by Thomas Otway
Thomas Otway
(1652-1685)
Contents
The Life and Poetry of Thomas Otway
Brief Introduction: Thomas Otway
Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Otway
The Plays
Alcibiades
Don Carlos, Prince of Spain
Titus and Berenice
The Cheats of Scapin
Friendship in Fashion
The History and Fall of Caius Marius
The Orphan
The Soldier’s Fortune
Venice Preserved
The Atheist
The Letters
The Letters of Thomas Otway
The Biographies
Thomas Otway by Theophilus Cibber
Otway by Samuel Johnson
Thomas Otway by Roden Noel
Thomas Otway by Sidney Lee
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Thomas Otway
By Delphi Classics, 2020
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Thomas Otway - Delphi Poets Series
First published in the United Kingdom in 2020 by Delphi Classics.
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The Life and Poetry of Thomas Otway
St. Mary at Chithurst, Trotton a civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex — according to Samuel Johnson, Thomas Otway was born in Trotton (Johnson calls it “Trottin”) in 1652. Otway’s father, Humphrey, was the curate of the parish.
Trotton Bridge
Brief Introduction: Thomas Otway
From ‘1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 20’
THOMAS OTWAY (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 play, 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 updated 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 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 Jaffeir. 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 ch
oked 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 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.
Elizabeth Barry (1658-1713) was an English actress, whose greatest influence on Restoration drama was her presentation of the tragic actress. She worked in large, prestigious London theatre companies throughout her successful career. Otway fell in love with Barry, who served as his muse; she went on to play several of the leading parts in his plays.
Portrait of Aphra Behn by Sir Peter Lely, c. 1670 — in London in the early 1670’s, Otway made the acquaintance of the playwright Aphra Behn, who cast him as the old king in her play, ‘Forc’d Marriage, or The Jealous Bridegroom’, at the Dorset Garden Theatre. However, due to severe stage fright, he gave an abysmal performance and never returned to the stage, instead opting to write instead.
Charles FitzCharles, 1st Earl of Plymouth (1657-1680) by Catherine Pegge. He was the illegitimate son of King Charles II of England; Otway obtained a commission through the Earl in a regiment serving in the Netherlands.
Thomas Betterton by Sir Godfrey Kneller — in 1675 Betterton produced Otway’s first play, ‘Alcibiades’ at the Dorset Garden Theatre, where all but one of his plays would eventually be produced. Elizabeth Barry took the part of Draxilla, and her lover, John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, recommended Otway to the Duke of York (later King James II).
The Dorset Garden Theatre was built in 1671 in the former grounds of Dorset House, seat of the Sackville Earls of Dorset, which was destroyed in the Great Fire of London. The playhouse was demolished in 1709.
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester by Peter Lely, 1677. The controversial poet Rochester (1647-1680) became as well known for his rakish lifestyle as his poetry. Rochester was Otway’s rival in both literature and love – Elizabeth Barry was his lover.
Nell Gwyn by Peter Lely, c. 1675. Gwyn was an acclaimed actor and the notorious mistress of King Charles II. Despite Otway’s eventual critical acclaim and popularity, he was unable to raise himself out of poverty. Alongside his writing, he tried to earn money as a tutor, notably to the illegitimate child of Charles II and Gwyn, but his situation never improved.
Thomas Otway by Jacobus Houbraken, c. 1741
Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Otway
THOMAS THORNTON’S 1813 TEXT
CONTENTS
THE POET’S COMPLAINT OF HIS MUSE.
THE POET’S COMPLAINT.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THOMAS EARL OF OSSORY.
THE POET’S COMPLAINT OF HIS MUSE.
NOTES.
WINDSOR CASTLE.
WINDSOR CASTLE.
EPISTLES, TRANSLATIONS, PROLOGUES, AND MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
EPISTLES, &c.
EPISTLE TO MR. DUKE.
TO MR. CREECH, UPON HIS TRANSLATION OF LUCRETIUS.
PHÆDRA TO HIPPOLYTUS.
THE SIXTEENTH ODE OF THE SECOND BOOK OF HORACE.
PROLOGUE TO MRS. BEHN’S CITY HEIRESS, 1682.
PROLOGUE TO N. LEE’S CONSTANTINE THE GREAT.
EPILOGUE, SPOKEN UPON HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF YORK COMING TO THE THEATRE, FRIDAY APRIL 21, 1682.
SPOKEN TO HER ROYAL HIGHNESS, ON HER RETURN FROM SCOTLAND, IN THE YEAR 1682.
A PASTORAL ON THE DEATH OF HIS LATE MAJESTY.
A SONG. TO A SCOTCH TUNE.
THE ENJOYMENT.
THE ENCHANTMENT.
THE POET’S COMPLAINT OF HIS MUSE.
OR, A SATIRE AGAINST LIBELS.
Si quid habent veri vatum praesagia, vivam.
OVID. MET. LIB. 15.
THE POET’S COMPLAINT.
COMPOSITIONS designed to be the vehicles of political satire, are seldom read with much pleasure, when the scenes have passed away which gave force to the applications, and pungency to the wit. As fresh events efface the recollection of the old, works of this kind sink quietly into oblivion with the subjects whence they derive their birth, unless inherent excellence, or the reputation of the writer, give them an existence beyond that of the transactions to which they allude. This poem, which owes it’s preservation more to the name of the author, than it’s merit, has now, after the lapse of more than a hundred years, lost the interest it probably yielded when the allusions it contains were obvious and striking. The cumbrous allegory of Spenser, which the poet has chosen to convey the satire, involves his meaning in greater obscurity; and the barbarous measure of the verse, written in imitation of the lawless Pindaric odes (as they were improperly called) of that age, disgusts every admirer of elegant and polished versification. It is not sufficiently clear what was the precise design of the author in this satire. Under the term Libel, be probably comprehends faction and sedition; as well as all the store of abuse vented in multitudes of ballads, and other similar productions, with which the press, at that period, incessantly teemed. The allegory, however, wants connection and uniformity. The monster Libel, the offspring of Rebellion, nursed among all the horrid and fantastic shapes which the imagination of a Tory poet could conceive, is a type of the Shaftesbury faction: and, like the dragon in the romance, when no virtue remained elsewhere to satiate it’s fury, is represented as preparing to assail the throne, and demanding the sacrifice of a royal victim. The allegory here breaks off abruptly; and the five succeeding stanzas contain an eulogy on the Duke of York, of whom Otway was always a warm and strenuous advocate, without reaping much advantage from his assiduous devotion. It must be noticed, that, at this time, the poet was smarting under the lash of Lord Rochester, who, in his “Session of the Poets,” lavishes such vulgar abuse upon him, notwithstanding his recent patronage of the author of “Don Carlos.” Such was the caprice or fickleness of his character! Otway here repays the obligation in a very unceremonious manner.
This ode was printed 4to in 1680; a year in which party dissentions rose to an uncommon pitch of violence. The laconic character given of it by Dr. Johnson, is Jess exceptionable than in other instances, where (to use his own phrase) truth is sometimes sacrificed to brevity: “ Part of it,” says he, “I do not understand; and in that which is less obscure I find little to commend.” Such notes as appear necessary to illustrate the author’s meaning (without much labour of research) the editor has subjoined to the poem. A lengthened commentary would be ill bestowed upon a work of so little comparative merit.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THOMAS EARL OF OSSORY.
BARON OF MOOR-PARK, KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER, &C.
[This amiable nobleman was the eldest son of James duke of Ormond. The dedication must only a short time have preceded his death, which happened on the 30th July 1680. He had been appointed governor of Tangier, and was attacked by a fever while preparing for his departure.]
MY LORD, THOUGH never any man had more need of excuse for a presumption of this nature than I have now, yet, when I have laid out every way to find one, your lordship’s goodness must be my best refuge; and therefore I humbly cast this at your feet for protection, and myself for pardon.
My lord, I have great need of protection; for to the best of my heart I have here published in some measure the truth, and I would have it thought honestly too (a practice never more out of countenance than now); yet truth and honour are things which your lordship needs must be kind to, because they are relations to your nature, and never left you.
’Twould be a second presumption in me to pretend in this a panegyric on your lordship; for it would require more art to do your virtue justice, than to flatter any other man.
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sp; If I have ventured at a hint of the present sufferings of that great prince mentioned in the latter end of this paper, with favour from your lordship I hope to add a second part, and do all those great and good men justice, that have, in his calamities, stuck fast to so gallant a friend and so good a master. To write and finish which great subject faithfully, and to be honoured with your lordship’s patronage in what I may do, and your approbation, or at least pardon, in what I have done, will be the greatest pride of,
MY LORD,
Your most humble admirer and servant,
THO. OTWAY.
THE POET’S COMPLAINT OF HIS MUSE.
AN ODE.
I.
I.
To a high hill, where never yet stood tree,
Where only heath, coarse fern, and furzes grow,
Where (nipt by piercing air)
The flocks in tatter’d fleeces hardly graze,
Led by uncouth thoughts and care,
Which did too much his pensive mind amaze,
A wandering bard, whose Muse was crazy grown,
Cloy’d with the nauseous follies of the buzzing town,
Came, look’d about him, sigh’d, and laid him down;
’Twas far from any path, but where the earth
Was bare, and naked all as at her birth,
When by the word it first was made,
Ere God had said,
Let grass and herbs and ev’ry green thing grow,