--Sheridan, _The Rivals_ (1775).

As thro' his palms _Bob Acres_' valor oozed,
So Juan's virtue ebbed, I know not how.

Byron, _Don Juan_.

Joseph Jefferson's impersonation of Bob Acres is inimitable for
fidelity to the spirit of the original, and informed throughout with
exquisite humor that never degenerates into coarseness.

ACRIS'IUS, father of Dan'ae. An oracle declared that Danae would give
birth to a son who would kill him, so Acrisius kept his daughter shut
up in an apartment under ground, or (as some say) in a brazen tower.
Here she became the mother of Per'seus (2 _syl_.), by Jupiter in the
form of a shower of gold. The king of Argos now ordered his daughter
and her infant to be put into a chest, and cast adrift on the sea,
but they were rescued by Dictys, a fisherman. When grown to manhood,
Perseus accidentally struck the foot of Acrisius with a quoit, and the
blow caused his death. This tale is told by Mr. Morris in _The Earthly
Paradise_ (April).

ACTAE'ON, a hunter, changed by Diana into a stag. A synonym for a
cuckold.

Divulge Page himself for a secure and wilful
Actaeon [cuckold].

Shakespeare, _Merry Wives_, etc., act iii. sc. 2 (1596).

ACTE'A, a female slave faithful to Nero in his fall. It was this
hetaera who wrapped the dead body in cerements, and saw it decently
interred.

This Actea was beautiful. She was seated on
the ground; the head of Nero was on her lap,
his naked body was stretched on those winding-sheets
in which she was about to fold him, to lay
him in his grave upon the garden hill.--Ouida,
_Ariadne_, i. 7.

ACTORS AND ACTRESSES. The last male actor that took a woman's
character on the stage was Edward Kynaston, noted for his beauty
(1619-1687). The first female actor for hire was Mrs. Saunderson,
afterwards Mrs. Betterton, who died in 1712.

AD, AD'ITES (2 _syl_.). Ad is a tribe descended from Ad, son of Uz,
son of Irem, son of Shem, son of Noah. The tribe, at the Confusion
of Babel, went and settled on Al-Ahkaf [_the Winding Sands_], in the
province of Hadramant. Shedad was their first king, but in consequence
of his pride, both he and all the tribe perished, either from drought
or the Sarsar (_an icy wind_).--Sale's _Koran_, 1.

Woe, woe, to Irem! Woe to Ad!
Death, has gone up into her palaces!....
They fell around me. Thousands fell around.
The king and all his people fell;
All, all, they perished all.

Southey, _Thalaba the Dest