s_ ("Ali
Baba or The Forty Thieves").

=Ophelia=, the young, beautiful, and pious daughter of Polo'nius, lord
chamberlain to the king of Denmark. Hamlet fell in love with her, but
her father forbade her holding word or speech with the Prince, and she
obeyed so strictly that her treatment of him, with his other wrongs,
drove him to upbraid and neglect her. Ophelia was so wrought upon by his
conduct that her mind gave way. In her madness, attempting to hang a
wreath of flowers on a willow by a brook, a branch broke, and she was
drowned.--_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 _Hercul[^e]s_; and the principal
star, called "Ras Alhague," is in the man's head. (_Ras Alhague_)[TN-48]
is from the Arabic, _r['a]s-al-haww['a]_, "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).

=Opium-Eater= (_The English_), Thomas de Quincey, who published
_Confessions of an English Opium-Eater_ (1845).

=O. P. Q.=, Robert Merry (1755-1798); object of Gifford's satire in
_Baviad_ and _Maeviad_, and of Byron's in his _English Bards and Scotch
Reviewers_. He marries Miss Brunton, the actress.

And Merry's metaphors appear anew,
Chained to the signature of O. P. Q.

Byron, _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_ (1809).

=Oracle of the Church= (_The_), St. Bernard (1091-1153).

=Oracle of the Holy Bottle= (_The_), an oracle sought for by Rabelais, to
solve the knotty point "whether Panurge (2 _syl._) should marry or not."
The question had been put to sibyl and poet, monk and fool, philosopher
and witch, but none could answer it. The oracle was ultimately found in
Lantern-land.

This, of course, is a satire on the celibacy of the clergy and the
withholding of the cup from the laity. Shall the clergy marry or
not?--that was the moot point; and the "Bottle of Tent Wine," or the
clergy, who kept the bottle to themselves, alone could solve it. The
oracle and priestess of the bottle were both called _B