Thomas Otway

son of Humph. Otway Rector of Wolbeding in Sussex, was born at Trottin in that County, on the 3. of March 1651, educated in Wykeham’s School near Winchester, became a Communer of Ch. Ch. in the beginning of 1669, left the University without the honor of a degree, retired to the great City, where he not only applied his muse to Poetry but sometimes acted in plays, whereby he obtained to himself a reputation among the ingenious, and a comfortable subsistence to himself, besides the favour and countenance of Charles Fitz-Charles commonly called Don Carlos Earl of Plymouth, one of the natural Sons of K. Ch. 2. In 1677 he went in the quality of a Cornet, with the new rais’d English, forces, design’d for Flanders; but getting little or nothing by that employment, returned with the loss of time to London, where he continued to the day of his death, by writing of plays and little poetical essays. He was a man of good parts, but yet sometimes fell ((†))((†)) Ger. Lang [•] a [•] ne in his Account of the English Dramatick Poets, &c. Oxon. 169 [•] . p. 396. into plagiary, as well as his contemporaries, and made use of Shakespear, to the advantage of his purse, at least, if not his reputation. After his return from Flanders, which was in a poor condition, Rochester the biting Satyrist brought him into his Session ((a))((a)) In the Poems of Joh. Earl of Rochester, printed 1680. p. 113. of Poets thus.

Tom Otway came next, Tom Shadwells ((b))((b)) Tho. Shadwell a Dram. Poet, afterwards Poet Laureat to K. Will. and Qu. Mary. dear Zany,

And swears for Heroicks, he writes best of any;

Don Carlos his pockets so amply had fill’d,

That his mange ((c))((c)) He returned from Flanders scabbed and lowsie, as ’twas reported. was quite cur’d and his lice were all kill’d.

But Apollo, had seen his face on the stage,

And prudently did not think fit to engage

The scum of a Playhouse, for the prop of an age.

As for his works, which have been approved by the generality of Scholars, a Catalogue of them follows.

Alcibiades, a Tragedy. Lond. 1675. 87. qu. ’Tis writ in Heroick verse, and was the first fruits of the authors labours.

Don Carlos Prince of Spain, Trag. Lond. 1676. 79.

Titus and Berenice, Trag. Lond. 1677. qu.

Cheates of Spaine, a Farce—Printed with Tit. and Ber.

Friendship in fashion, a Comedy. Lond. 1678. qu.

The Poets complaint of his muse; or a satyr against Libells, a Poem. Lond. 1680. qu.

The History and Fall of Caius Marius; Trag. Lond. 1680. qu.

The Orphan; or the unhappy marriage; Trag. Lond. 1680. 84. &c. qu.

The Soldiers fortune; Com. Lond. 1681. qu.

Venice preserv’d; or, a plot discovered. Lond. 1682. qu.

The Atheist; or, the second part of the Soldiers fortune. Lond. 1684. qu.

Windsor Castle, in a monument to our late Sovereign K. Ch. 2. of ever blessed memory; a poem. Lond. 1685. qu. He also translate [•] from Lat. into English The Epistle of Phaedra to Hyppolytus, in Ovids Epistles, translated by several hands—Lond. 1680. 81. oct. Also The sixteenth Ode of Horace, in a book entit. Miscellany Poems containing a new translation of Virgils Eclogues, Ovids Elegies, Odes of Horace, &c. Lond. 1684. oct. In which Miscellany Poems, is our author Otway’s Epistle to R. D. in verse, p. 218. He englished also The History of the Triumvirates; the first part of Julius Caesar, Pompey and Crassus. The second part of Augustus, Antony and Lepidus. Being a faithful collection from the best Historians and other authors, concerning that revolution of the Rom. government, which hapned under their authority. Lond. 1686. oct. Written originally in the French language. At length after he had lived about 33 years in this vain and transitory world, made his last exit in an house on Tower-hill (called the Bull as I have heard) on the 14. of Apr. in sixteen hundred eighty and five:1685. whereupon his body was conveyed to the Church of S. Clement Danes within the liberty of Westminster, and was buried in a vault there. In his sickness he was composing a congratulatory Poem on the inauguration of K. Jam. 2.