Chapter One Thing at a Time to Oreades of O by Brewer's Readers Handbook

One Thing at a Time to Oreades

One Thing at a Time. This was De Witt’s great maxim (Spectator).

O’Neal (Shan), leader of the Irish insurgents in 1567. Shan O’Neal was notorious for profligacy.

Oneiza , daughter of Moath a well-to-do Bedouin, in love with Thalaba “the destroyer” of sorcerers. Thalaba, being raised to the office of vizier, married Oneiza, but she died on the bridal night.—Southey: Thabala the Destroyer, ii., vii. (1797).

Oneyda 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.

Not without reason have his panegyrists named him Jean Paul der Einzige, “Jean Paul the Only,” … for surely, in the whole circle of literature, we look in vain for his parallel.—Carlyle.

The Italians call Bernardo Accolti, an Italian poet of the sixteenth century, “Aretino the Only,” or L’Unico Aretino.

Open, Sesamê! , 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. Sesamê 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”).

Opening a handkerchief, in which he had a sample of sesamê, he showed it me, and inquired how much a large measure of the grain was worth. … I told him that, according to the present price, it would be worth one hundred drachms of silver.—Arabian Nights (“The Christian Merchant’s Story”).

Ophelia, the young, beautiful, and pious daughter of Polonius lord chamberlain to the king of Denmark. Hamlet fell in love with her, but, finding marriage inconsistent with his views of vengeance against “his murderous, adulterous, and usurping uncle,” he affected madness; and Ophelia was so wrought upon by his strange behaviour to her, that her intellect gave way. In an attempt to gather flowers from a brook, the branch of a tree she was holding snapped, and, falling into the water, she was drowned.—Shakespeare: 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-u-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 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).

Ophiusa, island of serpents near Crete; called by the Romans Colubraria. The inhabitants were obliged to quit it, because the snakes were so abundant. Milton refers to it in Paradise Lost, x. 528 (1665).

Opium-Eater (The English), Thomas de Quincey, who published Confessions of an English Opium- Eater (1785–1859).