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ACT (Lat. actus, actum)
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See also:ACT (See also:Lat. actus, actum) , something done, primarily a voluntary See also:deed or performance, though any accomplished fact is often included. The signification of the word varies according to the sense in which it is employed. It is often synonymous with " See also:statute " (see ACT of See also:PARLIAMENT). It may also refer to the result of the See also:vote or deliberation of any legislature, the decision of a See also:court of See also:justice or See also:magistrate, in which sense records, decrees, sentences, reports, certificates, &c., are called acts. In See also:law it means any See also:instrument in See also:writing, for declaring or justifying the truth of a bargain or transacticn, as: I deliver this as my act and deed." The origin of the legal use of the word, " act " is in the acta of the See also:Roman magistrates or See also:people, of their courts of law, or of the See also:senate, meaning (I) what was done before the magistrates, the people or the senate; (2) the records of such public proceedings. In connexion with other words " act " is employed in many phrases, e.g. act of See also:God, any event, such as the sudden, violent or overwhelming occurrence of natural forces, which cannot be foreseen or provided against. This is a See also:good See also:defence to a suit for non-performance of a See also:contract. Act of See also:honour denotes the See also:acceptance by a third party of a protested See also:bill of See also:exchange for the honour of any party thereto. Act of See also:grace denotes the granting of some See also:special See also:privilege. In See also:universities, the presenting and publicly maintaining a thesis by a See also:candidate for a degree, to show his proficiency, is an act. " The Act " at See also:Oxford, up to 1856 when it was abolished, was the ceremony held See also:early in See also:July for this purpose, and the expressions " Act See also:Sunday," " Act See also:Term " still survive. In dramatic literature, act signifies one of those parts into which a See also:play is divided to See also:mark the See also:change of See also:time or See also:place, and to give a See also:respite to the actors and to the See also:audience. In See also:Greek plays there are no See also:separate acts, the unities being strictly observed, and the See also:action being continuous from beginning to end. If the See also:principal actors See also:left the See also:stage the See also:chorus took up the See also:argument, and contributed an integral See also:part of the play, though chiefly in the See also:form of comment upon the action. When necessary, another See also:drama, which is etymologically the same as an act, carried on the See also:history to a later time or in a different place, and thus we have the Greek trilogies or See also:groups of three dramas, in which the same characters reappear. The Roman poets first adopted the See also:division into acts, and suspended the stage business in the intervals between them. Their number was usually five, and the See also:rule was at last laid down by See also:Horace in the Ars Poetica Neve See also:minor, neu sit quinto productior actu Fabula, quae posci vult, et spectata reponi. " If you would have your play deserve success, Give it five acts See also:complete, nor more nor less." (See also:Francis.) On the revival of letters this rule was almost universally observed by dramatists, and that there is an inherent convenience and fitness in the number five is evident from the fact that See also:Shakespeare, who refused to be trammelled by merely arbitrary rules, adopts it in all his plays. Some critics have laid down rules as to the part each act should sustain in the development of the See also:plot, but these are not essential, and are by no means universally recognized. In See also:comedy the rule as to the number of acts has not been so strictly adhered to as in tragedy, a division into two acts or three acts being quite usual since the time of See also:Moliere, who first introduced it. It may be well to mention here See also:Milton's See also:Samson Agonistes as a specimen in See also:English literature of a dramatic See also:work founded on a purely Greek See also:model, in which, consequently, there is no division into acts. For " acting," as the See also:art and theory of dramatic See also:representation (or histrionics, from Lat. histrio, an actor), see the See also:article DRAMA. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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