OCCLEVE, (see HOCCLEVE).

OCKLEY, SIMON (1678-1720).—­Orientalist, b. at Exeter, and ed. at Camb., became the greatest Orientalist of his day, and was made in 1711 Prof. of Arabic in his Univ.  His chief work is the Conquest of Syria, Persia, and Egypt by the Saracens (3 vols., 1708-57), which was largely used by Gibbon.  The original documents upon which it is founded are now regarded as of doubtful authority.  O. was a clergyman of the Church of England.

O’KEEFFE, JOHN (1747-1833).—­Dramatist, wrote a number of farces and amusing dramatic pieces, many of which had great success.  Among these are Tony Lumpkin in Town (1778), Wild Oats, and Love in a Camp.  Some of his songs set to music by Arnold and Shield, such as I am a Friar of Orders Grey, and The Thorn, are still popular.  He was blind in his later years.

OLDHAM, JOHN (1653-1683).—­Satirist and translator, s. of a Nonconformist minister, was at Oxf., and was the friend of most of the literary men of his time, by whom his early death from smallpox was bewailed.  He made clever adaptations of the classical satirists, wrote an ironical Satire against Virtue, and four severe satires against the Jesuits.  He is cynical to the verge of misanthropy, but independent and manly.

OLDMIXON, JOHN (1673-1742).—­Historical and miscellaneous writer, belonged to an old Somersetshire family, wrote some, now forgotten, dramas and poems which, along with an essay on criticism, in which he attacked Addison, Swift, and Pope, earned for him a place in The Dunciad.  He was also the author of The British Empire in America (1708), Secret History of Europe (against the Stuarts), and in his Critical History (1724-26) attacked Clarendon’s History of the Rebellion.  All these works are partisan in their tone.  O. was one of the most prolific pamphleteers of his day.

OLDYS, WILLIAM (1696-1761).—­Antiquary, wrote a Life of Sir W. Raleigh prefixed to an ed. of his works (1736), a Dissertation on Pamphlets (1731), and was joint ed. with Dr. Johnson of the Harleian Miscellany.  He amassed many interesting facts in literary history, the fruits of diligent, though obscure, industry.  The only poem of his that still lives is the beautiful little anacreontic beginning “Busy, curious, thirsty Fly.”  O. held the office of Norroy-King-at-Arms.  He produced in 1737 The British Librarian, a valuable work left unfinished.

OLIPHANT, LAURENCE (1829-1888).—­Novelist and miscellaneous writer, s. of Sir Anthony O., Chief Justice of Ceylon.  The first 38 years of his life were spent in desultory study, travel, and adventure, varied by occasional diplomatic employment.  His travels included, besides Continental countries, the shores of the Black Sea, Circassia, where he was Times correspondent, America, China, and Japan.  He was in the Crimean War, Indian Mutiny, Chinese