ACROSTIC, a short verse composition, so constructed that the initial letters of the lines, taken consecutively, form words (Gr. liKpos, at the end, and line or verse). The fancy for writing acrostics is of great antiquity, having been common among the Greeks of the Alexandrine period, as well as with the Latin writers since Ennius and Plautus, many of the arguments of whose plays were written with acrostics on their respective titles. One of the most remarkable acrostics was contained in the verses cited by Lactantius and Eusebius in the 4th century, and attrib uted to the Erythraean sibyl, the initial letters of which form the words 'Incas Xptaras Beall viOs acorip "Jesus Christ, the son of God, the Saviour." The initials of the shorter form of this again make up the word 'IxObs (fish), to which a mystical meaning has been attached (Augustine, De Civitate Dei, 18, 23), thus consti tuting another kind of acrostic.
Acrostic verses have always been held in slight estimation from a literary standpoint. Dr. Samuel Butler says, in his "Character of a Small Poet," "He uses to lay the outside of his verses even, like a bricklayer, by a line of rhyme and acrostic, and fill the middle with rubbish." Addison (Spec tator, No. 6o) found it impossible to de cide whether the inventor of the anagram or the acrostic were the greater block head; 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 the same name running down like a seam through the middle of the poem." And Dryden, in Mac Flecknoe, scornfully assigned Shadwell the rule of Some peaceful province in acrostic land.
The name acrostic is also applied to alphabetical or "abecedarian" verses. Of these we have instances in the Hebrew psalms (e.g., Ps. xxv. and xxxiv.), where successive verses begin with the letters of the alphabet in their order. The struc ture of Ps. cxix. is still more elaborate, each of the verses of each of the 22 parts commencing with the ter which stands at the head of the part in our English translation.
At one period much religious verse was written in a form imitative of this alphabetical method, possibly as an aid to the memory. The term acrostic is also applied to the formation of words, from the initial letters of other words. referred to above, is an illustration of this. So also is the word "Cabal," 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.
Double acrostics are such as are so constructed, that not only initial letters of the lines, but also the middle or last letters, form words. For example :—I. By Apollo was my first made. 2. A shoemaker's tool. 3. An Italian patriot. 4. A tropical fruit. The initials and finals, read downwards, give the name of a writer and his nom de plume. Answer Lamb, Elia.
Uprights : Since there's no A, B, let us C and D.
Lights: I. Reverse the name a schoolboy might apply, for briefness, to his weekly subsidy.
2. A lady thus (but with an S) In Southern lands you might address.
3. Initials seen on many a truck.
4. To cattle breeders brings bad luck.