children by her own literary activity. She had now become a popular writer, and worked with amazing industry to sustain her position. Unfortunately, her home life was full of sorrow and disappointment. In January 1864 her only daughter died in Rome, and was buried in her father's grave. Her brother, who had emigrated to Canada, was shortly afterwards involved in financial ruin, and Mrs Oliphant offered a home to him and his children, and added their support to her already heavy responsibilities. In 1866 she settled at Windsor to be near her sons who were being educated at Eton. This was her home for the rest of her life, and for more than thirty years she pursued a varied literary career with courage scarcely broken by a series of the gravest troubles. The ambitions she cherished for her sons were unfulfilled. Cyril Francis, the elder, died in 1890, leaving a Life of Alfred de Musset, incorporated in his mother’s Foreign Classics for English Readers. The younger, Frank, collaborated with her in the Victorian Age of English Literature and won a position at the British Museum, but was rejected by the doctors. He died in 1894. With the last of her children lost to her, she had but little further interest in life. Her health steadily declined, and she died at Wimbledon, on the 25th of June 1897.
In the course of her long struggle with circumstances, Mrs Oliphant produced more than 120 separate works, including novels, books of travel and description, histories and volumes of literary criticism. Among the best known of her works of fiction are Adam Graeme (1852), Magdalen Hepburn (1854), Lilliesleaf (1855), The Laird of Norlaw (1858) and a series of stories with the collective title of The Chronicles of Carlingford, which, originally appearing in Blackwood’s Magazine (1862–1865), did much to widen her reputation. This series included Salem Chapel (1863), The Rector; and the Doctor’s Family (1863), The Perpetual Curate (1864) and Miss Marjoribanks (1866). Other successful novels were Madonna Mary (1867), Squire Arden (1871), He that will not when he may (1880), Hester (1883), Kirsteen (1890), The Marriage of Elinor (1892) and The Ways of Life (1897). Her tendency to mysticism found expression in The Beleaguered City (1880) and A Little Pilgrim in the Unseen (1882). Her biographies of Edward Irving (1862) and Laurence Oliphant (1892), together with her life of Sheridan in the “English Men of Letters” (1883), have vivacity and a sympathetic touch. She also wrote historical and critical works of considerable variety, including Historical Sketches of the Reign of George II. (1869), The Makers of Florence (1876), A Literary History of England from 1790 to 1825 (1882), The Makers of Venice (1887), Royal Edinburgh (1890), Jerusalem (1891) and The Makers of Modern Rome (1895), while at the time of her death she was still occupied upon Annals of a Publishing House, a record of the progress and achievement of the firm of Blackwood, with which she had been so long and honourably connected.
Her Autobiography and Letters, which present a touching picture of her domestic anxieties, appeared in 1899.
OLIPHANT, Olifant (Ger. Helfant), the large signal horn of
the middle ages, made, as its name indicates, from the tusk of
an elephant. The oliphant was the instrument of knights and
men of high degree, and was usually ornamented with scenes of
hunting or war carved either length ways or round the horn in
sections divided by bands of gold and studded with gems. The
knights used their oliphants in the hunting field and in battle,
and the loss of this precious horn was considered as shameful as
the loss of sword or banner.
OLIVA, FERNAN PEREZ DE (1492?–1530), Spanish man of
letters, was born at Cordova about 1492. After studying at Salamanca, Alcala, Paris and Rome, he was appointed rector at Salamanca, where he died in 1 530. His Diálogo de la dignidad del hombre (1543), an unfinished work completed by Francisco
Cervantes de Salazar, was written chiefly to prove the suitability
of Spanish as a vehicle for philosophic discussion. He also
published translations of the Amphitruo (1525), the Electra
(1528) and the Hecuba (1528).
OLIVARES, GASPAR DE GUZMAN, count of Olivares and
duke of San Lucar (1587–1645), Spanish royal favourite and minister, was born in Rome, where his father was Spanish ambassador, on the 6th of January 1587. His compound title is
explained by the fact that he inherited the title of count of
Olivares, but was created duke of San Lucar by the favour of
Philip IV. He begged the king to allow him to preserve his
inherited title in combination with the new honour—according
to a practice of which there are a few other examples in Spanish
history. Therefore he was commonly spoken of as el condeduque.
During the life of Philip III. he was appointed to a post
in the household of the heir apparent, Philip, by the interest of
his maternal uncle Don Baltasar de Zúñiga, who was the head of
the prince’s establishment. Olivares made it his business to
acquire the most complete influence over the young prince.
When Philip IV. ascended the throne in 1621, at the age of sixteen,
he showed his confidence in Olivares by ordering that all
papers requiring the royal signature should first be sent to the
count-duke. Olivares could now boast to his uncle Don
Baltasar de Zuniga that he was " all." He became what is
known in Spain as a valido—something more than a prime
minister, the favourite and alter ego of the king. For twenty-two
years he directed the policy of Spain. It was a period of constant
war, and finally of disaster abroad and of rebellion at home.
The Spaniards, who were too thoroughly monarchical to blame
the king, held his favourite responsible for the misfortunes of the
country. The count-duke became, and for long remained, in
the opinion of his countrymen, the accepted model of a grasping and incapable favourite. Of late, largely under the inspiration of Don Antonio Canovas, there has been a certain reaction in his favour. It would certainly be most unjust to blame Olivares alone for the decadence of Spain, which was due to internal causes of long standing. The gross errors of his policy—the renewal of the war with Holland in 1621, the persistence of Spain in taking part in the Thirty Years' War, the lesser wars undertaken in northern Italy, and the entire neglect of all effort to promote the unification of the different states forming the peninsular kingdom—were shared by him with the king, the Church and the commercial classes. When he had fallen from power he wrote an apology, in which he maintained that he had always wished to see more attention paid to internal government, and above all to the complete unification of Portugal with Spain. But if this was not an afterthought, he must, on his own showing, stand accused of having carried out during long years a policy which he knew to be disastrous to his country, rather than risk the loss of the king’s favour and of his place. Olivares did not share the king’s taste for art and literature, but he formed a vast collection of state papers, ancient and contemporary, which he endeavoured to protect from destruction by entaUing them as an heirloom. He also formed a splendid aviary which, under the name of the " hencoop," was a favourite subject of ridicule with his enemies. Towards the end of his period of favour he caused great offence by legitimizing a supposed bastard son of very doubtful paternity and worthless personal character, and by arranging a rich marriage for him. The fall of Olivares was immediately due to the revolts of Portugal and Catalonia in 1640. The king parted with him reluctantly, and only under the pressure of a strong court intrigue headed by Queen Isabella. It was noted with anxiety by his enemies that he was succeeded in the king’s confidence by his nephew the count of Haro. There remains, however, a letter from the king, in which Philip tells his old favourite, with frivolous ferocity, that it might be necessary to sacrifice his life in order to avert unpopularity from the royal house. Olivares was driven from office in 1643. He retired by the king’s order to Toro. Here he endeavoured to satisfy his passion for activity, partly by sharing in the municipal government of the town and the regulation of its commons, woods and pastures, and partly by the composition of the apology he published under the title of El Nicandro, which was perhaps written by an agent, but was undeniably inspired by the fallen minister. The Nicandro was denounced to the Inquisition, and it is not impossible that Olivares might have ended in the prisons of the Holy Office, or on the scaffold, if he had not died on the 22nd of July 1645.
