Chapter Old Mortality to Oliver Twist of O by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Olive Tree (The), emblem of Athens, in memory of the famous dispute between Minerva (the patron goddess of Athens) and Neptune. Both deities wished to found a city on the same spot; and referred the matter to Jove. The king of gods and men decreed that the privilege should be granted to whichever would bestow the most useful gift on the future inhabitants. Neptune struck the earth with his trident, and forth came a war-horse; Minerva produced an olive tree, emblem of peace; and Jove gave the verdict in favour of Minerva.

Oliver, the elder son of sir Rowland de Boys [Bwor], left in charge of his younger brother Orlando, whom he hated and tried indirectly to murder. Orlando, finding it impossible to live in his brother’s house, fled to the forest of Arden, where he joined the society of the banished duke. One morning, he saw a man sleeping, and a serpent and lioness bent on making him their prey. He slew both the serpent and the lioness, and then found that the sleeper was his brother Oliver. Oliver’s disposition from this moment underwent a complete change, and he loved his brother as much as he had before hated him. In the forest, the two brothers met Rosalind and Celia. The former, who was the daughter of the banished duke, married Orlando; and the latter, who was the daughter of the usurping duke, married Oliver.—Shakespeare: As You Like It (1598).

Oliver and Rowland (or Roland), the two chief paladins of Charlemagne. Shakespeare makes the duke of Alençon say—

Froissart, a countryman of ours, records,
England all Olivers and Rowlands bred
During the time Edward the Third did reign.
   —Shakespeare: 1 Henry VI. act i. sc. 2 (1596).

Oliver’s Horse, Ferrant d’Espagne.

Oliver’s Sword, Haute-claire.

Oliver le Dain or Oliver le Diable, court barber, and favourite minister of Louis XI. Introduced by sir W. Scott in Quentin Durward and Anne of Geierstein (time, Edward IV.).

Oliver Twist, a novel by C. Dickens (1838). Oliver was born in a parish workhouse, and his mother died soon after his birth. When he was 9 years old he was deputed by the workhouse boys to go and ask the master for a little more gruel. This was thought by Mr. Bumble, the parish beadle, so great an offence, that the board of directors gave Mr. Sowerberry, the coffin-maker, £5 to take him off their hands. Mrs. Sowerberry, her servant Charlotte, and Noah Claypole behaved to him so insolently and cruelly that he ran away to London, seventy miles off, and there fell into the hands of John Dawkins (the Artful Dodger), who introduced him to Fagin, a Jew, who kept a gang of pickpockets, thieves, and house-breakers. Going out under the charge of two boys, he saw them pick the pocket of Mr. Brownlow and run away, A hue and cry arose; Oliver ran in the opposite direction, was caught, and taken before Mr. Fang the magistrate, but fainted in the dock. Mr. Brownlow had compassion on him, took him to his house, and treated him so kindly that Oliver was most grateful and attached. One day Mr. Brownlow sent him on an errand, to return a parcel of books and pay a small bill; he was seen by some of Fagin’s gang and taken to the Jew’s den. Some time rolled on, when Bill Sikes planned to break into Mrs. Maylie’s mansion at Chertsey, and Oliver was sent to get through a small lattice and open the front door. Instead of doing so, he alarmed the house, and one of the menservants, firing a gun, wounded him in the arm. Sikes drew him up, and, running off, left him in a ditch. Next day, faint with fright, fatigue, and loss of blood, he applied at the mansion for relief, was taken in, and most tenderly treated by Mrs. Maylie and her “niece” Rose. Ultimately it was discovered that Rose was his own sister. He came into a small property left by his father; and when Rose married the son of Mrs. Maylie, Mr. Brownlow adopted Oliver as his heir.