Part 44 (2/2)

=Oberon, the Fay=, king of Mommur, a humpty dwarf, three feet high, of angelic face. He told Sir Huon that the lady of the Hidden Isle (_Cephalonia_) married Neptanebus, king of Egypt, by whom she had a son named Alexander ”the Great.” Seven hundred years later she had another son, Oberon, by Julius Caesar, who stopped in Cephalonia on his way to Thessaly. At the birth of Oberon the fairies bestowed their gifts on him. One was insight into men's thoughts, and another was the power of transporting himself instantaneously to any place. At death he made Huon his successor, and was borne to paradise.--_Huon de Bordeaux_ (a romance).

=Oberthal= (_Count_), lord of Dordrecht, near the Meuse. When Bertha, one of his va.s.sals, asked permission to marry John of Leyden, the count withheld his consent, as he designed to make Bertha his mistress. This drove John into rebellion, and he joined the anabaptists. The count was taken prisoner by Gio'na, a discarded servant, but was liberated by John. When John was crowned prophet-king the count entered the banquet-hall to arrest him, and perished with him in the flames of the burning palace.--Meyerbeer, _Le Prophete_ (opera, 1849).

=Obi.= Among the negroes of the West Indies ”Obi” is the name of a magical power, supposed to affect men with all the curses of an ”evil eye.”

=Obi-Woman= (_An_), an African sorceress, a wors.h.i.+pper of Mumbo Jumbo.

=Obi'dah=, a young man who meets with various adventures and misfortunes allegorical of human life.--Dr. Johnson, _The Rambler_ (1750-2).

=Obid'icut=, the fiend of l.u.s.t, and one of the five which possessed ”poor Tom.”--Shakespeare, _King Lear_, act iv. sc. 1 (1605).

=O'Brallaghan= (_Sir Callaghan_), ”a wild Irish soldier in the Prussian army. His military humor makes one fancy he was not only born in a siege, but that Bellona had been his nurse, Mars his schoolmaster and the Furies his playfellows.” He is the successful suitor of Charlotte Goodchild.--Macklin, _Love-a-la-mode_ (1759).

=O'Brien=, the Irish lieutenant under Captain Savage.--Captain Marryat, _Peter Simple_ (1833).

=Observant Friars=, those friars who observe the rule of St. Francis; to abjure books, land, house and chapel, to live on alms, dress in rags, feed on sc.r.a.ps and sleep anywhere.

=Obstinate=, an inhabitant of the City of Destruction, who advised Christian to return to his family, and not run on a wild-goose chase.--Bunyan, _Pilgrim's Progress_, i. (1678).

=Occasion=, the mother of Furor; an ugly, wrinkled old hag, lame of one foot. Her head was bald behind, but in front she had a few h.o.a.ry locks.

Sir Guyon seized her, gagged her and bound her.--Spenser, _Faery Queen_, ii. 4 (1590).

=Ochiltree= (_Old Edie_), a king's bedesman or blue-gown. Edie is a garrulous, kind-hearted, wandering beggar, who a.s.sures Mr. Lovel that the supposed ruin of a Roman camp is no such thing. The old bedesman delighted ”to daunder down the burnsides and green shaws.” He is a well-drawn character.--Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time, George III.).

=Ocnus= (_The Rope of_), profitless labor. Ocnus is represented as twisting with unwearied diligence a rope, which an a.s.s eats as fast as it is made. The allegory signifies that Ocnus worked hard to earn money, which his wife spent by her extravagance.

=Octave= (2 _syl._), the son of Argante (2 _syl._). During the absence of his father, Octave fell in love with Hyacinthe, daughter of Geronte, and married her, supposing her to be the daughter of Signor Pandolphe, of Tarentum. His father wanted him to marry the daughter of his friend Geronte, but Octave would not listen to it. It turned out, however, that the daughter of Pandolphe and the daughter of Geronte were one and the same person, for Geronte had a.s.sumed the name of Pandolphe while he lived in Tarentum, and his wife and daughter stayed behind after the father went to live at Naples.--Moliere, _Les Fourberies de Scapin_ (1671).

? In the English version, called _The Cheats of Scapin_, by Thomas Otway, Octave is called ”Octavian,” Argante is called ”Thrifty,”

Hyacinthe is called ”Clara,” and Geronte is ”Gripe.”

=Octavian=, the lover of Floranthe. He goes mad because he imagines Floranthe loves another; but Roque, a blunt, kind-hearted old man, a.s.sures him that Dona Floranthe is true to him, and induces him to return home.--Colman, the younger, _The Mountaineers_ (1793).

_Octavian_, the English form of ”Octave” (2 _syl._), in Otway's _Cheats of Scapin_. (See OCTAVE.)

=Octa'vio=, the supposed husband of Jacintha. This Jacintha was at one time contracted to Don Henrique, but Violante (4 _syl._), pa.s.sed for Don Henrique's wife.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Spanish Curate_ (1622).

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