1767 PLAYS viz. THE ORPHAN: AND WENICE PRESERV'D. BY THOMAS OTWAY. To which is Prefixed, A short Account of the LIFE of the GLASGOW Printed for ROBERT URIE. MDCCLXVII. Ot way } -> k A short Account of the LIFE of OTWAY. THOMAS OTway was the fon of the Reverend Mr. Humphry Otway, rector of Wolbeding in Sussex, and was born in the year 1651-He received his education at Wickeham School near Winchester, and became a Commoner of Christ's Church, in Oxford, in 1669-But, on his quitting the University, and coming to London, he turned Player. His success, as an actor, was but indifferent; he was more valued for the sprightli. ness of his conversation, and the acuteness of his wit; which gained him the friendship of the Earl of Plymouth *, who procured him a Cornet's com. mission in the troops which then served in Flanders. He Our author, like the rest of the wits of every age, was but a bad oeconomist; and therefor it is no wonder that we generally find him in very ne. ceffitous circumstances. This was particularly the cafe with him at his return from Flanders. was, moreover, averse to the military profession; and it is therefor not extraordinary, all things confidered, that he and his commission soon quarrelled, and parted, never to meet again. After this, he had recourse to writing for the stage; and now it was that he found out the only employment that nature seems to have fitted him for.-In Comedy, he has been deemed too licen * Charles Fitz-Charles, one of the natural fons of Charles II. |