Written during the time of the civil war in Germany, it contrasts
Jerusalem and Babel, the heavenly and the earthly kingdoms, but
also contains much valuable information about the history of the
time. The chronicle, which was held in very high regard by contemporaries,
goes down to 1146, and from this date until 1209 has
been continued by Otto, abbot of St Blasius (d. 1223). Better
known is Otto’s Gesta Friderici imperatoris, written at the request
of Frederick I., and prefaced by a letter from the emperor to the
author. The Gesta is in four books, the first two of which were
written by Otto, and the remaining two, or part of them, by his
pupil Ragewin, or Rahewin; it has been argued that the third
book and the early part of the fourth were also the work of Otto.
Beginning with the quarrel between Pope Gregory VII. and the
emperor Henry IV., the first book takes the history down to the
death of Conrad III. in 1152. It is not confined to German affairs,
as the author digresses to tell of the preaching of Bernard of Clairvaux,
of his zeal against the heretics, and of the condemnation of
Abelard; and discourses on philosophy and theology. The second
book opens with the election of Frederick I. in 1152, and deals
with the history of the first five years of his reign, especially in
Italy, in some detail. From this point (1156) the work is continued
by Ragewin. Otto’s Latin is excellent, and in spite of a slight
partiality for the Hohenstaufen, and some minor inaccuracies, the
Gesta has been rightly described as a “model of historical composition.”
First printed by John Cuspinian at Strassburg in 1515,
Otto’s writings are now found in the Monumenta Germaniae historica,
Band xx. (Hanover, 1868), and have been translated into German
by H. Kohl (Leipzig, 1881–1886). The Gesta Friderici has been
published separately with introduction by G. Waitz. Otto is also
said to have written a history of Austria (Historia Austriaca).
See J. Hashagen, Otto von Freising als Geschichtsphilosoph und Kirchenpolitiker (Leipzig, 1900); J. Schmidlin, Die geschichtsphilosophische und kirchenpolitische Weltanschauung Otto von Freising (Freiburg, 1906); W. Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen, Band ii. (Berlin, 1894); and for full bibliography, A. Potthast, Bibliotheca historica (Berlin, 1896). (A. W. H.*)
OTTO OF NORDHEIM (d. 1083), duke of Bavaria, belonged
to the rich and influential Saxon family of the counts of Nordheim,
and having distinguished himself in war and peace alike, received
the duchy of Bavaria from Agnes, widow of the emperor Henry III.,
in 1061. In 1062 he assisted Anno, archbishop of Cologne,
to seize the person of the German king, Henry IV.; led a successful
expedition into Hungary in 1063; and took a prominent part
in the government during the king’s minority. In 1064 he went
to Italy to settle a papal schism, was largely instrumental in
securing the banishment from court of Adalbert, archbishop of
Bremen, and crossed the Alps in the royal interests on two other
occasions. He neglected his duchy, but added to his personal
possessions, and in 1069 shared in two expeditions in the east of
Germany. In 1070 Otto was accused by a certain Egino of
being privy to a plot to murder the king, and it was decided he
should submit to the ordeal of battle with his accuser. The duke
asked for a safe-conduct to and from the place of meeting, and
when this was refused he declined to appear, and was consequently
deprived of Bavaria, while his Saxon estates were
plundered. He obtained no support in Bavaria, but raised an
army among the Saxons and carried on a campaign of plunder
against Henry until 1071, when he submitted; in the following
year he received back his private estates. When the Saxon
revolt broke out in 1073 Otto is represented by Bruno, the
author of De bello Saxonico, as delivering an inspiring speech
to the assembled Saxons at Wormsleben, after which he took
command of the insurgents. By the peace of Gerstungen in
1074 Bavaria was restored to him; he shared in the Saxon rising
of 1075, after which he was again pardoned and made administrator
of Saxony. After the excommunication of Henry IV.
in 1076 Otto attempted to mediate between Henry and the
Saxons, but when these efforts failed he again placed himself
at their head. He assented to the election of Rudolph, count of
Rheinfelden, as German king, when his restoration to Bavaria
was assured, and by his skill and bravery inflicted defeats on
Henry’s forces at Mellrichstadt, Flarchheim and Hohenmölsen.
He remained in arms against the king until his death on the 11th
of January 1083. Otto is described as a noble, prudent and
warlike man, and he possessed great abilities. His repeated
pardon showed that Henry could not afford to neglect such a
powerful personality, and his military talents were repeatedly
displayed. By his wife Richenza, widow of Hermann, count of
Werla, he left three sons and three daughters.
See W. von Giesebrecht, Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit, Band iii. (Leipzig, 1881–1890); H. Mehmel, Otto von Nordheim, Herzog von Bayern (Göttingen, 1870); E. Neumann, De Ottone de Nordheim (Breslau, 1871); S. Riezler, Geschichte Bayerns (Gotha, 1878); and A. Vogeler, Otto von Nordheim (Göttingen, 1880).
OTTOMAN, a form of couch which usually has a head but no
back, though sometimes it has neither. It may have square or
semicircular ends, and as a rule it is what upholsterers call
“stuffed over”—that is to say no wood is visible. It belongs to
the same order of ideas as the divan (q.v); its name indeed
betokens its Oriental origin. It was one of the luxurious appointments
which Europe imported from the East in the 18th century;
the first mention that has been found of it is in France in 1729.
In the course of a generation it made its way into every boudoir,
but it appears originally to have been much larger than at present.
The word is also applied to a small foot-stool covered with
carpet, embroidery or beadwork.
OTTUMWA, a city and the county-seat of Wapello county, Iowa, U.S.A., on both sides of the Des Moines river, in the S.E. part of the state, about 85 m. S.E. of Des Moines. Pop. (1900) 18,197, of whom 1759 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 122,012. It is served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago, Milwaukee & Saint Paul, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, and the Wabash railways. The site on which it is built
forms a succession of terraces receding farther and farther from the river. In the city are a Carnegie library, a city hospital and St Joseph’s Academy. Ottumwa is the headquarters of the Ottumwa Division of the Southern Federal Judicial District of Iowa, and terms of United States District and Circuit courts are held there. The city is in one of the richest coal regions of the
state, and ranks high as a manufacturing centre, pork-packing,
and the manufacture of iron and steel, machinery and agricultural
and mining implements being the leading industries. The value
of the factory product in 1905 was $10,374,183, an increase of
19·5% since 1900. Ottumwa was first settled in 1843, was
incorporated as a town in 1851, and first chartered as a city in
1857.
OTWAY, THOMAS (1652–1685), English dramatist, was born at Trotton, near Midhurst, Sussex, on the 3rd of March 1652. His father, Humphrey Otway, was at that time curate of Trotton, but Otway’s childhood was spent at Woolbeding, a parish 3 m. distant of which his father had become rector. He was educated at Winchester College, and in 1669 entered Christ Church, Oxford, as a commoner, but left the university without a degree in the autumn of 1672. At Oxford he made the acquaintance of Anthony Cary, 5th viscount Falkland, through whom, he says in the dedication to Caius Marius, he first learned to love books. In London he made acquaintance with Mrs Aphra Behn, who in 1672 cast him for the part of the old king in her Forc’d Marriage, or The Jealous Bridegroom, at the Dorset Garden Theatre, but he had a bad attack of stage fright, and never made a second appearance. In 1675 Thomas Betterton produced at the same theatre Otway’s first dramatic attempt, Alcibiades, which was printed in the same year. It is a poor tragedy, written in heroic verse, but was saved from absolute failure by the actors. Mrs Barry took the part of Draxilla, and her lover, the earl of Rochester, recommended the author of the piece to the notice of the duke of York. He made a great advance on this first work in Don Carlos, Prince of Spain (licensed June 15, 1676; an undated edition probably belongs to the same year). The material for this rhymed tragedy Otway took from the novel of the same name, written in 1672 by the Abbé de Saint-Réal, the source from which Schiller also drew his tragedy of Don Carlos. In it the two characters familiar throughout his plays make their appearance. Don Carlos is the impetuous, unstable youth, who seems to be drawn from Otway himself, while the queen’s part is the gentle pathetic character repeated in his more celebrated heroines, Monimia and Belvidera. “It got more money,” says John Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, 1708) of this play, “than any preceding modern tragedy.” In 1677 Betterton produced two adaptations from the French by Otway, Titus and Berenice (from Racine’s Bérénice), and the Cheats of Scapin (from Molière’s Fourberies de Scapin). These were printed
