together, with a dedication to Lord Rochester. In 1678 he produced an original comedy, Friendship in Fashion, popular at the moment, though it was hissed off the stage for its gross indecency when it was revived at Drury Lane in 1749. Meanwhile he had conceived an overwhelming passion for Mrs Barry, who filled many of the leading parts in his plays. Six of his letters to her survive, the last of them referring to a broken appointment in the Mall. Mrs Barry seems to have coquetted with Otway, but she had no intention of permanently offending Rochester. In 1678, driven to desperation by Mrs Barry, Otway obtained a commission through Charles, earl of Plymouth, a natural son of Charles II., in a regiment serving in the Netherlands. The English troops were disbanded in 1679, but were left to find their way home as best they could. They were also paid with depreciated paper, and Otway arrived in London late in the year, ragged and dirty, a circumstance utilized by Rochester in his “Sessions of the Poets,” which contains a scurrilous attack on his former protégé. Early in the next year (February 1680) was produced at Dorset Garden the first of Otway’s two tragic masterpieces, The Orphan, or The Unhappy Marriage, Mrs Barry playing the part of Monimia. Written in blank verse, which shows a study of Shakespeare, its success was due to the tragic pathos, of which Otway was a master, in the characters of Castalio and Monimia. The History and Fall of Caius Marius, produced in the same year, and printed in 1692, is a curious grafting of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet on the story of Marius as related in Plutarch’s Lives. In 1680 Otway also published The Poets Complaint of his Muse, or A Satyr against Libells, in which he retaliated on his literary enemies. An indifferent comedy, The Soldier’s Fortune (1681), was followed in February 1682 by Venice Preserved, or A Plot Discover’d. The story is founded on the Histoire de la conjuration des Espagnols contre la Venise en 1618, also by the Abbé de Saint-Réal, but Otway modified the story considerably. The character of Belvidera is his own, and the leading part in the conspiracy, taken by Bedamor, the Spanish ambassador, is given in the play to the historically insignificant Pierre and Jaffier. The piece has a political meaning, enforced in the prologue. The Popish Plot was in Otway’s mind, and Anthony, 1st earl of Shaftesbury, is caricatured in Antonio. The play won instant success. It was translated into almost every modern European language, and even Dryden said of it: “Nature is there, which is the greatest beauty.” The Orphan and Venice Preserved remained stock pieces on the stage until the 19th century, and the leading actresses of the period played Monimia and Belvidera. One or two prefaces, another weak comedy, The Atheist (1684), and two posthumous pieces, a poem, Windsor Castle (1685), a panegyric of Charles II., and a History of the Triumvirates (1686), translated from the French, complete the list of Otway’s works. He apparently ceased to struggle against his poverty and misfortunes. The generally accepted story regarding the manner of his death was first given in Theophilus Cibber’s Lives of the Poets. He is said to have emerged from his retreat at the Bull on Tower Hill to beg for bread. A passer-by, learning who he was, gave him a guinea, with which Otway hastened to a baker’s shop. He began too hastily to satisfy his ravenous hunger, and choked with the first mouthful. Whether this account of his death be true or not, it is certain that he died in the utmost poverty, and was buried on the 16th of April 1685 in the churchyard of St Clement Danes. A tragedy entitled Heroick Friendship was printed in 1686 as Otway’s work, but the ascription is unlikely.
The Works of Mr Thomas Otway with some account of his life and writings, published in 1712, was followed by other editions (1757, 1768, 1812). The standard edition is that by T. Thornton (1813). A selection of his plays was edited for the Mermaid series (1891 and 1903) by Roden Noel. See also E. Gosse, Seventeenth Century Studies (1883); and Genest, History of the Stage.
OUBLIETTE, a French architectural term (from oublier, to
forget), used in two senses of a dungeon or cell in a prison or
castle which could only be reached by a trap-door from another
dungeon, and of a concealed opening or passage leading from a
dungeon to the moat or river, into which bodies of prisoners who
were to be secretly disposed of might be dropped. Viollet le
Duc (Dict. de l’architecture) gives a diagram of such an oubliette
at the castle of Pierrefonds, France. Many so-called “oubliettes”
in medieval castles were probably outlets for the disposal
of drainage, refuse, &c., which at times may have served for the getting rid of prisoners.
OUCH, a brooch, clasp or buckle, especially one ornamented with jewels, enamels, &c., and used to clasp a cope or other ecclesiastical vestment. It is also used, as in Exod. xxxix. 6, of the gold or silver setting of jewels. The word is an example of the misdivision of a substantive and the indefinite article, being properly “nouche,” “a nouche” being divided into “an ouche,” as a napron into an apron, a nadder into an adder, and, reversely, an ewt, i.e. eft, into a newt. “Nouche” was adapted into O. Fr., whence English took the word, from the Late Lat. nusca, brooch; probably the original is Celtic, cf. O. Irish nasc, ring, nasgaim, fasten.
OUDENARDE (Flemish Oudenaerde), a town of Belgium in
the province of East Flanders, 18 m. S. of Ghent. Pop. (1904)
6572. While it is best known for the great victory gained by
Marlborough and Eugene over the French under Vendôme in 1708,
Oudenarde has many features of interest. The town hall, which
took ten years to build (1525–1535), has after that of Louvain
the most elaborately decorated façade in Belgium. It was
designed by H. van Peede and G. de Ronde, and is in tertiary
Gothic style. The belfry tower of five storeys with three terraces,
surmounted by a golden figure, is a striking feature. The council
chamber contains a fine oak door and Gothic chimney-piece,
both c. 1530. There are also two interesting old churches, St Walburga,
partly of the 12th and partly of the 14th century,
and Notre Dame, dating from the 13th century. The former
contains several fine pictures by Craeyer and other old Flemish
masters.
The Battle of Oudenarde (June 30th–July 11th 1708) was fought on the ground north-west and north of the town, which was then regularly fortified and was garrisoned by a force of the Allies. The French army under the duke of Burgundy and Marshal Vendôme, after an abortive attempt to invest Oudenarde, took up a defensive position north of the town when Marlborough and Eugene, after a forced march, arrived with the main Allied army. The advanced guard of the Allies under General (Lord) Cadogan promptly crossed the Scheldt and annihilated an outlying body of French troops, and Cadogan established himself on the ground he had won in front of the French centre. But the Allied main army took a long time to defile over the Scheldt and could form up (on the left of Cadogan’s detachment) only slowly and by degrees. Observing this, Burgundy resolved to throw forward his right towards Oudenarde to engage and hold the main body of the Allies before their line of battle could be formed. This effected, it was hoped that the remainder of the French army could isolate and destroy Cadogan’s detachment, which was already closely engaged with the French centre. But he miscalculated both the endurance of Cadogan’s men (amongst whom the Prussians were conspicuous for their tenacity) and the rapidity with which in Marlborough’s and Eugene’s hands the wearied troops of the Allies could be made to move. Marlborough, who personally directed the operations on his left wing, not only formed his line of battle successfully, but also began seriously to press the forces that had been sent to check his deployment. Before long, while the hostile left wing still remained inactive, the unfortunate troops of the French centre and right were gradually hemmed in by the whole force of the Allies. The decisive blow was delivered by the Dutch marshal, Overkirk, who was sent by Marlborough with a large force (the last reserve of the Allies) to make a wide turning movement round the extreme right of the French, and at the proper time attacked them in rear. A belated attempt of the French left to intervene was checked by the British cavalry, and the pressure on the centre and right, which were now practically surrounded, continued even after nightfall. A few scattered units managed to escape, and the left wing retreated unmolested, but at the cost of about 3000 casualties the Allies inflicted a loss of 6000 killed and wounded and 9000 prisoners on the enemy, who were,
