Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/137

Rh A C R A C T 121 on medical subjects, in the Doric dialect, but none of these now exist. ACROPOLIS ( AKpoTroXis), a word signifying the upper town, or chief place of a city, a citadel, usually on the summit of a rock or hill. Such buildings were common in Greek cities; and they are also found elsewhere, as in the case of the Capitol at Rome, and the Antonia at Jerusalem ; but the most celebrated was that at Athens, the remains of which still delight and astonish travellers. It was enclosed by walls, portions of which show traces of extreme antiquity. It had nine gates; the principal one was a splendid struc ture of Pentelican marble, in noble Doric architecture, which bore the name of Propylaia. Besides other beauti ful edifices, it contains the HapOevuv, or temple of the virgin goddess Athene, the most glorious monument of ancient Grecian architecture. Ground plan, of the Acropolis of Athens. a, Pedestal of Rome and Augustus. fc, c, d, Sites of temples of JSIinerva, Diana, and Venus. e, Erectheium. /, Dionysiac theatre. g, Odeon of Herodes. ft and o, Grottoes, i, Kuined mosque. , I, Gate and portico. m, Choragic monument of Thrasyeles, now church of our lady of the grotto, n, n, Remains of Pelasgic wall. p, u, Walls of outworks, Ac. s, Gate to Propylcea. g, r, t, Forts. u, r, Ancient walls. ACROSTIC (from a/&amp;lt;pos and cn-i^os, meaning literally the extremity of a verse), is a species of poetical composi tion, so constructed that the initial letters of the lines, taken consecutively, form certain names or other particular words. This fancy is of considerable antiquity, one of the most remarkable examples of it being the verses cited by Lactantius and Eusebius in the 4th century, and attri buted to the Erythraean sibyl, the initial letters of which form the words lycrovs Xptcrros eov vlo? crcor^p : &quot; Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour,&quot; with the addition, according to some, of crrat pos, &quot;the cross.&quot; The initials of the shorter form of this again make up the word IxOvs, to which a mystical meaning has been attached (Augustine, De Civitate Dei, 18, 23), thus constituting another kind of acrostic. The arguments of the comedies of Plautus with acrostics on the names of the respective plays, are probably of still earlier date. Sir John Davies (1570- 1626) wrote twenty-six elegant Hymns to Astrcea, each an acrostic on &quot; Elizabetha Regina;&quot; and Mistress Mary Fage, in fame s JRoule, 1637, commemorated 420 celebrities of her time in acrostic verses. The same form of composition is often to be met with in the writings of more recent versifiers. Sometimes the lines are so combined that the final letters as well as the initials are significant. Edgar Allan Poe, with characteristic ingenuity, worked two names one of them that of Frances Sargent Osgood into verses in such a way that the letters of the names corre sponded to the first letter of the first line, the second letter of the second, the third letter of the third, and so on. Generally speaking, acrostic verse is not of much value, and is held in slight estimation. Dr Samuel Butler says, in his &quot; Character of a Small Poet,&quot; &quot; He uses to lay the outsides of his verses even, like a bricklayer, by a line of rhyme and acrostic, and fill the middle with rubbish.&quot; Addison (Spectator, No. 60) found it impossible to decide whether the inventor of the anagram or the acrostic were the greater blockhead; and, in describing the latter, says, I have seen some of them where the verses have not only been edged by a name at each extremity, but have had the same name running down like a seam through the middle of the poem.&quot; And Dryden, in Mac Flecknoe, scornfully assigned Shadwell the rule of &quot; Some peaceful province in acrostic land.&quot; The name acrostic is also applied to alphabetical or &quot; abecedarian&quot; verses. Of these we have instances in some of the Hebrew psalms (e.g., Ps. xxv. and xxxiv.), the successive verses of which begin with the letters of the alphabet in their order. The structure of Ps. cxix. is still more elaborate, each of the verses of each of the twenty- two parts commencing with the letter which stands at the head of the part in our English translation. Alphabetical verses have been constructed with every word of the suc cessive lines beginning with the successive letters of the alphabet. By an extended use of the term acrostic, it is applied to the formation of words from the initial letters of other words. I^Ovs, referred to above, is an illustration of this. So also is the word &quot; Cabal,&quot; which, though it was in use before, with a similar meaning, has, from the time of Charles II., been associated with a particular ministry, from the accident of its being composed of Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington, and Lauderdale. Akin to this are the names by which the Jews designated their Rabbis; thus Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (better known as Maimonides), was styled &quot; Rambam,&quot; from the initials R. M. B. M.; Rabbi David Kimchi (R. D. K.), &quot; Radak,&quot; &c. A species of puzzle, scarcely known twenty years ago, but very common now (see English Catalogue, 1863-71, s. v. Acrostics), is a combination of enigma and double acrostic, in which words are to be guessed whose initial and final letters form other words that are also to be guessed. Thus Sleep and Dream may have to be discovered from the first and last letters of Sound, Lover, Europe, Elia, and Palm, all expressed enigmatically. ACT, in Dramatic Literature, signifies one of those parts into which a play is divided to mark the change of of time or place, and to give a respite to the actors and to the audience. In Greek plays there are no separate acts, the unities being strictly observed, and the action being continuous from beginning to end. If the principal actors left the stage the chorus took up the argument, and con tributed an integral part of the play, though chiefly in the form of comment upon the action. When necessary, another drama, which is etymologically the same as an act, carried on the history to a later time or in a different place, and thus we have the Greek trilogies or groups of three dramas, in which the same characters reappear. The Roman poets first adopted the division into acts, and sus pended the stage business in the intervals between them. Their number was usually five, and the rule was at last laid down by Horace in the Ars Poetica &quot; .Neve minor, neu sit quinto productior actu FaLula, quse posci vult, et spectata reponi.&quot; &quot; If you would have your play deserve success, Give it five acts complete, nor more nor less.&quot; Francis. On the revival of letters this rule was almost universally observed by dramatists, and that there is an inherent coa- J I. 16