two rival 
brothers. From a plot fo fimple, the author has raifed 
pathetic fcenes, which, from their firft reprefentation to 
the prefent day, have melted into tendernefs the heart of 
every fpeftator. The language is eafy, flowing, and fa¬ 
miliar; fufficiently forcible, without degenerating into 
vulgarifm; it is occafionally ftrengthened by pleafing de- 
fqription and warm imagery. Had it been raifed to 
greater force, by higher exertion of the poet, it would 
neither have fuited the plot nor the characters. In the 
character of.Acafto, Otway has drawn a portrait of a 
worthy nobleman, who, retired from court, retains his 
R veneration 
