Otway, Thomas 1652-85
English dramatist

Born in Trotton, Sussex, he went to Christ Church, Oxford, in 1669, leaving without a degree in 1672. He failed utterly as an actor, but had some success with his tragedy Alcibiades (1675). In it the actress Elizabeth Barry made her first appearance, and Otway is said to have fallen in love with her. In 1676 Thomas Betterton accepted his Don Carlos, a good tragedy in rhyme. The following year Otway translated Racine's B�r�nice, and Moli�re's Les Fourberies de Scapin as Cheats of Scapin. In 1678-79 he was in Flanders as a soldier. His coarse but diverting comedy, Friendship in Fashion, appeared in 1678, followed in 1680 by two tragedies, The Orphan and Caius Marius, and his one important poem, The Poet's Complaint of his Muse. His greatest work, Venice Preserved, or a Plot Discovered (1682), is a masterpiece of tragic passion. Later works include The Atheist, a feeble comedy, and Windsor Castle (1685), a poem addressed to the new king, James VII and II. He died in poverty. In 1719 a badly edited tragedy, Heroick Friendship, was published as his.

Bibliography: E Rothstein, Restoration Tragedy (1967)