power of transforming her lovers into monstrous shapes; but sir Guyon
(_temperance_), having caught her in a net and bound her, broke down
her bower and burnt it to ashes.--_Faëry Queen_, ii. 12 (1590).

ACRA'TES (3 _syl_.), Incontinence personified in _The Purple Island_,
by Phineas Fletcher. He had two sons (twins) by Caro, viz., Methos
(_drunkenness_) and Gluttony, both fully described in canto vii.
(Greek, _akrates_, "incontinent.")

_Acra'tes_ (3 _syl_.), Incontinence personified in _The Faëry Queen_,
by Spenser. He is the father of Cymoch'lês and Pyroch'lês.--Bk. ii. 4
(1590).

ACRES (_Bob_), a country gentleman, the rival of ensign Beverley,
_alias_ captain Absolute, for the hand and heart of Lydia Languish,
the heiress. He tries to ape the man of fashion, gets himself up as a
loud swell, and uses "sentimental oaths," _i. e_. oaths bearing on
the subject. Thus if duels are spoken of he says, _ods triggers and
flints_; if clothes, _ods frogs and tambours_; if music, _ods minnums_
[minims] _and crotchets_; if ladies, _ods blushes and blooms_. This
he learnt from a militia officer, who told him the ancients swore by
Jove, Bacchus, Mars, Venus, Minerva, etc., according to the sentiment.
Bob Acres is a great blusterer, and talks big of his daring, but when
put to the push "his courage always oozed out of his fingers' ends."
J. Quick was the original Bob Acres.--Sheridan, _The Rivals_ (1775).

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

Byron, _Don Juan_.