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746 OVERBURY OVERWEG " St. Elizabeth," " Assumption of the Virgin," &c., are examples of his manner of illustrating the traditions of the church. His masterpiece perhaps is the elaborate composition in the Stadel'sche institute at Frankfort, representing the triumph of Christianity in the arts. As a designer in charcoal and chalk, Overbeck is per- haps more generally known than by his paint- ings ; and engravings have been made from his " Passion of our Lord," " Forty Illustrations from the Gospels," and similar series of draw- ings. He also designed a remarkable series of cartoons to be executed in fresco in the chapel of the banker Torlonia's villa at Oastel Gan- dolfo. Occasionally he attempted allegorical figures, such as his "Germania" and "Italia." Among his latest works were the cartoons for mural paintings for a large Catholic church in Jakova, Albania, and seven pictures represent- ing the seven sacraments. II. Johannes Adolf, a German archa3ologist, nephew of the preceding, born in Antwerp, March 27, 1826. He gradu- ated at Bonn in 1850, and became professor in the university of Leipsic in 1853, and founded its archaeological museum. His principal works are : Geschich te der griechischen Plastik (2 vols. , 1857-'8 ; 2d ed., 1869-'70) ; Pompeji in seinen Gebauden, Alterthumern und Kunstwerlcen (1856; 2d ed., 2 vols., 1866); and Griechische Kunstmythologie (3 vols. and atlas, 1871-'3). OVERBURY, Sir Thomas, an English author, born at Ilmington, Warwickshire, in 1581, died in London, Sept. 15, 1613. He graduated at Queen's college, Oxford, in 1598. After trav- j elling on the continent, he went in 1601 to | Edinburgh, where he became intimate with j Robert Carr, afterward Viscount Rochester and earl of Somerset. In 1608 Overbury was knighted. In 1609 he visited France and the Netherlands, and wrote "Observations upon the State of the Seventeen Provinces in 1609 " (1626). When he returned, his patron Roches- ter was engaged in an intrigue with Frances Howard, wife of the earl of Essex ; but when it was proposed that she should procure a divorce in order to marry Rochester, Over- bury opposed it, and wrote his poem " The Wife" (published in 1614 and frequently re- printed) to dissuade him. Overbury's opposi- tion excited the enmity of the countess, who attempted to procure his assassination; but her uncle, the earl of Northampton, devised that a foreign mission should be offered to him, which Rochester prompted him to re- fuse. His refusal was declared a contempt of the king's commands, and he was committed to the tower in April, 1613, where he received the harshest treatment, and died within five months. In November Rochester was created earl of Somerset, and in December married the countess of Essex. In May, 1616, the two were arrested for having procured the death of Over- bury by poisoning ; the countess pleaded guilty and her husband was convicted, and both were sentenced to death, but pardoned; while five minor conspirators, who furnished or admin- istered the poison, were convicted and exe- cuted. A full account of the case from con- temporary manuscripts was published in 1840 by Andrew Amos, entitled u The Great Oyer of Poisoning," &c. Overbury's writings, all pub- lished posthumously, besides the above men- tioned, are: "Characters" and "Newes from any whence, or Old Truths under a supposal of Novelty" (1614); "The First and Second Part of the Remedy of Love," a paraphrase from Ovid (1620); "Miscellaneous Works in Prose and Verse " (1632) ; and " Crumms fall- en from King James's Table, or his Table Talk" (1715). A complete edition of his works, with a life by E. F. Rimbault, was pub- lished in 1856. OVERSKOU, Thomas, a Danish dramatist, born in Copenhagen, Oct. 11, 1798. He was ap- prenticed to a smith in his 14th year, but went upon the stage in 1818. In 1842 he retired with a pension. In 1849 he became manager under the direction of Heiberg, whom he suc- ceeded in 1856, retiring in 1858. His original comedies appeared in 1851 -'2, in 5 vols. He adapted many plays from foreign dramatists, and published, besides other writings, an elab- orate work on the Danish stage, Den danslce Skueplads (5 vols., Copenhagen, 1854-'64; supplement, 1865). OVERTON, a N. county of Tennessee, border- ing on Kentucky, drained by Obie's or Obed's river, a branch of the Cumberland, navigable by steamboats for 60 m. in the county ; area, 530 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 11,297, of whom 550 were colored. The surface in some parts is mountainous, and the soil is generally fertile. The chief productions in 1870 were 43,419 bushels of wheat, 394,026 of Indian corn, 69,- 957 of oats, 18,522 of Irish and 14,514 of sweet potatoes, 121,582 Ibs. of butter, 25,585 of wool, and 187,331 of tobacco. There were 3,450 horses, 3,360 milch cows, 1,643 working oxen, 4,977 other cattle, 17,293 sheep, and 29,126 swine. Capital, Livingston. OVERTURE (Fr. ouverture, an opening), a species of introductory symphony prefixed to an opera or oratorio. Its invention is ascribed to the French composer Lully, and in the old- est overtures the fugue, preceded by a slow movement in * time and closing in the domi- nant, was the prominent feature. In this style were written the overtures of Handel and many of his contemporaries. The overtures of mod- ern composers frequently contain snatches of the leading airs of the opera. OVERWEG, Adolf, a German traveller, born in Hamburg, July 24, 1822, died near Lake Tchad, central Africa, Sept. 27, 1852. He studied at the universities of Bonn and Berlin, and be- came an accomplished geologist. In the win- ter of 1849-'50 he joined Barth and Richard- son in the English exploring expedition into central Africa, and made many important dis- coveries, among which was the fact that the desert of Sahara is an elevated plateau, and not, as had been supposed, a depressed plain