Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 54

? This tragedy is an English adaptation of Voltaire's _Zare_ (1733).

=Osmand=, a necromancer, who, by enchantment, raised up an army to resist the Christians. Six of the champions were enchanted by Osmand, but St.

George restored them. Osmand tore off his hair, in which lay his spirit of enchantment, bit his tongue in two, disembowelled himself, cut off his arms, and died.--R. Johnson, _Seven Champions of Christendom_, i. 19 (1617).

=Osmond=, an old Varangian guard.--Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus).

_Osmond_ (_Gilbert_), the incarnation of polished selfishness. He deserts one woman, who has sacrificed everything for him, and marries Isabel Archer for her money; eyes his only child as he might a pretty puppet, and sends her back to her convent upon finding that she will not increase his social consequence by marrying an English n.o.bleman.--Henry James, Jr., _Portrait of a Lady_ (1881).

=Osmyn=, _alias_ ALPHONSO, son of Anselmo, king of Valentia, and husband of Alme'ria, daughter of Manuel, king of Grana'da. Supposed to have been lost at sea, but in reality cast on the African coast, and tended by Queen Zara, who falls in love with him. Both are taken captive by Manuel, and brought to Granada. Here Manuel falls in love with Zara, but Zara retains her pa.s.sionate love for Alphonso. Alphonso makes his escape, returns at the head of an army to Granada, finds both the king and Zara dead, but Almeria, being still alive, becomes his acknowledged bride.--W. Congreve, _The Mourning Bride_ (1697).

=Osric=, a court fop, contemptible for his affectation and finical dandyism. He is made umpire by King Claudius, when Laertes and Hamlet "play" with rapiers in "friendly" combat.--Shakespeare, _Hamlet_ (1596).

=Osse'o=, son of the Evening Star, whose wife was O'weenee. In the Northland there were once ten sisters of surpa.s.sing beauty; nine married beautiful young husbands, but the youngest, named Oweenee, fixed her affections on Osseo, who was "old, poor and ugly," but "most beautiful within." All being invited to a feast, the nine set upon their youngest sister, taunting her for having married Osseo; but forthwith Osseo leaped into a fallen oak, and was transformed into a most handsome young man, his wife to a very old woman, "wrinkled and ugly," but his love changed not. Soon another change occurred; Oweenee resumed her former beauty, and all the sisters and their husbands were changed to birds, who were kept in cages about Osseo's wigwam. In due time a son was born, and one day he shot an arrow at one of the caged birds, and forthwith the nine, with their husbands, were changed to pygmies.

From the story of Osseo Let [_us_] learn the fate of jesters.

Longfellow, _Hiawatha_, xii. (1855).

=Ossian=, the warrior-bard. He was son of Fingal (king of Morven) and his first wife, Ros-crana (daughter of Cormac, king of Ireland).

His wife was Evir-Allen, daughter of Branno (a native of Ireland); and his son was Oscar.

=Oswald=, steward to Goneril, daughter of King Lear.--Shakespeare, _King Lear_ (1605).

_Oswald_, the cup-bearer to Cedric, the Saxon, of Rotherwood.--Sir W.

Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

_Oswald_ (_Prince_), being jealous of Gondibert, his rival for the love of Rhodalind (the heiress of Aribert, king of Lombardy), headed a faction against him. A battle was imminent, but it was determined to decide the quarrel by four combatants on each side. In this combat Oswald was slain by Grondibert.[TN-54]--Sir W. Davenant, _Gondibert_, i.

(died 1668).

=Othel'lo=, the Moor, commander of the Venetian army. Iago was his ensign or ancient. Desdemona, the daughter of Brabantio, the senator, fell in love with the Moor, and he married her; but Iago, by his artful villainy, insinuated to him such a tissue of circ.u.mstantial evidence of Desdemona's love for Ca.s.sio, that Oth.e.l.lo's jealousy being aroused, he smothered her with a pillow, and then killed himself.--Shakespeare, _Oth.e.l.lo_ (1611).

? The story of this tragedy is taken from the novelletti of Giovanni Giraldi Cinthio (died 1573).

Addison says of Thomas Betterton (1635-1710): "The wonderful agony which he appeared in when he examined the circ.u.mstance of the handkerchief in the part of 'Oth.e.l.lo,' and the mixture of love that intruded on his mind at the innocent answers of 'Desdemona,' ... were the perfection of acting." Donaldson, in his _Recollections_, says that Spranger Barry (1719-1777) was the beau-ideal of an "Oth.e.l.lo;" and C. Leslie, in his _Autobiography_, says the same of Edmund Kean (1787-1833).

=Otho=, the lord at whose board Count Lara was recognized by Sir Ezzelin.

A duel was arranged for the next day, and the contending parties were to meet in Lord Otho's hall. When the time of meeting arrived, Lara presented himself, but no Sir Ezzelin put in his appearance; whereupon Otho, vouching for the knight's honor, fought with the count, and was wounded. On recovering from his wound, Lord Otho became the inveterate enemy of Lara, and accused him openly of having made away with Sir Ezzelin. Lara made himself very popular, and headed a rebellion; but Lord Otho opposed the rebels, and shot him.--Byron, _Lara_ (1814).

=Otnit=, a legendary emperor of Lombardy, who gains the daughter of the soldan for wife, by the help of Elberich, the dwarf.--_The Heldenbuch_ (twelfth century).

=Otranto= (_Tancred, prince of_), a crusader.

_Ernest of Otranto_, page of the prince of Otranto.--Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus).

_Otranto_ (_The Castle of_), a romance by Horace Walpole (1769).

=O'Trigger= (_Sir Lucius_), a fortune-hunting Irishman, ready to fight every one, on any matter, at any time.--Sheridan, _The Rivals_ (1775).

=Otta'vio= (_Don_), the lover of Donna Anna, whom he was about to make his wife, when Don Giovanni seduced her and killed her father (the commandant of the city) in a duel.--Mozart, _Don Giovanni_ (opera, 1787).

=Otto=, duke of Normandy, the victim of Rollo, called "The b.l.o.o.d.y Brother."--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The b.l.o.o.d.y Brother_ (1639).

=Ot'uel= (_Sir_), a haughty and presumptuous Saracen, miraculously converted. He was a nephew of Ferragus or Ferracute, and married a daughter of Charlemagne.

=Ouida=, an infantile corruption of Louisa. The full name is Louise de la Ramee, auth.o.r.ess of _Under Two Flags_ (1867), and many other novels.

=Outalissi=, eagle of the Indian tribe of Onei'da, the death-enemies of the Hurons. When the Hurons attacked the fort under the command of Waldegrave (2 _syl._), a general ma.s.sacre was made, in which Waldegrave and his wife was[TN-55] slain. But Mrs. Waldegrave, before she died, committed her boy, Henry, to the charge of Outalissi, and told him to place the child in the hands of Albert of Wy'oming, her friend. This Outalissi did. After a lapse of fifteen years, one Brandt, at the head of a mixed army of British and Indians, attacked Oneida, and a general ma.s.sacre was made; but Outalissi, wounded, escaped to Wyoming, just in time to give warning of the approach of Brandt. Scarcely was this done, when Brandt arrived. Albert and his daughter, Gertrude, were both shot, and the whole settlement was extirpated.--Campbell, _Gertrude of Wyoming_ (1809).

=Outis= (Greek for "n.o.body"), a name a.s.sumed by Odysseus (_Ulysses_) in the cave of Polypheme (3 _syl._). When the monster roared with pain from the loss of his eye, his brother giants demanded who was hurting him.

"Outis" (_n.o.body_), thundered out Polypheme, and his companions left him.--Homer, _Odyssey_.

=Outram= (_Lance_), park-keeper to Sir Geoffrey Peveril.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

=Overdees= (_Rowley_), a highwayman.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

=O'verdo= (_Justice_), in Ben Jonson's _Bartholomew Fair_ (1614).

=Overdone= (_Mistress_), a bawd.--Shakespeare, _Measure for Measure_ (1603).

=Overreach= (_Sir Giles_), Wellborn's uncle. An unscrupulous, hard-hearted rascal, grasping and proud. He ruined the estates both of Wellborn and Allworth, and by overreaching grew enormously rich. His ambition was to see his daughter Margaret marry a peer; but the overreacher was overreached. Thinking Wellborn was about to marry the rich dowager Allworth, he not only paid all his debts, but supplied his present wants most liberally, under the delusion "if she prove his, all that is her's is mine." Having thus done, he finds that Lady Allworth does not marry Wellborn, but Lord Lovell. In regard to Margaret, fancying she was sure to marry Lord Lovell, he gives his full consent to her marriage; but finds she returns from church not Lady Lovell, but Mrs.

Allworth.--Ma.s.singer, _A New Way to Pay Old Debts_ (1628).

? The prototype of "Sir Giles Overreach" was Sir Giles Mompesson, a usurer outlawed for his misdeeds.