them. Poems are first ascribed to him in twelfth-century manuscripts. The Positivists have placed Oisin in their calendar, and Macpherson's publications have led to a general belief in his existence as a great Gaelic poet of remote antiquity; but whoever reads the Ossianic tales, as they are called, beginning with the preparatory ones in 'Leabhar na h-Uidhri,' and going on to those in the 'Book of Lismore,' and finally to the modern versions from 1500 to the latest Gaelic manuscripts, will be convinced that Oisin, like Fionn, must be regarded as a character of historical romance, and not as an author belonging to literary history.
[Hennessey's letters in the Academy, 1873, the publications of the Ossianic Society of Dublin (6 vols.), MacLauchlan's Book of the Dean of Lismore (the notes by Skene are of no value, as he was ignorant of Gaelic), and O'Grady's Silva-Gadelica may be consulted. See also the Highland Society's Gaelic Version of the Poems of Ossian, as published by Macpherson in English in 1762–3, 1807; The Poems of Ossian (with dissertation and translation by the Rev. Archibald Clerk), 1870; Windisch's Irische Texte, 1880, and Die altirische Sage und die Ossianfrage, 1878, Leipzig; Bailey Saunders's Life of Macpherson, 1894, and art. Macpherson, James.]
OSSINGTON, Viscount. [See Denison, John Evelyn, 1800–1873}}.]
OSSORY, Earls of. [See Butler, Sir Pierce or Piers, first Earl, d. 1539; Butler, Thomas, 1634–1680.]
OSSORY, Lord of. [See Cearbhall, d. 888.]
OSTLER, WILLIAM (fl. 1601–1623), actor, was in 1601 one of the children of Queen Elizabeth's chapel, playing at the theatre in Blackfriars. His name is found in the list of children who performed in Ben Jonson's 'Poetaster' in 1601. As he does not appear in the previous play of Jonson's 'Cynthia's Revels,' 1600, it may perhaps be assumed that this was Ostler's first appearance. Ostler played women's parts, whence Gifford assumes that the character he took was Julia. The age at which these children were first engaged appears to have been about thirteen. Collier assumes that Ostler was drafted into the King's players before 1604, the name Hostler being given in a list of the king's company at that date. In December 1610 the Burbages, who had bought the remaining lease of the Blackfriars, engaged Ostler, who in the same year appeared in Jonson's 'Alchemist,' The following year he took part in the same author's 'Catiline.' In the register of St. Mary, Aldermanbury, appears the entry: 'Baptised 18 May 1612 Beaumont, the sonne of William Ostler.' Ever fertile in conjecture, Collier states that Ostler was married before 1612; opines that Beaumont the dramatist might have been godfather to his child; and asserts that Ostler took part in Beaumont and Fletcher's 'Captain,' 'Bonduca,' 'Valentinian,' and 'no doubt in other plays, though his name be not found at the bottom of the dramatis personæ in the folios' (Eng, Dram, Poetry, in. 423). In the first representation of Webster's 'Duchess of Malfy,' about 1616, Ostler played Antonio, soon after which he is believed to have retired or died, the name of R. Benfield appearing as the exponent of the part on its reproduction. He was a popular and an applauded actor, as is proved by a mysterious epigram upon him, included in the 'Scourge of Folly' by John Davies of Hereford, circa 1611. This is addressed 'to the Roscius of those times, Mr. W. Ostler:'
Ostler, thou took'st a knock thou would'st have giv'n,
Neere sent thee to thy latest home: but, oh!
Where was thine action, when thy crown was riv'n,
Sole King of Actors? then wast idle? No:
Thou hadst it, for thou wouldst be doing. Thus
Good actors' deeds are oft most dangerous;
But if thou plaist thy dying part as well
As thy stage parts, thou hast no part in hell.
[Collier's English Dramatic Annals; Fleay's Chronicle of the Stage; Malone's Historical Account; Webster's Works, ed. Hazlitt; Jonson's Works, ed. Gifford.]
OSTRITH or OSTHRYTH (d. 697), queen of Mercia, was the daughter of Oswy [q. v.], king of Bernicia, the brother and successor of St. Oswald (605?–642) [q. v.] She was therefore sister of Egfrid, king of Northumbria, St. Etheldreda's husband, and of Elflad, who succeeded St. Hilda [q. v.] as abbess of Whitby. Ostrith became the wife of Ethelred, king of Mercia, who had succeeded his brother Wulfere [q. v.] in 676. He was the third son of Penaa [q. v.l, king of Mercia, the fierce old pagan who had killed five kings in battle, including Ostrith's maternal grandfather Edwin, and her sainted uncle Oswald. But 'out of the eater came meat.' Penda's sons and daughters were as earnest in the support of the Christian faith as he had been in its destruction. Ostrith and her husband were largely instrumental in building up the church in their kingdom, especially in the endowment of monastic houses, which in those early times were, as missionary centres, the chief instruments in the propagation of religion. The matrimonial alliance of the two royal houses was ineffectual to put an end to the long-standing feud between Mercia and Northumbria. Once more Lindsey
