Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 3: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's HandbookBrewer, Ebenezer Cobham
General
Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 3: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook
Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham
Allusions; Fiction -- Dictionaries; Literature -- Dictionaries
=Onei´za= (3 _syl._), daughter of Moath, a well-to-do Bedouin, in love
with Thal´aba, “the destroyer” of sorcerers. Thalaba, being raised to
the office of vizier, married Oneiza, but she died on the bridal
night.--Southey, _Thalaba, the Destroyer_, ii., vii. (1797).
=Oneida Warrior= (_The_), Outalissi (_q.v._).--Campbell, _Gertrude of
Wyoming_ (1809).
=Only= (_The_), Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, called by the Germans _Der
Einzige_, from the unique character of his writings.
⁂ The Italians call Bernardo Accolti, an Italian poet of the sixteenth
century, “Aretino the Only,” or _L’Unico Aretino_.
=Open, Ses´ame!= (3 _syl._) the magic words which caused the cave door of
the “forty thieves” to open of itself. “Shut Sesamê!” were the words
which caused it to shut. Sesame is a grain, and hence Cassim, when he
forgot the word, cried, “Open, Wheat!” “Open, Rye!” “Open, Barley!” but
the door obeyed no sound but “Open, Sesamê!”--_Arabian Nights_ (“Ali
Baba or The Forty Thieves”).
=Ophelia=, the young, beautiful, and pious daughter of Polo´nius, lord
chamberlain to the king of Denmark. Hamlet fell in love with her, but
her father forbade her holding word or speech with the Prince, and she
obeyed so strictly that her treatment of him, with his other wrongs,
drove him to upbraid and neglect her. Ophelia was so wrought upon by his
conduct that her mind gave way. In her madness, attempting to hang a
wreath of flowers on a willow by a brook, a branch broke, and she was
drowned.--_Hamlet_ (1596).
Tate Wilkinson, speaking of Mrs. Cibber (Dr. Arne’s daughter,
1710-1766), says: “Her features, figure and singing, made her the best
‘Ophelia’ that ever appeared either before or since.”
=Ophiuchus= [_Of´.i.ū´.kus_], the constellation _Serpentarius_. Ophiuchus
is a man who holds a serpent (Greek _Ophis_) in his hands. The
constellation is situated to the south of _Herculês_; and the principal
star, called “Ras Alhague,” is in the man’s head. (_Ras Alhague_)[TN-48]
is from the Arabic, _rás-al-hawwá_, “the serpent-charmer’s head.”)
Satan stood
Unterrified, and like a comet burned,
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge,
In the Arctic sky.
Milton, _Paradise Lost_, ii. 709, etc. (1665).
=Opium-Eater= (_The English_), Thomas de Quincey, who published
_Confessions of an English Opium-Eater_ (1845).
=O. P. Q.=, Robert Merry (1755-1798); object of Gifford’s satire in
_Baviad_ and _Mæviad_, and of Byron’s in his _English Bards and Scotch
Reviewers_. He marries Miss Brunton, the actress.
And Merry’s metaphors appear anew,
Chained to the signature of O. P. Q.
Byron, _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_ (1809).
=Oracle of the Church= (_The_), St. Bernard (1091-1153).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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