Thomas Otway

Thomas Otway

Thomas Otway (March 3, 1652 – April 14, 1685) was an English dramatist of the Restoration period.

Quotes

• O woman! lovely woman! Nature made thee
  To temper man: we had been brutes without you.
  Angels are painted fair, to look like you:
  There ’s in you all that we believe of heaven,—
  Amazing brightness, purity, and truth,
  Eternal joy, and everlasting love.
  • Venice Preserv'd (1682), Act i. Sc. 1.

• Give but an Englishman his whore and ease,
  Beef and a sea-coal fire, he's yours forever.
  • Venice Preserv'd (1682), Act ii. Sc. 3.
  • Quoted by Lord Byron in a letter to Francis Hodgson (22 August 1822):

    If you should feel a disposition to come here, you will find 'beef and a sea-coal fire', and not ungenerous wine. Whether Otway's two other requisites for an Englishman or not, I cannot tell, but probably one of them.

• Dear as the vital warmth that feeds my life;
  Dear as these eyes, that weep in fondness o’er thee.
  • Venice Preserv'd (1682), Act v. Sc. 1. Compare: "Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes; Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart", Thomas Gray, The Bard, part i. stanza 3.

• And die with decency.
  • Venice Preserv'd (1682), Act v. Sc. 3.

• What mighty ills have not been done by woman!
  Who was ’t betrayed the Capitol?—A woman!
  Who lost Mark Antony the world?—A woman!
  Who was the cause of a long ten years’ war,
  And laid at last old Troy in ashes?—Woman!
  Destructive, damnable, deceitful woman!
  • The Orphan (1680), Act iii. Sc. 1. Compare: "O woman, woman! when to ill thy mind/ Is bent, all hell contains no fouler fiend", Alexander Pope, Homer’s Odyssey, book xi., line 531.

• Let us embrace, and from this very moment vow an eternal misery together.
  • The Orphan (1680), Act iv. Sc. 2. Compare: "Let us swear an eternal friendship", John Hookham Frere, The Rovers, act i. sc. 1.

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Thomas Otway on Wikipedia
• Media related to Thomas Otway on Wikimedia Commons
• Works related to Author:Thomas Otway on Wikisource