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Category:	Baroque Theatre
Name:	Thomas Otway
Birth Year:	1652
Death Year:	1685
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Biography, Lectures, and Research Links:	Biography Blog Thomas Otway SEARCH NOW: by title by author 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 Faikland, 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 Abbe de Saint-Real, 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 Berenice), and the Cheats of Scapin (from Moliere'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 I 749. 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 5679, 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 protege. 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 Poet's 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 Espagnois contre la Venise, by the Abbe de Saint-Real, 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 I9th 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. [Adapted from Encyclopedia Britannica (1911)] The Great Books: Thomas Otway Please browse our Amazon list of titles about Thomas Otway. For rare and hard to find works we recommend our Alibris list of titles about Thomas Otway. Post Comments, Questions or Suggestions! This database is maintained by Malaspina Great Books.
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This web page is part of a biographical database on Great Ideas. These are living ideas that have shaped, defined and directed world culture for over 2,500 years. By definition the Great Ideas are radical. As such they are sometimes misread, or distorted by popular simplifications. Understanding a Great Idea demands personal engagement. Our selection of Great Ideas is drawn from literature and philosophy, science, art, music, theatre, and cinema. We also include biographies of pivotal historical and religious figures, as well as contributions from women and other historically under-represented minorities. The result is an integrated multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary database built upon the framework of the always controversial Great Books Core List published in 1940 by the late Great Books Pioneer Mortimer Adler (1902-2001). Most of the works on that list are available in the 60 volume Great Books of the Western World.