C
CAD. A low fellow, nearly equivalent to snob. Used among students in the University of Cambridge, Eng.—Bristed.
CAHOOLE. At the University of North Carolina, this word in its application is almost universal, but generally signifies to cajole, to wheedle, to deceive, to procure.
CALENDAR. At the English universities the information which in American colleges is published in a catalogue, is contained in a similar but far more comprehensive work, called a calendar. Conversation based on the topics of which such a volume treats is in some localities denominated calendar.
“Shop,” or, as it is sometimes here called, “Calendar,” necessarily enters to a large extent into the conversation of the Cantabs.—Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 82.
I would lounge about into the rooms of those whom I knew for general literary conversation,—even to talk Calendar if there was nothing else to do.—Ibid., p. 120.
CALVIN’S FOLLY. At the University of Vermont, “this name,” writes a correspondent, “is given to a door, four inches thick and closely studded with spike-nails, dividing the chapel hall from the staircase leading to the belfry. It is called Calvin’s Folly, because it was planned by a professor of that (Christian) name, in order to keep the students out of the belfry, which dignified scheme it has utterly failed to accomplish. It is one of the celebrities of the Old Brick Mill,04 and strangers always see it and hear its history.”
CAMEL. In Germany, a student on entering the university becomes a Kameel,—a camel.
CAMPUS. At the College of New Jersey, the college yard is denominated the Campus. Back Campus, the privies.
CANTAB. Abridged for CANTABRIGIAN.
It was transmitted to me by a respectable Cantab for insertion. —Hone’s Every-day Book, Vol. I. p. 697.
Should all this be a mystery to our uncollegiate friends, or even to many matriculated Cantabs, we advise them not to attempt to unriddle it.—Harvardiana, Vol. III. p. 39.
CANTABRIGIAN. A student or graduate of the University of Cambridge, Eng. Used also at Cambridge, Mass., of the students and inhabitants.
CANTABRIGICALLY. According to Cambridge.
To speak Cantabrigically.—Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng.
Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 28.
CAP. The cap worn by students at the University of Cambridge, Eng., is described by Bristed in the following passage: “You must superadd the academical costume. This consists of a gown, varying in color and ornament according to the wearer’s college and rank, but generally black, not unlike an ordinary clerical gown, and a square-topped cap, which fits close to the head like a truncated helmet, while the covered board which forms the crown measures about a foot diagonally across.”—Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 4.
A similar cap is worn at Oxford and at some American colleges on particular occasions.
See OXFORD.
CAP. To uncover the head in reverence or civility.
The youth, ignorant who they were, had omitted to cap them.—Gent. Mag., Vol. XXIV. p. 567.
I could not help smiling, when, among the dignitaries whom I was bound to make obeisance to by capping whenever I met them, Mr. Jackson’s catalogue included his all-important self in the number. —The Etonian, Vol. II. p. 217.
The obsequious attention of college servants, and the more unwilling “capping” of the undergraduates, to such a man are real luxuries.—Blackwood’s Mag., Eng. ed., Vol. LVI. p. 572.
Used in the English universities.
CAPTAIN OF THE POLL. The first of the Polloi.
He had moreover been Captain (Head) of the Poll.—Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 96.
CAPUT SENATUS. Latin; literally, the head of the Senate. In Cambridge, Eng., a council of the University by which every grace must be approved, before it can be submitted to the senate. The Caput Senatus is formed of the vice-chancellor, a doctor in each of the faculties of divinity, law, and medicine, and one regent M.A., and one non-regent M.A. The vice-chancellor’s five assistants are elected annually by the heads of houses and the doctors of the three faculties, out of fifteen persons nominated by the vice-chancellor and the proctors.—Webster. Cam. Cal. Lit. World, Vol. XII. p. 283.
See GRACE.
CARCER. Latin. In German schools and universities, a prison.—Adler’s Germ, and Eng. Dict.
Wollten ihn drauf die Nürnberger Herren
Mir nichts, dir nichts ins Carcer sperren.
Wallenstein’s Lager.
And their Nur’mberg worships swore he should go
To jail for his pains,—if he liked it, or no.
Trans. Wallenstein’s Camp, in Bohn’s Stand. Lib., p. 155.
CASTLE END. At Cambridge, Eng., a noted resort for Cyprians.
CATHARINE PURITANS. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., the members of St. Catharine’s Hall are thus designated, from the implied derivation of the word Catharine from the Greek [Greek: katharos], pure.
CAUTION MONEY. In the English universities, a deposit in the hands of the tutor at entrance, by way of security.
With reference to Oxford, De Quincey says of caution money: “This is a small sum, properly enough demanded of every student, when matriculated, as a pledge for meeting any loss from unsettled arrears, such as his sudden death or his unannounced departure might else continually be inflicting upon his college. In most colleges it amounts to £25; in one only it was considerably less.” —Life and Manners, p. 249.
In American colleges, a bond is usually given by a student upon entering college, in order to secure the payment of all his college dues.
CENSOR. In the University of Oxford, Eng., a college officer whose duties are similar to those of the Dean.
CEREVIS. From Latin cerevisia, beer. Among German students, a small, round, embroidered cap, otherwise called a beer-cap.
Better authorities … have lately noted in the solitary student that wends his way—cerevis on head, note-book in hand—to the professor’s class-room,… a vast improvement on the Bursche of twenty years ago.—Lond. Quart. Rev., Am. ed., Vol. LXXIII. p. 59.
CHAMBER. The apartment of a student at a college or university. This word, although formerly used in American colleges, has been of late almost entirely supplanted by the word room, and it is for this reason that it is here noticed.
If any of them choose to provide themselves with breakfasts in their own chambers, they are allowed so to do, but not to breakfast in one another’s chambers.—Quincy’s Hist. Harv. Univ., Vol. II. p. 116.
Some ringleaders gave up their chambers.—Ibid., Vol. II. p. 116.
CHAMBER-MATE. One who inhabits the same room or chamber with another. Formerly used at our colleges. The word CHUM is now very generally used in its place; sometimes room-mate is substituted.
If any one shall refuse to find his proportion of furniture, wood, and candles, the President and Tutors shall charge such delinquent, in his quarter bills, his full proportion, which sum shall be paid to his chamber-mate.—Laws Harv. Coll., 1798, p. 35.
CHANCELLOR. The chancellor of a university is an officer who seals the diplomas, or letters of degree, &c. The Chancellor of Oxford is usually one of the prime nobility, elected by the students in convocation; and he holds the office for life. He is the chief magistrate in the government of the University. The Chancellor of Cambridge is also elected from among the prime nobility. The office is biennial, or tenable for such a length of time beyond two years as the tacit consent of the University may choose to allow.—Webster. Cam. Guide.
“The Chancellor,” says the Oxford Guide, “is elected by convocation, and his office is for life; but he never, according to usage, is allowed to set foot in this University, excepting on the occasion of his installation, or when he is called upon to accompany any royal visitors.”—Ed. 1847, p. xi.
At Cambridge, the office of Chancellor is, except on rare occasions, purely honorary, and the Chancellor himself seldom appears at Cambridge. He is elected by the Senate.
2. At Trinity College, Hartford, the Chancellor is the Bishop of the Diocese of Connecticut, and is also the Visitor of the College. He is ex officio the President of the Corporation.—Calendar Trin. Coll., 1850, pp. 6, 7.
CHAPEL. A house for public worship, erected separate from a church. In England, chapels in the universities are places of worship belonging to particular colleges. The chapels connected with the colleges in the United States are used for the same purpose. Religious exercises are usually held in them twice a day, morning and evening, besides the services on the Sabbath.
CHAPEL. At the University of Cambridge, Eng., the attendance at daily religious services in the chapel of each college at morning and evening is thus denominated.
Some time ago, upon an endeavor to compel the students of one college to increase their number of “chapels,” as the attendance is called, there was a violent outcry, and several squibs were written by various hands.—Westminster Rev., Am. ed., Vol. XXXV. p. 235.
It is rather surprising that there should be so much shirking of chapel, when the very moderate amount of attendance required is considered.—Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 16.
To keep chapel, is to be present at the daily religious services of college.
The Undergraduate is expected to go to chapel eight times, or, in academic parlance, to keep eight chapels a week, two on Sunday, and one on every week-day, attending morning or evening chapel on week-days at his option. Nor is even this indulgent standard rigidly enforced. I believe if a Pensioner keeps six chapels, or a Fellow-Commoner four, and is quite regular in all other respects, he will never be troubled by the Dean. It certainly is an argument in favor of severe discipline, that there is more grumbling and hanging back, and unwillingness to conform to these extremely moderate requisitions, than is exhibited by the sufferers at a New England college, who have to keep sixteen chapels a week, seven of them at unreasonable hours. Even the scholars, who are literally paid for going, every chapel being directly worth two shillings sterling to them, are by no means invariable in attending the proper number of times.—Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, pp. 16, 17.
CHAPEL CLERK. At Cambridge, Eng., in some colleges, it is the duty of this officer to mark the students as they enter chapel; in others, he merely sees that the proper lessons are read, by the students appointed by the Dean for that purpose.—Gradus ad Cantab.
The chapel clerk is sent to various parties by the deans, with orders to attend them after chapel and be reprimanded, but the chapel clerk almost always goes to the wrong person.—Westminster Rev., Am. ed., Vol. XXXV. p. 235.
CHAPLAIN. In universities and colleges, the clergyman who performs divine service, morning and evening.
CHAW. A deception or trick.
To say, “It’s all a gum,” or “a regular chaw” is the same thing. —The Dartmouth, Vol. IV. p. 117.
CHAW. To use up.
Yesterday a Junior cracked a joke on me, when all standing round shouted in great glee, “Chawed! Freshman chawed! Ha! ha! ha!” “No I a’n’t chawed,” said I, “I’m as whole as ever.” But I didn’t understand, when a fellow is used up, he is said to be chawed; if very much used up, he is said to be essentially chawed.—The Dartmouth, Vol. IV. p. 117.
The verb to chaw up is used with nearly the same meaning in some of the Western States.
Miss Patience said she was gratified to hear Mr. Cash was a musician; she admired people who had a musical taste. Whereupon Cash fell into a chair, as he afterwards observed, chawed up.—Thorpe’s Backwoods, p. 28.
CHIP DAY. At Williams College a day near the beginning of spring is thus designated, and is explained in the following passage. “They give us, near the close of the second term, what is called ‘chip day,’ when we put the grounds in order, and remove the ruins caused by a winter’s siege on the woodpiles.”—Sketches of Williams College, 1847, p. 79.
Another writer refers to the day, in a newspaper paragraph. “‘Chip day,’ at the close of the spring term, is still observed in the old-fashioned way. Parties of students go off to the hills, and return with brush, and branches of evergreen, with which the chips, which have accumulated during the winter, are brushed together, and afterwards burnt.”—Boston Daily Evening Traveller, July 12, 1854.
About college there had been, in early spring, the customary cleaning up of “chip day.”—Williams Quarterly, Vol. II. p. 186.
CHOPPING AT THE TREE. At University College in the University of Oxford, “a curious and ancient custom, called ‘chopping at the tree,’ still prevails. On Easter Sunday, every member, as he leaves the hall after dinner, chops with a cleaver at a small tree dressed up for the occasion with evergreens and flowers, and placed on a turf close to the buttery. The cook stands by for his accustomed largess.”—Oxford Guide, Ed. 1847, p. 144, note.
CHORE. In the German universities, a club or society of the students is thus designated.
Duels between members of different chores were once frequent;—sometimes one man was obliged to fight the members of a whole chore in succession.—Yale Lit. Mag., Vol. XV. p. 5.
CHRISTIAN. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., a member of Christ’s College.
CHUM. Armenian, chomm, or chommein, or ham, to dwell, stay, or lodge; French, chômer, to rest; Saxon, ham, home. A chamber-fellow; one who lodges or resides in the same room.—Webster.
This word is used at the universities and colleges, both in England and the United States.
A young student laid a wager with his chum, that the Dean was at that instant smoking his pipe.—Philip’s Life and Poems, p. 13.
But his chum
Had wielded, in his just defence,
A bowl of vast circumference.—Rebelliad, p. 17.
Every set of chambers was possessed by two co-occupants; they had generally the same bedroom, and a common study; and they were called chums.—De Quincey’s Life and Manners, p. 251.
I am again your petitioner in behalf of that great chum of literature, Samuel Johnson.—Smollett, in Boswell.
In this last instance, the word chum is used either with the more extended meaning of companion, friend, or, as the sovereign prince of Tartary is called the Cham or Khan, so Johnson is called the chum (cham) or prince of literature.
CHUM. To occupy a chamber with another.
CHUMMING. Occupying a room with another.
Such is one of the evils of chumming.—Harvardiana, Vol. I. p. 324.
CHUMSHIP. The state of occupying a room in company with another; chumming.
In the seventeenth century, in Milton’s time, for example, (about 1624,) and for more than sixty years after that era, the practice of chumship prevailed.—De Quincey’s Life and Manners, p. 251.
CIVILIAN. A student of the civil law at the university.—Graves. Webster.
CLARIAN. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., a member of Clare Hall.
CLASS. A number of students in a college or school, of the same standing, or pursuing the same studies. In colleges, the students entering or becoming members the same year, and pursuing the same studies.—Webster.
In the University of Oxford, class is the division of the candidates who are examined for their degrees according to their rate of merit. Those who are entitled to this distinction are denominated Classmen, answering to the optimes and wranglers in the University of Cambridge.—Crabb’s Tech. Dict.
See an interesting account of “reading for a first class,” in the Collegian’s Guide, Chap. XII.
CLASS. To place in ranks or divisions students that are pursuing the same studies; to form into a class or classes.—Webster.
CLASS BOOK. Within the last thirty or forty years, a custom has arisen at Harvard College of no small importance in an historical point of view, but which is principally deserving of notice from the many pleasing associations to which its observance cannot fail to give rise. Every graduating class procures a beautiful and substantial folio of many hundred pages, called the Class Book, and lettered with the year of the graduation of the class. In this a certain number of pages is allotted to each individual of the class, in which he inscribes a brief autobiography, paying particular attention to names and dates. The book is then deposited in the hands of the Class Secretary, whose duty it is to keep a faithful record of the marriage, birth of children, and death of each of his classmates, together with their various places of residence, and the offices and honors to which each may have attained. This information is communicated to him by letter by his classmates, and he is in consequence prepared to answer any inquiries relative to any member of the class. At his death, the book passes into the hands of one of the Class Committee, and at their death, into those of some surviving member of the class; and when the class has at length become extinct, it is deposited on the shelves of the College Library.
The Class Book also contains a full list of all persons who have at any time been members of the class, together with such information as can be gathered in reference to them; and an account of the prizes, deturs, parts at Exhibitions and Commencement, degrees, etc., of all its members. Into it are also copied the Class Oration, Poem, and Ode, and the Secretary’s report of the class meeting, at which the officers were elected. It is also intended to contain the records of all future class meetings, and the accounts of the Class Secretary, who is ex officio Class Treasurer and Chairman of the Class Committee. By virtue of his office of Class Treasurer, he procures the Cradle for the successful candidate, and keeps in his possession the Class Fund, which is sometimes raised to defray the accruing expenses of the Class in future times.
In the Harvardiana, Vol. IV., is an extract from the Class Book of 1838, which is very curious and unique. To this is appended the following note:—“It may be necessary to inform many of our readers, that the Class Book is a large volume, in which autobiographical sketches of the members of each graduating class are recorded, and which is left in the hands of the Class Secretary.”
CLASS CANE. At Union College, as a mark of distinction, a class cane was for a time carried by the members of the Junior Class.
The Juniors, although on the whole a clever set of fellows, lean perhaps with too nonchalant an air on their class canes.—Sophomore Independent, Union College, Nov. 1854.
They will refer to their class cane, that mark of decrepitude and imbecility, for old men use canes.—Ibid.
CLASS CAP. At Hamilton College, it is customary for the Sophomores to appear in a class cap on the Junior Exhibition day, which is worn generally during part of the third term.
In American colleges, students frequently endeavor to adopt distinctive dresses, but the attempt is usually followed by failure. One of these attempts is pleasantly alluded to in the Williams Monthly Miscellany. “In a late number, the ambition for whiskers was made the subject of a remark. The ambition of college has since taken a somewhat different turn. We allude to the class caps, which have been introduced in one or two of the classes. The Freshmen were the first to appear in this species of uniform, a few days since at evening prayers; the cap which they have adopted is quite tasteful. The Sophomores, not to be outdone, have voted to adopt the tarpaulin, having, no doubt, become proficients in navigation, as lucidly explained in one of their text-books. The Juniors we understand, will follow suit soon. We hardly know what is left for the Seniors, unless it be to go bare-headed.”—1845, p. 464.
CLASS COMMITTEE. At Harvard College a committee of two persons, joined with the Class Secretary, who is ex officio its chairman, whose duty it is, after the class has graduated, during their lives to call class meetings, whenever they deem it advisable, and to attend to all other business relating to the class.
See under CLASS BOOK.
CLASS CRADLE. For some years it has been customary at Harvard College for the Senior Class, at the meeting for the election of the officers of Class Day, &c., to appropriate a certain sum of money, usually not exceeding fifty dollars, for the purchase of a cradle, to be given to the first member of the class to whom a child is born in lawful wedlock at a suitable time after marriage. This sum is intrusted to the hands of the Class Secretary, who is expected to transmit the present to the successful candidate upon the receipt of the requisite information. In one instance a Baby-jumper was voted by the class, to be given to the second member who should be blessed as above stated.
CLASS CUP. It is a theory at Yale College, that each class appropriates at graduating a certain amount of money for the purchase of a silver cup, to be given, in the name of the class, to the first member to whom a child shall be born in lawful wedlock at a suitable time after marriage. Although the presentation of the class cup is often alluded to, yet it is believed that the gift has in no instance been bestowed. It is to be regretted that a custom so agreeable in theory could not be reduced to practice.
Each man’s mind was made up
To obtain the “Class Cup.”
Presentation Day Songs, June 14, 1854.
See SILVER CUP.
CLASS DAY. The custom at Harvard College of observing with appropriate exercises the day on which the Senior Class finish their studies, is of a very early date. The first notice which appears in reference to this subject is contained in an account of the disorders which began to prevail among the students about the year 1760. Among the evils to be remedied are mentioned the “disorders upon the day of the Senior Sophisters meeting to choose the officers of the class,” when “it was usual for each scholar to bring a bottle of wine with him, which practice the committee (that reported upon it) apprehend has a natural tendency to produce disorders.” But the disturbances were not wholly confined to the meeting when the officers of Class Day were chosen; they occurred also on Class Day, and it was for this reason that frequent attempts were made at this period, by the College government, to suppress its observance. How far their efforts succeeded is not known, but it is safe to conclude that greater interruptions were occasioned by the war of the Revolution, than by the attempts to abolish what it would have been wiser to have reformed.
In a MS. Journal, under date of June 21st, 1791, is the following entry: “Neither the valedictory oration by Ward, nor poem by Walton, was delivered, on account of a division in the class, and also because several were gone home.” How long previous to this the 21st of June had been the day chosen for the exercises of the class, is uncertain; but for many years after, unless for special reasons, this period was regularly selected for that purpose. Another extract from the MS. above mentioned, under date of June 21st, 1792, reads: “A valedictory poem was delivered by Paine 1st, and a valedictory Latin oration by Abiel Abbott.”
The biographer of Mr. Robert Treat Paine, referring to the poem noticed in the above memorandum, says: “The 21st of every June, till of late years, has been the day on which the members of the Senior Class closed their collegiate studies, and retired to make preparations for the ensuing Commencement. On this day it was usual for one member to deliver an oration, and another a poem; such members being appointed by their classmates. The Valedictory Poem of Mr. Paine, a tender, correct, and beautiful effusion of feeling and taste, was received by the audience with applause and tears.” In another place he speaks on the same subject, as follows: “The solemnity which produced this poem is extremely interesting; and, being of ancient date, it is to be hoped that it may never fall into disuse. His affection for the University Mr. Paine cherished as one of his most sacred principles. Of this poem, Mr. Paine always spoke as one of his happiest efforts. Coming from so young a man, it is certainly very creditable, and promises more, I fear, than the untoward circumstances of his after life would permit him to perform.”—Paine’s Works, Ed. 1812, pp. xxvii., 439.
It was always customary, near the close of the last century, for those who bore the honors of Class Day, to treat their friends according to the style of the time, and there was scarcely a graduate who did not provide an entertainment of such sort as he could afford. An account of the exercises of the day at this period may not be uninteresting. It is from the Diary which is above referred to.
“20th (Thursday). This day for special reasons the valedictory poem and oration were performed. The order of the day was this. At ten, the class walked in procession to the President’s, and escorted him, the Professors, and Tutors, to the Chapel, preceded by the band playing solemn music.
“The President began with a short prayer. He then read a chapter in the Bible; after this he prayed again; Cutler then delivered his poem. Then the singing club, accompanied by the band, performed Williams’s Friendship. This was succeeded by a valedictory Latin Oration by Jackson. We then formed, and waited on the government to the President’s, where we were very respectably treated with wine, &c.
“We then marched in procession to Jackson’s room, where we drank punch. At one we went to Mr. Moore’s tavern and partook of an elegant entertainment, which cost 6/4 a piece. Marching then to Cutler’s room, we shook hands, and parted with expressing the sincerest tokens of friendship.” June, 1793.
The incidents of Class Day, five years subsequent to the last date, are detailed by Professor Sidney Willard, and may not be omitted in this connection.
“On the 21st of June, 1798, the day of the dismission of the Senior Class from all academic exercises, the class met in the College chapel to attend the accustomed ceremonies of the occasion, and afterwards to enjoy the usual festivities of the day, since called, for the sake of a name, and for brevity’s sake, Class Day. There had been a want of perfect harmony in the previous proceedings, which in some degree marred the social enjoyments of the day; but with the day all dissension closed, awaiting the dawn of another day, the harbinger of the brighter recollections of four years spent in pleasant and peaceful intercourse. There lingered no lasting alienations of feeling. Whatever were the occasions of the discontent, it soon expired, was buried in the darkest recesses of discarded memories, and there lay lost and forgotten.
“After the exercises of the chapel, and visiting the President, Professors, and Tutors at the President’s house, according to the custom still existing, we marched in procession round the College halls, to another hall in Porter’s tavern, (which some dozen or fifteen of the oldest living graduates may perhaps remember as Bradish’s tavern, of ancient celebrity,) where we dined. After dining, we assembled at the Liberty Tree, (according to another custom still existing,) and in due time, having taken leave of each other, we departed, some of us to our family homes, and others to their rooms to make preparations for their departure.”—Memories of Youth and Manhood, Vol. II. pp. 1, 3.
Referring to the same event, he observes in another place: “In speaking of the leave-taking of the College by my class, on the 21st of June, 1798,—Class Day, as it is now called,—I inadvertently forgot to mention, that according to custom, at that period, [Samuel P.P.] Fay delivered a Latin Valedictory Oration in the Chapel, in the presence of the Immediate Government, and of the students of other classes who chose to be present. Speaking to him on the subject some time since, he told me that he believed [Judge Joseph] Story delivered a Poem on the same occasion…. There was no poetical performance in the celebration of the day in the class before ours, on the same occasion; Dr. John C. Warren’s Latin oration being the only performance, and his class counting as many reputed poets as ours did.”—Ibid., Vol. II. p. 320.
Alterations were continually made in the observances of Class Day, and in twenty years after the period last mentioned, its character had in many particulars changed. Instead of the Latin, an English oration of a somewhat sportive nature had been introduced; the Poem was either serious or comic, at the writer’s option; usually, however, the former. After the exercises in the Chapel, the class commonly repaired to Porter’s Hall, and there partook of a dinner, not always observing with perfect strictness the rules of temperance either in eating or drinking. This “cenobitical symposium” concluded, they again returned to the college yard, where, scattered in groups under the trees, the rest of the day was spent in singing, smoking, and drinking, or pretending to drink, punch; for the negroes who supplied it in pails usually contrived to take two or more glasses to every one glass that was drank by those for whom it was provided. The dance around the Liberty Tree, “Each hand in comrade’s hand,” closed the regular ceremonies of the day; but generally the greater part of the succeeding night was spent in feasting and hilarity.
The punch-drinking in the yard increased to such an extent, that it was considered by the government of the college as a matter which demanded their interference; and in the year 1842, on one of these occasions, an instructor having joined with the students in their revellings in the yard, the Faculty proposed that, instead of spending the afternoon in this manner, dancing should be introduced, which was accordingly done, with the approbation of both parties.
The observances of the day, which in a small way may be considered as a rival of Commencement, are at present as follows. The Orator, Poet, Odist, Chaplain, and Marshals having been previously chosen, on the morning of Class Day the Seniors assemble in the yard, and, preceded by the band, walk in procession to one of the halls of the College, where a prayer is offered by the Class Chaplain. They then proceed to the President’s house, and escort him to the Chapel where the following order is observed. A prayer by one of the College officers is succeeded by the Oration, in which the transactions of the class from their entrance into College to the present time are reviewed with witty and appropriate remarks. The Poem is then pronounced, followed by the Ode, which is sung by the whole class to the tune of “Fair Harvard.” Music is performed at intervals by the band. The class then withdraw to Harvard Hall, accompanied by their friends and invited guests, where a rich collation is provided.
After an interval of from one to two hours, the dancing commences in the yard. Cotillons and the easier dances are here performed, but the sport closes in the hall with the Polka and other fashionable steps. The Seniors again form, and make the circuit of the yard, cheering the buildings, great and small. They then assemble under the Liberty Tree, around which with hands joined they run and dance, after singing the student’s adopted song, “Auld Lang Syne.” At parting, each member takes a sprig or a flower from the beautiful “Wreath” which surrounds the “farewell tree,” which is sacredly treasured as a last memento of college scenes and enjoyments. Thus close the exercises of the day, after which the class separate until Commencement.
The more marked events in the observance of Class Day have been graphically described by Grace Greenwood, in the accompanying paragraphs.
“The exercises on this occasion were to me most novel and interesting. The graduating class of 1848 are a fine-looking set of young men certainly, and seem to promise that their country shall yet be greater and better for the manly energies, the talent and learning, with which they are just entering upon life.
“The spectators were assembled in the College Chapel, whither the class escorted the Faculty, headed by President Everett, in his Oxford hat and gown.
“The President is a man of most imperial presence; his figure has great dignity, and his head is grand in form and expression. But to me he looks the governor, the foreign minister and the President, more than the orator or the poet.
“After a prayer from the Chaplain, we listened to an eloquent oration from the class orator, Mr. Tiffany, of Baltimore and to a very elegant and witty poem from the class poet Mr. Clarke, of Boston. The ‘Fair Harvard’ having been sung by the class, all adjourned to the College green, where such as were so disposed danced to the music of a fine band. From the green we repaired to Harvard Hall, where an excellent collation was served, succeeded by dancing. From the hall the students of 1848 marched and cheered successively every College building, then formed a circle round a magnificent elm, whose trunk was beautifully garlanded will flowers, and, with hands joined in a peculiar manner, sung ‘Auld Lang Syne.’ The scene was in the highest degree touching and impressive, so much of the beauty and glory of life was there, so much of the energy, enthusiasm, and proud unbroken strength of manhood. With throbbing hearts and glowing lips, linked for a few moments with strong, fraternal grasps, they stood, with one deep, common feeling, thrilling like one pulse through all. An involuntary prayer sprang to my lips, that they might ever prove true to Alma Mater, to one another, to their country, and to Heaven.
“As the singing ceased, the students began running swiftly around the tree, and at the cry, ‘Harvard!’ a second circle was formed by the other students, which gave a tumultuous excitement to the scene. It broke up at last with a perfect storm of cheers, and a hasty division among the class of the garland which encircled the elm, each taking a flower in remembrance of the day.”—Greenwood Leaves, Ed. 3d, 1851, pp. 350, 351.
In the poem which was read before the class of 1851, by William C. Bradley, the comparisons of those about to graduate with the youth who is attaining to his majority, and with the traveller who has stopped a little for rest and refreshment, are so genial and suggestive, that their insertion in this connection will not be deemed out of place.
“’T is a good custom, long maintained,
When the young heir has manhood gained,
To solemnize the welcome date,
Accession to the man’s estate,
With open house and rousing game,
And friends to wish him joy and fame:
So Harvard, following thus the ways
Of careful sires of older days,
Directs her children till they grow
The strength of ripened years to know,
And bids their friends and kindred, then,
To come and hail her striplings—men.
“And as, about the table set,
Or on the shady grass-plat met,
They give the youngster leave to speak
Of vacant sport, and boyish freak,
So now would we (such tales have power
At noon-tide to abridge the hour)
Turn to the past, and mourn or praise
The joys and pains of boyhood’s days.
“Like travellers with their hearts intent
Upon a distant journey bent,
We rest upon the earliest stage
Of life’s laborious pilgrimage;
But like the band of pilgrims gay
(Whom Chaucer sings) at close of day,
That turned with mirth, and cheerful din,
To pass their evening at the inn,
Hot from the ride and dusty, we,
But yet untired and stout and free,
And like the travellers by the door,
Sit down and talk the journey o’er.”
As a specimen of the character of the Ode which is always sung on Class Day to the tune “Fair Harvard,”—which is the name by which the melody “Believe me, if all those endearing young charms” has been adopted at Cambridge,—that which was written by Joshua Danforth Robinson for the class of 1851 is here inserted.
“The days of thy tenderly nurture are done,
We call for the lance and the shield;
There’s a battle to fight and a crown to be won,
And onward we press to the field!
But yet, Alma Mater, before we depart,
Shall the song of our farewell be sung,
And the grasp of the hand shall express for the heart
Emotions too deep for the tongue.
“This group of thy sons, Alma Mater, no more
May gladden thine ear with their song,
For soon we shall stand upon Time’s crowded shore,
And mix in humanity’s throng.
O, glad be the voices that ring through thy halls
When the echo of ours shall have flown,
And the footsteps that sound when no longer thy walls
Shall answer the tread of our own!
“Alas! our dear Mother, we see on thy face
A shadow of sorrow to-day;
For while we are clasped in thy farewell embrace,
And pass from thy bosom away,
To part with the living, we know, must recall
The lost whom thy love still embalms,
That one sigh must escape and one tear-drop must fall
For the children that died in thy arms.
“But the flowers of affection, bedewed by the tears
In the twilight of Memory distilled,
And sunned by the love of our earlier years,
When the soul with their beauty was thrilled,
Untouched by the frost of life’s winter, shall blow,
And breathe the same odor they gave
When the vision of youth was entranced by their glow,
Till, fadeless, they bloom o’er the grave.”
A most genial account of the exercises of the Class Day of the graduates of the year 1854 may be found in Harper’s Magazine, Vol. IX. pp. 554, 555.
CLASSIC. One learned in classical literature; a student of the ancient Greek and Roman authors of the first rank.
These men, averaging about twenty-three years of age, the best Classics and Mathematicians of their years, were reading for Fellowships.—Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 35.
A quiet Scotchman irreproachable as a classic and a whist-player.—Ibid., p. 57.
The mathematical examination was very difficult, and made great havoc among the classics.—Ibid., p. 62.
CLASSIC SHADES. A poetical appellation given to colleges and universities.
He prepares for his departure,—but he must, ere he repair
To the “classic shades,” et cetera,—visit his “ladye fayre.”
Poem before Iadma, Harv. Coll., 1850.
I exchanged the farm-house of my father for the “classic shades” of Union.—The Parthenon, Union Coll., 1851, p. 18.
CLASSIS. Same meaning as Class. The Latin for the English.
[They shall] observe the generall hours appointed for all the students, and the speciall houres for their own classis.—New England’s First Fruits, in Mass. Hist. Coll., Vol. I. p. 243.
CLASS LIST. In the University of Oxford, a list in which are entered the names of those who are examined for their degrees, according to their rate of merit.
At the University of Cambridge, Eng., the names of those who are examined at stated periods are placed alphabetically in the class lists, but the first eight or ten individual places are generally known.
There are some men who read for honors in that covetous and contracted spirit, and so bent upon securing the name of scholarship, even at the sacrifice of the reality, that, for the pleasure of reading their names at the top of the class list, they would make the examiners a present of all their Latin and Greek the moment they left the schools.—Collegian’s Guide, p. 327.
CLASSMAN. See CLASS.
CLASS MARSHAL. In many colleges in the United States, a class marshal is chosen by the Senior Class from their own number, for the purpose of regulating the procession on the day of Commencement, and, as at Harvard College, on Class Day also.
“At Union College,” writes a correspondent, “the class marshal is elected by the Senior Class during the third term. He attends to the order of the procession on Commencement Day, and walks into the church by the side of the President. He chooses several assistants, who attend to the accommodation of the audience. He is chosen from among the best-looking and most popular men of the class, and the honor of his office is considered next to that of the Vice-President of the Senate for the third term.”
CLASSMATE. A member of the same class with another.
The day is wound up with a scene of careless laughter and merriment, among a dozen of joke-loving classmates.—Harv. Reg., p. 202.
CLASS MEETING. A meeting where all the class are assembled for the purpose of carrying out some measure, appointing class officers, or transacting business of interest to the whole class.
In Harvard College, no class, or general, or other meeting of students can be called without an application in writing of three students, and no more, expressing the purpose of such meeting, nor otherwise than by a printed notice, signed by the President, expressing the time, the object, and place of such meeting, and the three students applying for such meeting are held responsible for any proceedings at it contrary to the laws of the College.—Laws Univ. Cam., Mass., 1848, Appendix.
Similar regulations are in force at all other American colleges. At Union College the statute on this subject was formerly in these words: “No class meetings shall be held without special license from the President; and for such purposes only as shall be expressed in the license; nor shall any class meeting be continued by adjournment or otherwise, without permission; and all class meetings held without license shall be considered as unlawful combinations, and punished accordingly.”—Laws Union Coll., 1807, pp. 37, 38.
While one, on fame alone intent,
Seek to be chosen President
Of clubs, or a class meeting.
Harv. Reg., p. 247.
CLASSOLOGY. That science which treats of the members of the classes of a college. This word is used in the title of a pleasant jeu d’esprit by Mr. William Biglow, on the class which graduated at Harvard College in 1792. It is called, “Classology: an Anacreontic Ode, in Imitation of ‘Heathen Mythology.’”
See under HIGH GO.
CLASS SECRETARY. For an account of this officer, see under CLASS BOOK.
CLASS SUPPER. In American colleges, a supper attended only by the members of a collegiate class. Class suppers are given in some colleges at the close of each year; in others, only at the close of the Sophomore and Senior years, or at one of these periods.
CLASS TREES. At Bowdoin College, “immediately after the annual examination of each class,” says a correspondent, “the members that compose it are accustomed to form a ring round a tree, and then, not dance, but run around it. So quickly do they revolve, that every individual runner has a tendency ‘to go off in a tangent,’ which it is difficult to resist for any length of time. The three lower classes have a tree by themselves in front of Massachusetts Hall. The Seniors have one of their own in front of King Chapel.”
For an account of a similar and much older custom, prevalent at Harvard College, see under CLASS DAY and LIBERTY TREE.
CLIMBING. In reference to this word, a correspondent from Dartmouth College writes: “At the commencement of this century, the Greek, Latin, and Philosophical Orations were assigned by the Faculty to the best scholars, while the Valedictorian was chosen from the remainder by his classmates. It was customary for each one of these four to treat his classmates, which was called ‘Climbing,’ from the effect which the liquor would have in elevating the class to an equality with the first scholars.”
CLIOSOPHIC. A word compounded from Clio, the Muse who presided over history, and [Greek: sophos], intelligent. At Yale College, this word was formerly used to designate an oration on the arts and sciences, which was delivered annually at the examination in July.
Having finished his academic course, by the appointment of the President he delivered the cliosophic oration in the College Hall.—Holmes’s Life of Ezra Stiles, p. 13.
COACH. In the English universities, this term is variously applied, as will be seen by a reference to the annexed examples. It is generally used to designate a private tutor.
Everything is (or used to be) called a “coach” at Oxford: a lecture-class, or a club of men meeting to take wine, luncheon, or breakfast alternately, were severally called a “wine, luncheon, or breakfast coach”; so a private tutor was called a “private coach”; and one, like Hilton of Worcester, very famed for getting his men safe through, was termed “a Patent Safety.”—The Collegian’s Guide, p. 103.
It is to his private tutors, or “coaches,” that he looks for instruction.—Household Words, Vol. II. p. 160.
He applies to Mr. Crammer. Mr. Crammer is a celebrated “coach” for lazy and stupid men, and has a system of his own which has met with decided success.—Ibid., Vol. II. p. 162.
COACH. To prepare a student to pass an examination; to make use of the aid of a private tutor.
He is putting on all steam, and “coaching” violently for the Classical Tripos.—Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d. p. 10.
It is not every man who can get a Travis to coach him.—Ibid., p. 69.
COACHING. A cant term, in the British universities, for preparing a student, by the assistance of a private tutor, to pass an examination.
Whether a man shall throw away every opportunity which a university is so eminently calculated to afford, and come away with a mere testamur gained rather by the trickery of private coaching (tutoring) than by mental improvement, depends, &c.—The Collegian’s Guide, p. 15.
COAX. This word was formerly used at Yale College in the same sense as the word fish at Harvard, viz. to seek or gain the favor of a teacher by flattery. One of the Proverbs of Solomon was often changed by the students to read as follows: “Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood; so the coaxing of tutors bringeth forth parts.”—Prov. xxx. 33.
COCHLEAUREATUS, pl. COCHLEAUREATI. Latin, cochlear, a spoon, and laureatus, laurelled. A free translation would be, one honored with a spoon.
At Yale College, the wooden spoon is given to the one whose name comes last on the list of appointees for the Junior Exhibition. The recipient of this honor is designated cochleaureatus.
Now give in honor of the spoon
Three cheers, long, loud, and hearty,
And three for every honored June
In coch-le-au-re-a-ti.
Songs of Yale, 1853, p. 37.
See WOODEN SPOON.
COFFIN. At the University of Vermont, a boot, especially a large one. A companion to the word HUMMEL, q.v.
COLLAR. At Yale College, “to come up with; to seize; to lay hold on; to appropriate.”—Yale Lit. Mag., Vol. XIV. p. 144.
By that means the oration marks will be effectually collared, with scarce an effort.—Yale Banger, Oct. 1848.
COLLECTION. In the University of Oxford, a college examination, which takes place at the end of every term before the Warden and Tutor.
Read some Herodotus for Collections.—The Etonian, Vol. II. p. 348.
The College examinations, called collections, are strictly private.—Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 139.
COLLECTOR. A Bachelor of Arts in the University of Oxford, who is appointed to superintend some scholastic proceedings in Lent.—Todd.
The Collectors, who are two in number, Bachelors of Arts, are appointed to collect the names of determining bachelors, during Lent. Their office begins and ends with that season.—Guide to Oxford.
COLLECTORSHIP. The office of a collector in the University of Oxford.—Todd.
This Lent the collectors ceased from entertaining the Bachelors by advice and command of the proctors; so that now they got by their collectorships, whereas before they spent about 100l., besides their gains, on clothes or needless entertainments.—Life of A. Wood, p. 286.
COLLEGE. Latin, collegium; con and lego, to gather. In its primary sense, a collection or assembly; hence, in a general sense, a collection, assemblage, or society of men, invested with certain powers and rights, performing certain duties, or engaged in some common employment or pursuit.
1. An establishment or edifice appropriated to the use of students who are acquiring the languages and sciences.
2. The society of persons engaged in the pursuits of literature, including the officers and students. Societies of this kind are incorporated, and endowed with revenues.
“A college, in the modern sense of that word, was an institution which arose within a university, probably within that of Paris or of Oxford first, being intended either as a kind of boarding-school, or for the support of scholars destitute of means, who were here to live under particular supervision. By degrees it became more and more the custom that teachers should be attached to these establishments. And as they grew in favor, they were resorted to by persons of means, who paid for their board; and this to such a degree, that at one time the colleges included nearly all the members of the University of Paris. In the English universities the colleges may have been first established by a master who gathered pupils around him, for whose board and instruction he provided. He exercised them perhaps in logic and the other liberal arts, and repeated the university lectures, as well as superintended their morals. As his scholars grew in number, he associated with himself other teachers, who thus acquired the name of fellows. Thus it naturally happened that the government of colleges, even of those which were founded by the benevolence of pious persons, was in the hands of a principal called by various names, such as rector, president, provost, or master, and of fellows, all of whom were resident within the walls of the same edifices where the students lived. Where charitable munificence went so far as to provide for the support of a greater number of fellows than were needed, some of them were intrusted, as tutors, with the instruction of the undergraduates, while others performed various services within their college, or passed a life of learned leisure.”—Pres. Woolsey’s Hist. Disc., New Haven, Aug. 14, 1850, p. 8.
3. In foreign universities, a public lecture.—Webster.
COLLEGE BIBLE. The laws of a college are sometimes significantly called the College Bible.
He cons the College Bible with eager, longing eyes,
And wonders how poor students at six o’clock can rise.
Poem before Iadma of Harv. Coll., 1850.
COLLEGER. A member of a college.
We stood like veteran Collegers the next day’s screw.—Harvardiana, Vol. III. p. 9. [Little used.]
2. The name by which a member of a certain class of the pupils of Eton is known. “The Collegers are educated gratuitously, and such of them as have nearly but not quite reached the age of nineteen, when a vacancy in King’s College, Cambridge, occurs, are elected scholars there forthwith and provided for during life—or until marriage.”—Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, pp. 262, 263.
They have nothing in lieu of our seventy Collegers.—Ibid., p. 270.
The whole number of scholars or “Collegers” at Eton is seventy. —Literary World, Vol. XII. p. 285.
COLLEGE YARD. The enclosure on or within which the buildings of a college are situated. Although college enclosures are usually open for others to pass through than those connected with the college, yet by law the grounds are as private as those connected with private dwellings, and are kept so, by refusing entrance, for a certain period, to all who are not members of the college, at least once in twenty years, although the time differs in different States.
But when they got to College yard,
With one accord they all huzza’d.—Rebelliad, p. 33.
Not ye, whom science never taught to roam
Far as a College yard or student’s home.
Harv. Reg., p. 232.
COLLEGIAN. A member of a college, particularly of a literary institution so called; an inhabitant of a college.—Johnson.
COLLEGIATE. Pertaining to a college; as, collegiate studies.
2. Containing a college; instituted after the manner of a college; as, a collegiate society.—Johnson.
COLLEGIATE. A member of a college.
COMBINATION. An agreement, for effecting some object by joint operation; in an ill sense, when the purpose is illegal or iniquitous. An agreement entered into by students to resist or disobey the Faculty of the College, or to do any unlawful act, is a combination. When the number concerned is so great as to render it inexpedient to punish all, those most culpable are usually selected, or as many as are deemed necessary to satisfy the demands of justice.—Laws Yale Coll., 1837, p. 27. Laws Univ. Cam., Mass., 1848, p. 23.
COMBINATION ROOM. In the University of Cambridge Eng., a room into which the fellows, and others in authority withdraw after dinner, for wine, dessert, and conversation.—Webster.
In popular phrase, the word room is omitted.
“There will be some quiet Bachelors there, I suppose,” thought I, “and a Junior Fellow or two, some of those I have met in combination.”—Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 52.
COMITAT. In the German universities, a procession formed to accompany a departing fellow-student with public honor out of the city.—Howitt.
COMMEMORATION DAY. At the University of Oxford, Eng., this day is an annual solemnity in honor of the benefactors of the University, when orations are delivered, and prize compositions are read in the theatre. It is the great day of festivity for the year.—Huber.
At the University of Cambridge, Eng., there is always a sermon on this day. The lesson which is read in the course of the service is from Ecclus. xliv.: “Let us now praise famous men,” &c. It is “a day,” says the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, “devoted to prayers, and good living.” It was formerly called Anniversary Day.
COMMENCE. To take a degree, or the first degree, in a university or college.—Bailey.
Nine Bachelors commenced at Cambridge; they were young men of good hope, and performed their acts so as to give good proof of their proficiency in the tongues and arts.—Winthrop’s Journal, by Mr. Savage, Vol. II. p. 87.
Four Senior Sophisters came from Saybrook, and received the Degree of Bachelor of Arts, and several others commenced Masters.—Clap’s Hist. Yale Coll., p. 20.
A scholar see him now commence,
Without the aid of books or sense.
Trumbull’s Progress of Dullness, 1794, p. 12.
Charles Chauncy … was afterwards, when qualified, sent to the University of Cambridge, where he commenced Bachelor of Divinity.—Hist. Sketch of First Ch. in Boston, 1812, p. 211.
COMMENCEMENT. The time when students in colleges commence Bachelors; a day in which degrees are publicly conferred in the English and American universities.—Webster.
At Harvard College, in its earliest days, Commencements were attended, as at present, by the highest officers in the State. At the first Commencement, on the second Tuesday of August, 1642, we are told that “the Governour, Magistrates, and the Ministers, from all parts, with all sorts of schollars, and others in great numbers, were present.”—New England’s First Fruits, in Mass. Hist. Coll., Vol. I. p. 246.
In the MS. Diary of Judge Sewall, under date of July 1, 1685, Commencement Day, is this remark: “Gov’r there, whom I accompanied to Charlestown”; and again, under date of July 2, 1690, is the following entry respecting the Commencement of that year: “Go to Cambridge by water in ye Barge wherein the Gov’r, Maj. Gen’l, Capt. Blackwell, and others.” In the Private Journal of Cotton Mather, under the dates of 1708 and 1717, there are notices of the Boston troops waiting on the Governor to Cambridge on Commencement Day. During the presidency of Wadsworth, which continued from 1725 to 1737, “it was the custom,” says Quincy, “on Commencement Day, for the Governor of the Province to come from Boston through Roxbury, often by the way of Watertown, attended by his body guards, and to arrive at the College about ten or eleven o’clock in the morning. A procession was then formed of the Corporation, Overseers, magistrates, ministers, and invited gentlemen, and immediately moved from Harvard Hall to the Congregational church.” After the exercises of the day were over, the students escorted the Governor, Corporation, and Overseers, in procession, to the President’s house. This description would answer very well for the present day, by adding the graduating class to the procession, and substituting the Boston Lancers as an escort, instead of the “body guards.”
The exercises of the first Commencement are stated in New England’s First Fruits, above referred to, as follows:—“Latine and Greeke Orations, and Declamations, and Hebrew Analysis, Grammaticall, Logicall, and Rhetoricall of the Psalms: And their answers and disputations in Logicall, Ethicall, Physicall, and Metaphysicall questions.” At Commencement in 1685, the exercises were, besides Disputes, four Orations, one Latin, two Greek, and one Hebrew In the presidency of Wadsworth, above referred to, “the exercises of the day,” says Quincy, “began with a short prayer by the President; a salutatory oration in Latin, by one of the graduating class, succeeded; then disputations on theses or questions in Logic, Ethics, and Natural Philosophy commenced. When the disputation terminated, one of the candidates pronounced a Latin ‘gratulatory oration.’ The graduating class were then called, and, after asking leave of the Governor and Overseers, the President conferred the Bachelor’s degree, by delivering a book to the candidates (who came forward successively in parties of four), and pronouncing a form of words in Latin. An adjournment then took place to dinner, in Harvard Hall; thence the procession returned to the church, and, after the Masters’ disputations, usually three in number, were finished, their degrees were conferred, with the same general forms as those of the Bachelors. An occasional address was then made by the President. A Latin valedictory oration by one of the Masters succeeded, and the exercises concluded with a prayer by the President.”
Similar to this is the account given by the Hon. Paine Wingate, a graduate of the class of 1759, of the exercises of Commencement as conducted while he was in College. “I do not recollect now,” he says, “any part of the public exercises on Commencement Day to be in English, excepting the President’s prayers at opening and closing the services. Next after the prayer followed the Salutatory Oration in Latin, by one of the candidates for the first degree. This office was assigned by the President, and was supposed to be given to him who was the best orator in the class. Then followed a Syllogistic Disputation in Latin, in which four or five or more of those who were distinguished as good scholars in the class were appointed by the President as Respondents, to whom were assigned certain questions, which the Respondents maintained, and the rest of the class severally opposed, and endeavored to invalidate. This was conducted wholly in Latin, and in the form of Syllogisms and Theses. At the close of the Disputation, the President usually added some remarks in Latin. After these exercises the President conferred the degrees. This, I think, may be considered as the summary of the public performances on a Commencement Day. I do not recollect any Forensic Disputation, or a Poem or Oration spoken in English, whilst I was in College.”—Peirce’s Hist. Harv. Univ., pp. 307, 308.
As far back as the year 1685, it was customary for the President to deliver an address near the close of the exercises. Under this date, in the MS. Diary of Judge Sewall, are these words: “Mr. President after giving ye Degrees made an Oration in Praise of Academical Studies and Degrees, Hebrew tongue.” In 1688, at the Commencement, according to the same gentleman, Mr. William Hubbard, then acting as President under the appointment of Sir Edmund Andros, “made an oration.”
The disputations were always in Latin, and continued to be a part of the exercises of Commencement until the year 1820. The orations were in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and sometimes French; in 1818 a Spanish oration was delivered at the Commencement for that year by Mr. George Osborne. The first English oration was made by Mr. Jedidiah Huntington, in the year 1763, and the first English poem by Mr. John Davis, in 1781. The last Latin syllogisms were in 1792, on the subjects, “Materia cogitare non potest,” and “Nil nisi ignis naturâ est fluidum.” The first year in which the performers spoke without a prompter was 1837. There were no Master’s exercises for the first time in 1844. To prevent improprieties, in the year 1760, “the duty of inspecting the performances on the day,” says Quincy, “and expunging all exceptionable parts, was assigned to the President; on whom it was particularly enjoined ‘to put an end to the practice of addressing the female sex.’” At a later period, in 1792, by referring to the “Order of the Exercises of Commencement,” we find that in the concluding oration “honorable notice is taken, from year to year, of those who have been the principal Benefactors of the University.” The practice is now discontinued.
At the first Commencement, all the magistrates, elders, and invited guests who were present “dined,” says Winthrop in his Journal, Vol. II. pp. 87, 88, “at the College with the scholars’ ordinary commons, which was done on purpose for the students’ encouragement, &c., and it gave good content to all.” After dinner, a Psalm was usually sung. In 1685, at Commencement, Sewall says: “After dinner ye 3d part of ye 103d Ps. was sung in ye Hall.” The seventy-eighth Psalm was the one usually sung, an account of which will be found under that title. The Senior Class usually waited on the table on Commencement Day. After dinner, they were allowed to take what provisions were left, and eat them at their rooms, or in the hall. This custom was not discontinued until the year 1812.
In 1754, owing to the expensive habits worn on Commencement Day, a law was passed, ordering that on that day “every candidate for his degree appear in black, or dark blue, or gray clothes; and that no one wear any silk night-gowns; and that any candidate, who shall appear dressed contrary to such regulations, may not expect his degree.” At present, on Commencement Day, every candidate for a first degree wears, according to the law, “a black dress and the usual black gown.”
It was formerly customary, on this day, for the students to provide entertainment in their rooms. But great care was taken, as far as statutory enactments were concerned, that all excess should be avoided. During the presidency of Increase Mather was developed among the students a singular phase of gastronomy, which was noticed by the Corporation in their records, under the date of June 22, 1693, in these words: “The Corporation, having been informed that the custom taken up in the College, not used in any other Universities, for the commencers [graduating class] to have plumb-cake, is dishonorable to the College, not grateful to wise men, and chargeable to the parents of the commencers, do therefore put an end to that custom, and do hereby order that no commencer, or other scholar, shall have any such cakes in their studies or chambers; and that, if any scholar shall offend therein, the cakes shall be taken from him, and he shall moreover pay to the College twenty shillings for each such offence.” This stringent regulation was, no doubt, all-sufficient for many years; but in the lapse of time the taste for the forbidden delicacy, which was probably concocted with a skill unknown to the moderns, was again revived, accompanied with confessions to a fondness for several kinds of expensive preparations, the recipes for which preparations, it is to be feared, are inevitably lost. In 1722, in the latter part of President Leverett’s administration, an act was passed “for reforming the Extravagancys of Commencements,” and providing “that henceforth no preparation nor provision of either Plumb Cake, or Roasted, Boyled, or Baked Meates or Pyes of any kind shal be made by any Commencer,” and that no “such have any distilled Lyquours in his Chamber or any composition therewith,” under penalty of being “punished twenty shillings, to be paid to the use of the College,” and of forfeiture of the provisions and liquors, “to be seized by the tutors.” The President and Corporation were accustomed to visit the rooms of the Commencers, “to see if the laws prohibiting certain meats and drinks were not violated.” These restrictions not being sufficient, a vote passed the Corporation in 1727, declaring, that “if any, who now doe, or hereafter shall, stand for their degrees, presume to doe any thing contrary to the act of 11th June, 1722, or go about to evade it by plain cake, they shall not be admitted to their degree, and if any, after they have received their degree, shall presume to make any forbidden provisions, their names shall be left or rased out of the Catalogue of the Graduates.”
In 1749, the Corporation strongly recommended to the parents and guardians of such as were to take degrees that year, “considering the awful judgments of God upon the land,” to “retrench Commencement expenses, so as may best correspond with the frowns of Divine Providence, and that they take effectual care to have their sons’ chambers cleared of company, and their entertainments finished, on the evening of said Commencement Day, or, at furthest, by next morning.” In 1755, attempts were made to prevent those “who proceeded Bachelors of Arts from having entertainments of any kind, either in the College or any house in Cambridge, after the Commencement Day.” This and several other propositions of the Overseers failing to meet with the approbation of the Corporation, a vote finally passed both boards in 1757, by which it was ordered, that, on account of the “distressing drought upon the land,” and “in consideration of the dark state of Providence with respect to the war we are engaged in, which Providences call for humiliation and fasting rather than festival entertainments,” the “first and second degrees be given to the several candidates without their personal attendance”; a general diploma was accordingly given, and Commencement was omitted for that year. Three years after, “all unnecessary expenses were forbidden,” and also “dancing in any part of Commencement week, in the Hall, or in any College building; nor was any undergraduate allowed to give any entertainment, after dinner, on Thursday of that week, under severe penalties.” But the laws were not always so strict, for we find that, on account of a proposition made by the Overseers to the Corporation in 1759, recommending a “repeal of the law prohibiting the drinking of punch,” the latter board voted, that “it shall be no offence if any scholar shall, at Commencement, make and entertain guests at his chamber with punch,” which they afterwards declare, “as it is now usually made, is no intoxicating liquor.”
To prevent the disturbances incident to the day, an attempt was made in 1727 to have the “Commencements for time to come more private than has been usual,” and for several years after, the time of Commencement was concealed; “only a short notice,” says Quincy, “being given to the public of the day on which it was to be held.” Friday was the day agreed on, for the reason, says President Wadsworth in his Diary, “that there might be a less remaining time of the week spent in frolicking.” This was very ill received by the people of Boston and the vicinity, to whom Commencement was a season of hilarity and festivity; the ministers were also dissatisfied, not knowing the day in some cases, and in others being subjected to great inconvenience on account of their living at a distance from Cambridge. The practice was accordingly abandoned in 1736, and Commencement, as formerly, was held on Wednesday, to general satisfaction. In 1749, “three gentlemen,” says Quincy, “who had sons about to be graduated, offered to give the College a thousand pounds old tenor, provided ‘a trial was made of Commencements this year, in a more private manner.’” The proposition, after much debate, was rejected, and “public Commencements were continued without interruption, except during the period of the Revolutionary war, and occasionally, from temporary causes, during the remainder of the century, notwithstanding their evils, anomalies, and inconsistencies.”05
The following poetical account of Commencement at Harvard College is supposed to have been written by Dr. Mather Byles, in the year 1742 or thereabouts. Of its merits, this is no place to speak. As a picture of the times it is valuable, and for this reason, and to show the high rank which Commencement Day formerly held among other days, it is here presented.
“Commencement
“I sing the day, bright with peculiar charms,
Whose rising radiance ev’ry bosom warms;
The day when Cambridge empties all the towns,
And youths commencing, take their laurel crowns:
When smiling joys, and gay delights appear,
And shine distinguish’d, in the rolling year.
“While the glad theme I labour to rehearse,
In flowing numbers, and melodious verse,
Descend, immortal nine, my soul inspire,
Amid my bosom lavish all your fire,
While smiling Phoebus, owns the heavenly layes
And shades the poet with surrounding bayes.
But chief ye blooming nymphs of heavenly frame,
Who make the day with double glory flame,
In whose fair persons, art and nature vie,
On the young muse cast an auspicious eye:
Secure of fame, then shall the goddess sing,
And rise triumphant with a tow’ring wing,
Her tuneful notes wide-spreading all around,
The hills shall echo, and the vales resound.
“Soon as the morn in crimson robes array’d
With chearful beams dispels the flying shade,
While fragrant odours waft the air along,
And birds melodious chant their heavenly song,
And all the waste of heav’n with glory spread,
Wakes up the world, in sleep’s embraces dead.
Then those whose dreams were on th’ approaching day,
Prepare in splendid garbs to make their way
To that admired solemnity, whose date,
Tho’ late begun, will last as long as fate.
And now the sprightly Fair approach the glass
To heighten every feature of the face.
They view the roses flush their glowing cheeks,
The snowy lillies towering round their necks,
Their rustling manteaus huddled on in haste,
They clasp with shining girdles round their waist.
Nor less the speed and care of every beau,
To shine in dress and swell the solemn show.
Thus clad, in careless order mixed by chance,
In haste they both along the streets advance:
’Till near the brink of Charles’s beauteous stream,
They stop, and think the lingering boat to blame.
Soon as the empty skiff salutes the shore,
In with impetuous haste they clustering pour,
The men the head, the stern the ladies grace,
And neighing horses fill the middle space.
Sunk deep, the boat floats slow the waves along,
And scarce contains the thickly crowded throng;
A gen’ral horror seizes on the fair,
While white-look’d cowards only not despair.
‘Till rowed with care they reach th’ opposing side,
Leap on the shore, and leave the threat’ning tide.
While to receive the pay the boatman stands,
And chinking pennys jingle in his hands.
Eager the sparks assault the waiting cars,
Fops meet with fops, and clash in civil wars.
Off fly the wigs, as mount their kicking heels,
The rudely bouncing head with anguish swells,
A crimson torrent gushes from the nose,
Adown the cheeks, and wanders o’er the cloaths.
Taunting, the victor’s strait the chariots leap,
While the poor batter’d beau’s for madness weep.
“Now in calashes shine the blooming maids,
Bright’ning the day which blazes o’er their heads;
The seats with nimble steps they swift ascend,
And moving on the crowd, their waste of beauties spend.
So bearing thro’ the boundless breadth of heav’n,
The twinkling lamps of light are graceful driv’n;
While on the world they shed their glorious rays,
And set the face of nature in a blaze.
“Now smoak the burning wheels along the ground,
While rapid hoofs of flying steeds resound,
The drivers by no vulgar flame inspir’d,
But with the sparks of love and glory fir’d,
With furious swiftness sweep along the way,
And from the foremost chariot snatch the day.
So at Olympick games when heros strove,
In rapid cars to gain the goal of love.
If on her fav’rite youth the goddess shone
He left his rival and the winds out-run.
“And now thy town, O Cambridge! strikes the sight
Of the beholders with confus’d delight;
Thy green campaigns wide open to the view,
And buildings where bright youth their fame pursue.
Blest village! on whose plains united glows,
A vast, confus’d magnificence of shows.
Where num’rous crowds of different colours blend,
Thick as the trees which from the hills ascend:
Or as the grass which shoots in verdant spires,
Or stars which dart thro’ natures realms their fires.
“How am I fir’d with a profuse delight,
When round the yard I roll my ravish’d sight!
From the high casements how the ladies show!
And scatter glory on the crowds below.
From sash to sash the lovely lightening plays
And blends their beauties in a radiant blaze.
So when the noon of night the earth invades
And o’er the landskip spreads her silent shades.
In heavens high vault the twinkling stars appear,
And with gay glory’s light the gleemy sphere.
From their bright orbs a flame of splendors shows,
And all around th’ enlighten’d ether glows.
“Soon as huge heaps have delug’d all the plains,
Of tawny damsels, mixt with simple swains,
Gay city beau’s, grave matrons and coquats,
Bully’s and cully’s, clergymen and wits.
The thing which first the num’rous crowd employs,
Is by a breakfast to begin their joys.
While wine, which blushes in a crystal glass,
Streams down in floods, and paints their glowing face.
And now the time approaches when the bell,
With dull continuance tolls a solemn knell.
Numbers of blooming youth in black array
Adorn the yard, and gladden all the day.
In two strait lines they instantly divide,
While each beholds his partner on th’ opposing side,
Then slow, majestick, walks the learned head,
The senate follow with a solemn tread,
Next Levi’s tribe in reverend order move,
Whilst the uniting youth the show improve.
They glow in long procession till they come,
Near to the portals of the sacred dome;
Then on a sudden open fly the doors,
The leader enters, then the croud thick pours.
The temple in a moment feels its freight,
And cracks beneath its vast unwieldy weight,
So when the threatning Ocean roars around
A place encompass’d with a lofty mound,
If some weak part admits the raging waves,
It flows resistless, and the city laves;
Till underneath the waters ly the tow’rs,
Which menac’d with their height the heav’nly pow’rs.
“The work begun with pray’r, with modest pace,
A youth advancing mounts the desk with grace,
To all the audience sweeps a circling bow,
Then from his lips ten thousand graces flow.
The next that comes, a learned thesis reads,
The question states, and then a war succeeds.
Loud major, minor, and the consequence,
Amuse the crowd, wide-gaping at their fence.
Who speaks the loudest is with them the best,
And impudence for learning is confest.
“The battle o’er, the sable youth descend,
And to the awful chief, their footsteps bend.
With a small book, the laurel wreath he gives
Join’d with a pow’r to use it all their lives.
Obsequious, they return what they receive,
With decent rev’rence, they his presence leave.
Dismiss’d, they strait repeat their back ward way
And with white napkins grace the sumptuous day.06
“Now plates unnumber’d on the tables shine,
And dishes fill’d invite the guests to dine.
The grace perform’d, each as it suits him best,
Divides the sav’ry honours of the feast,
The glasses with bright sparkling wines abound
And flowing bowls repeat the jolly round.
Thanks said, the multitude unite their voice,
In sweetly mingled and melodious noise.
The warbling musick floats along the air,
And softly winds the mazes of the ear;
Ravish’d the crowd promiscuously retires,
And each pursues the pleasure he admires.
“Behold my muse far distant on the plains,
Amidst a wrestling ring two jolly swains;
Eager for fame, they tug and haul for blood,
One nam’d Jack Luby, t’ other Robin Clod,
Panting they strain, and labouring hard they sweat,
Mix legs, kick shins, tear cloaths, and ply their feet.
Now nimbly trip, now stiffly stand their ground,
And now they twirl, around, around, around;
Till overcome by greater art or strength,
Jack Luby lays along his lubber length.
A fall! a fall! the loud spectators cry,
A fall! a fall! the echoing hills reply.
“O’er yonder field in wild confusion runs,
A clam’rous troop of Affric’s sable sons,
Behind the victors shout, with barbarous roar,
The vanquish’d fly with hideous yells before,
The gloomy squadron thro’ the valley speeds
Whilst clatt’ring cudgels rattle o’er their heads.
“Again to church the learned tribe repair,
Where syllogisms battle in the air,
And then the elder youth their second laurels wear.
Hail! Happy laurels! who our hopes inspire,
And set our ardent wishes all on fire.
By you the pulpit and the bar will shine
In future annals; while the ravish’d nine
Will in your bosom breathe cælestial flames,
And stamp Eternity upon your names.
Accept my infant muse, whose feeble wings
Can scarce sustain her flight, while you she sings.
With candour view my rude unfinish’d praise
And see my Ivy twist around your bayes.
So Phidias by immortal Jove inspir’d,
His statue carv’d, by all mankind admir’d.
Nor thus content, by his approving nod,
He cut himself upon the shining god.
That shaded by the umbrage of his name,
Eternal honours might attend his fame.”
In his almanacs, Nathaniel Ames was wont to insert, opposite the days of Commencement week, remarks which he deemed appropriate to that period. His notes for the year 1764 were these:—
“Much talk and nothing said.”
“The loquacious more talkative than ever, and fine Harangues preparing.”
“Much Money sunk,
Much Liquor drunk.”
His only note for the year 1765 was this:—
“Many Crapulæ to Day
Give the Head-ach to the Gay.”
Commencement Day was generally considered a holiday throughout the Province, and in the metropolis the shops were usually closed, and little or no business was done. About ten days before this period, a body of Indians from Natick—men, women, and pappooses—commonly made their appearance at Cambridge, and took up their station around the Episcopal Church, in the cellar of which they were accustomed to sleep, if the weather was unpleasant. The women sold baskets and moccasons; the boys gained money by shooting at it, while the men wandered about and spent the little that was earned by their squaws in rum and tobacco. Then there would come along a body of itinerant negro fiddlers, whose scraping never intermitted during the time of their abode.
The Common, on Commencement week, was covered with booths, erected in lines, like streets, intended to accommodate the populace from Boston and the vicinity with the amusements of a fair. In these were carried on all sorts of dissipation. Here was a knot of gamblers, gathered around a wheel of fortune, or watching the whirl of the ball on a roulette-table. Further along, the jolly hucksters displayed their tempting wares in the shape of cooling beverages and palate-tickling confections. There was dancing on this side, auction-selling on the other; here a pantomimic show, there a blind man, led by a dog, soliciting alms; organ-grinders and hurdy-gurdy grinders, bears and monkeys, jugglers and sword-swallowers, all mingled in inextricable confusion.
In a neighboring field, a countryman had, perchance, let loose a fox, which the dogs were worrying to death, while the surrounding crowd testified their pleasure at the scene by shouts of approbation. Nor was there any want of the spirituous; pails of punch, guarded by stout negroes, bore witness to their own subtle contents, now by the man who lay curled up under the adjoining hedge, “forgetting and forgot,” and again by the drunkard, reeling, cursing, and fighting among his comrades.
The following observations from the pen of Professor Sidney Willard, afford an accurate description of the outward manifestations of Commencement Day at Harvard College, during the latter part of the last century. “Commencement Day at that time was a widely noted day, not only among men and women of all characters and conditions, but also among boys. It was the great literary and mob anniversary of Massachusetts, surpassed only in its celebrities by the great civil and mob anniversary, namely, the Fourth of July, and the last Wednesday of May, Election day, so called, the anniversary of the organization of the government of the State for the civil year. But Commencement, perhaps most of all, exhibited an incongruous mixture of men and things. Besides the academic exercises within the sanctuary of learning and religion, followed by the festivities in the College dining-hall, and under temporary tents and awnings erected for the entertainments given to the numerous guests of wealthy parents of young men who had come out successful competitors for prizes in the academic race, the large common was decked with tents filled with various refreshments for the hungry and thirsty multitudes, and the intermediate spaces crowded with men, women, and boys, white and black, many of them gambling, drinking, swearing, dancing, and fighting from morning to midnight. Here and there the scene was varied by some show of curiosities, or of monkeys or less common wild animals, and the gambols of mountebanks, who by their ridiculous tricks drew a greater crowd than the abandoned group at the gaming-tables, or than the fooleries, distortions, and mad pranks of the inebriates. If my revered uncle07 took a glimpse at these scenes, he did not see there any of our red brethren, as Mr. Jefferson kindly called them, who formed a considerable part of the gathering at the time of his graduation, forty-two years before; but he must have seen exhibitions of depravity which would disgust the most untutored savage. Near the close of the last century these outrages began to disappear, and lessened from year to year, until by public opinion, enforced by an efficient police, they were many years ago wholly suppressed, and the vicinity of the College halls has become, as it should be, a classic ground.”—Memories of Youth and Manhood, Vol. I. pp. 251, 252.
It is to such scenes as these that Mr. William Biglow refers, in his poem recited before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, in their dining-hall, August 29th, 1811.
“All hail, Commencement! when all classes free
Throng learning’s fount, from interest, taste, or glee;
When sutlers plain in tents, like Jacob, dwell,
Their goods distribute, and their purses swell;
When tipplers cease on wretchedness to think,
Those born to sell, as well as these to drink;
When every day each merry Andrew clears
More cash than useful men in many years;
When men to business come, or come to rake,
And modest women spurn at Pope’s mistake.08
“All hail, Commencement! when all colors join,
To gamble, riot, quarrel, and purloin;
When Afric’s sooty sons, a race forlorn,
Play, swear, and fight, like Christians freely born;
And Indians bless our civilizing merit,
And get dead drunk with truly Christian spirit;
When heroes, skilled in pocket-picking sleights,
Of equal property and equal rights,
Of rights of man and woman, boldest friends,
Believing means are sanctioned by their ends,
Sequester part of Gripus’ boundless store,
While Gripus thanks god Plutus he has more;
And needy poet, from this ill secure,
Feeling his fob, cries, ‘Blessed are the poor.’”
On the same subject, the writer of Our Chronicle of ’26, a satirical poem, versifies in the following manner:—
“Then comes Commencement Day, and Discord dire
Strikes her confusion-string, and dust and noise
Climb up the skies; ladies in thin attire,
For ’t is in August, and both men and boys,
Are all abroad, in sunshine and in glee
Making all heaven rattle with their revelry!
“Ah! what a classic sight it is to see
The black gowns flaunting in the sultry air,
Boys big with literary sympathy,
And all the glories of this great affair!
More classic sounds!—within, the plaudit shout,
While Punchinello’s rabble echoes it without.”
To this the author appends a note, as follows:—
“The holiday extends to thousands of those who have no particular classical pretensions, further than can be recognized in a certain penchant for such jubilees, contracted by attending them for years as hangers-on. On this devoted day these noisy do-nothings collect with mummers, monkeys, bears, and rope-dancers, and hold their revels just beneath the windows of the tabernacle where the literary triumph is enacting.
‘Tum sæva sonare
Verbera, tum stridor ferri tractæque catenæ.’”
A writer in Buckingham’s New England Magazine, Vol. III., 1832, in an article entitled “Harvard College Forty Years ago,” thus describes the customs which then prevailed:—
“As I entered Cambridge, what were my ‘first impressions’? The College buildings ‘heaving in sight and looming up,’ as the sailors say. Pyramids of Egypt! can ye surpass these enormous piles? The Common covered with tents and wigwams, and people of all sorts, colors, conditions, nations, and tongues. A country muster or ordination dwindles into nothing in comparison. It was a second edition of Babel. The Governor’s life-guard, in splendid uniform, prancing to and fro, ‘Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum.’ Horny-hoofed, galloping quadrupeds make all the common to tremble.
“I soon steered for the meeting-house, and obtained a seat, or rather standing, in the gallery, determined to be an eyewitness of all the sport of the day. Presently music was heard approaching, such as I had never heard before. It must be ‘the music of the spheres.’ Anon, three enormous white wigs, supported by three stately, venerable men, yclad in black, flowing robes, were located in the pulpit. A platform of wigs was formed in the body pews, on which one might apparently walk as securely as on the stage. The candidates for degrees seemed to have made a mistake in dressing themselves in black togas instead of white ones, pro more Romanorum. The musicians jammed into their pew in the gallery, very near to me, with enormous fiddles and fifes and ramshorns. Terribile visu! They sounded. I stopped my ears, and with open mouth and staring eyes stood aghast with wonderment. The music ceased. The performances commenced. English, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French! These scholars knew everything.”
More particular is the account of the observances, at this period, of the day, at Harvard College, as given by Professor Sidney Willard:—
“Commencement Day, in the year 1798, was a day bereft, in some respects, of its wonted cheerfulness. Instead of the serene summer’s dawn, and the clear rising of the sun, ‘The dawn was overcast, the morning lowered, And heavily in clouds brought on the day.’ In the evening, from the time that the public exercises closed until twilight, the rain descended in torrents. The President09 lay prostrate on his bed from the effects of a violent disease, from which it was feared he could not recover.10 His house, which on all occasions was the abode of hospitality, and on Commencement Day especially so, (being the great College anniversary,) was now a house of stillness, anxiety, and watching. For seventeen successive years it had been thronged on this anniversary from morn till night, by welcome visitors, cheerfully greeted and cared for, and now it was like a house of mourning for the dead.
“After the literary exercises of the day were closed, the officers in the different branches of the College government and instruction, Masters of Arts, and invited guests, repaired to the College dining-hall without the ceremony of a procession formed according to dignity or priority of right. This the elements forbade. Each one ran the short race as he best could. But as the Alumni arrived, they naturally avoided taking possession of the seats usually occupied by the government of the College. The Governor, Increase Sumner, I suppose, was present, and no doubt all possible respect was paid to the Overseers as well as to the Corporation. I was not present, but dined at my father’s house with a few friends, of whom the late Hon. Moses Brown of Beverly was one. We went together to the College hall after dinner; but the honorable and reverend Corporation and Overseers had retired, and I do not remember whether there was any person presiding. If there were, a statue would have been as well. The age of wine and wassail, those potent aids to patriotism, mirth, and song, had not wholly passed away. The merry glee was at that time outrivalled by Adams and Liberty, the national patriotic song, so often and on so many occasions sung, and everywhere so familiarly known that all could join in grand chorus.”—Memories of Youth and Manhood, Vol. II. pp. 4, 5.
The irregularities of Commencement week seem at a very early period to have attracted the attention of the College government; for we find that in 1728, to prevent disorder, a formal request was made by the President, at the suggestion of the immediate government, to Lieutenant-Governor Dummer, praying him to direct the sheriff of Middlesex to prohibit the setting up of booths and tents on those public days. Some years after, in 1732, “an interview took place between the Corporation and three justices of the peace in Cambridge, to concert measures to keep order at Commencement, and under their warrant to establish a constable with six men, who, by watching and walking towards the evening on these days, and also the night following, and in and about the entry at the College Hall at dinner-time, should prevent disorders.” At the beginning of the present century, it was customary for two special justices to give their attendance at this period, in order to try offences, and a guard of twenty constables was usually present to preserve order and attend on the justices. Among the writings of one, who for fifty years was a constant attendant on these occasions, are the following memoranda, which are in themselves an explanation of the customs of early years. “Commencement, 1828; no tents on the Common for the first time.” “Commencement, 1836; no persons intoxicated in the hall or out of it; the first time.”
The following extract from the works of a French traveller will be read with interest by some, as an instance of the manner in which our institutions are sometimes regarded by foreigners. “In a free country, everything ought to bear the stamp of patriotism. This patriotism appears every year in a solemn feast celebrated at Cambridge in honor of the sciences. This feast, which takes place once a year in all the colleges of America, is called Commencement. It resembles the exercises and distribution of prizes in our colleges. It is a day of joy for Boston; almost all its inhabitants assemble in Cambridge. The most distinguished of the students display their talents in the presence of the public; and these exercises, which are generally on patriotic subjects, are terminated by a feast, where reign the freest gayety and the most cordial fraternity.”—Brissot’s Travels in U.S., 1788. London, 1794, Vol. I. pp. 85, 86.
For an account of the chair from which the President delivers diplomas on Commencement Day, see PRESIDENT’S CHAIR.
At Yale College, the first Commencement was held September 13th, 1702, while that institution was located at Saybrook, at which four young men who had before graduated at Harvard College, and one whose education had been private, received the degree of Master of Arts. This and several Commencements following were held privately, according to an act which had been passed by the Trustees, in order to avoid unnecessary expense and other inconveniences. In 1718, the year in which the first College edifice was completed, was held at New Haven the first public Commencement. The following account of the exercises on this occasion was written at the time by one of the College officers, and is cited by President Woolsey in his Discourse before the Graduates of Yale College, August 14th, 1850. “[We were] favored and honored with the presence of his Honor, Governor Saltonstall, and his lady, and the Hon. Col. Taylor of Boston, and the Lieutenant-Governor, and the whole Superior Court, at our Commencement, September 10th, 1718, where the Trustees present,—those gentlemen being present,—in the hall of our new College, first most solemnly named our College by the name of Yale College, to perpetuate the memory of the honorable Gov. Elihu Yale, Esq., of London, who had granted so liberal and bountiful a donation for the perfecting and adorning of it. Upon which the honorable Colonel Taylor represented Governor Yale in a speech expressing his great satisfaction; which ended, we passed to the church, and there the Commencement was carried on. In which affair, in the first place, after prayer an oration was had by the saluting orator, James Pierpont, and then the disputations as usual; which concluded, the Rev. Mr. Davenport [one of the Trustees and minister of Stamford] offered an excellent oration in Latin, expressing their thanks to Almighty God, and Mr. Yale under him, for so public a favor and so great regard to our languishing school. After which were graduated ten young men, whereupon the Hon. Gov. Saltonstall, in a Latin speech, congratulated the Trustees in their success and in the comfortable appearance of things with relation to their school. All which ended, the gentlemen returned to the College Hall, where they were entertained with a splendid dinner, and the ladies, at the same time, were also entertained in the Library; after which they sung the four first verses in the 65th Psalm, and so the day ended.”—p. 24.
The following excellent and interesting account of the exercises and customs of Commencement at Yale College, in former times, is taken from the entertaining address referred to above:—“Commencements were not to be public, according to the wishes of the first Trustees, through fear of the attendant expense; but another practice soon prevailed, and continued with three or four exceptions until the breaking out of the war in 1775. They were then private for five years, on account of the times. The early exercises of the candidates for the first degree were a ‘saluting’ oration in Latin, succeeded by syllogistic disputations in the same language; and the day was closed by the Masters’ exercises,—disputations and a valedictory. According to an ancient academical practice, theses were printed and distributed upon this occasion, indicating what the candidates for a degree had studied, and were prepared to defend; yet, contrary to the usage still prevailing at universities which have adhered to the old method of testing proficiency, it does not appear that these theses were ever defended in public. They related to a variety of subjects in Technology, Logic, Grammar, Rhetoric, Mathematics, Physics, Metaphysics, Ethics, and afterwards Theology. The candidates for a Master’s degree also published theses at this time, which were called Quæstiones magistrales. The syllogistic disputes were held between an affirmant and respondent, who stood in the side galleries of the church opposite to one another, and shot the weapons of their logic over the heads of the audience. The saluting Bachelor and the Master who delivered the valedictory stood in the front gallery, and the audience huddled around below them to catch their Latin eloquence as it fell. It seems also to have been usual for the President to pronounce an oration in some foreign tongue upon the same occasion.11
“At the first public Commencement under President Stiles, in 1781, we find from a particular description which has been handed down, that the original plan, as above described, was subjected for the time to considerable modifications. The scheme, in brief, was as follows. The salutatory oration was delivered by a member of the graduating class, who is now our aged and honored townsman, Judge Baldwin. This was succeeded by the syllogistic disputations, and these by a Greek oration, next to which came an English colloquy. Then followed a forensic disputation, in which James Kent was one of the speakers. Then President Stiles delivered an oration in Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Arabic,—it being an extraordinary occasion. After which the morning was closed with an English oration by one of the graduating class. In the afternoon, the candidates for the second degree had the time, as usual, to themselves, after a Latin discourse by President Stiles. The exhibiters appeared in syllogistic disputes, a dissertation, a poem, and an English oration. Among these performers we find the names of Noah Webster, Joel Barlow, and Oliver Wolcott. Besides the Commencements there were exhibitions upon quarter-days, as they were called, in December and March, as well as at the end of the third term, when the younger classes performed; and an exhibition of the Seniors in July, at the time of their examination for degrees, when the valedictory orator was one of their own choice. This oration was transferred to the Commencement about the year 1798, when the Masters’ valedictories had fallen into disuse; and being in English, gave a new interest to the exercises of the day.
“Commencements were long occasions of noisy mirth, and even of riot. The older records are full of attempts, on the part of the Corporation, to put a stop to disorder and extravagance at this anniversary. From a document of 1731, it appears that cannons had been fired in honor of the day, and students were now forbidden to have a share in this on pain of degradation. The same prohibition was found necessary again in 1755, at which time the practice had grown up of illuminating the College buildings upon Commencement eve. But the habit of drinking spirituous liquor, and of furnishing it to friends, on this public occasion, grew up into more serious evils. In the year 1737, the Trustees, having found that there was a great expense in spirituous distilled liquors upon Commencement occasions, ordered that for the future no candidate for a degree, or other student, should provide or allow any such liquors to be drunk in his chamber during Commencement week. And again, it was ordered in 1746, with the view of preventing several extravagant and expensive customs, that there should be ‘no kind of public treat but on Commencement, quarter-days, and the day on which the valedictory oration was pronounced; and on that day the Seniors may provide and give away a barrel of metheglin, and nothing more.’ But the evil continued a long time. In 1760, it appears that it was usual for the graduating class to provide a pipe of wine, in the payment of which each one was forced to join. The Corporation now attempted by very stringent law to break up this practice; but the Senior Class having united in bringing large quantities of rum into College, the Commencement exercises were suspended, and degrees were withheld until after a public confession of the class. In the two next years degrees were given at the July examination, with a view to prevent such disorders, and no public Commencement was celebrated. Similar scenes are not known to have occurred afterwards, although for a long time that anniversary wore as much the aspect of a training-day as of a literary festival.
“The Commencement Day in the modern sense of the term—that is, a gathering of graduated members and of others drawn together by a common interest in the College, and in its young members who are leaving its walls—has no counterpart that I know of in the older institutions of Europe. It arose by degrees out of the former exercises upon this occasion, with the addition of such as had been usual before upon quarter-days, or at the presentation in July. For a time several of the commencing Masters appeared on the stage to pronounce orations, as they had done before. In process of time, when they had nearly ceased to exhibit, this anniversary began to assume a somewhat new feature; the peculiarity of which consists in this, that the graduates have a literary festival more peculiarly their own, in the shape of discourses delivered before their assembled body, or before some literary society.”—Woolsey’s Historical Discourse, pp. 65-68.
Further remarks concerning the observance of Commencement at Yale College may be found in Ebenezer Baldwin’s “Annals” of that institution, pp. 189-197.
An article “On the Date of the First Public Commencement at Yale College, in New Haven,” will be read with pleasure by those who are interested in the deductions of antiquarian research. It is contained in the “Yale Literary Magazine,” Vol. XX. pp. 199, 200.
The following account of Commencement at Dartmouth College, on Wednesday, August 24th, 1774, written by Dr. Belknap, may not prove uninteresting.
“About eleven o’clock, the Commencement began in a large tent erected on the east side of the College, and covered with boards; scaffolds and seats being prepared.
“The President began with a prayer in the usual strain. Then an English oration was spoken by one of the Bachelors, complimenting the Trustees, &c. A syllogistic disputation on this question: Amicitia vera non est absque amore divina. Then a cliosophic oration. Then an anthem, ‘The voice of my beloved sounds,’ &c. Then a forensic dispute, Whether Christ died for all men? which was well supported on both sides. Then an anthem, ‘Lift up your heads, O ye gates,’ &c.
“The company were invited to dine at the President’s and the hall. The Connecticut lads and lasses, I observed, walked about hand in hand in procession, as ’t is said they go to a wedding.
“Afternoon. The exercises began with a Latin oration on the state of society by Mr. Kipley. Then an English Oration on the Imitative Arts, by Mr. J. Wheelock. The degrees were then conferred, and, in addition to the usual ceremony of the book, diplomas were delivered to the candidates, with this form of words: ‘Admitto vos ad primum (vel secundum) gradum in artibus pro more Academiarum in Anglia, vobisque trado hunc librum, una cum potestate publice prelegendi ubicumque ad hoc munus avocati fueritis (to the masters was added, fuistis vel fueritis), cujus rei hæc diploma membrana scripta est testimonium.’ Mr. Woodward stood by the President, and held the book and parchments, delivering and exchanging them as need required. Rev. Mr. Benjamin Pomeroy, of Hebron, was admitted to the degree of Doctor in Divinity.
“After this, McGregore and Sweetland, two Bachelors, spoke a dialogue of Lord Lyttleton’s between Apicius and Darteneuf, upon good eating and drinking. The Mercury (who comes in at the close of the piece) performed his part but clumsily; but the two epicures did well, and the President laughed as heartily as the rest of the audience; though considering the circumstances, it might admit of some doubt, whether the dialogue were really a burlesque, or a compliment to the College.
“An anthem and prayer concluded the public exercises. Much decency and regularity were observable through the day, in the numerous attending concourse of people.”—Life of Jeremy Belknap, D.D., pp. 69-71.
At Shelby College, Ky., it is customary at Commencement to perform plays, with appropriate costumes, at stated intervals during the exercises.
An account of the manner in which Commencement has been observed at other colleges would only be a repetition of what has been stated above, in reference to Harvard and Yale. These being, the former the first, and the latter the third institution founded in our country, the colleges which were established at a later period grounded, not only their laws, but to a great extent their customs, on the laws and customs which prevailed at Cambridge and New Haven.
COMMENCEMENT CARD. At Union College, there is issued annually at Commencement a card containing a programme of the exercises of the day, signed with the names of twelve of the Senior Class, who are members of the four principal college societies. These cards are worded in the form of invitations, and are to be sent to the friends of the students. To be “on the Commencement card” is esteemed an honor, and is eagerly sought for. At other colleges, invitations are often issued at this period, usually signed by the President.
COMMENCER. In American colleges, a member of the Senior Class, after the examination for degrees; generally, one who commences.
These exercises were, besides an oration usually made by the President, orations both salutatory and valedictory, made by some or other of the commencers.—Mather’s Magnalia, B. IV. p. 128.
The Corporation with the Tutors shall visit the chambers of the commencers to see that this law be well observed.—Peirce’s Hist. Harv. Univ., App., p. 137.
Thirty commencers, besides Mr. Rogers, &c.—Ibid., App., p. 150.
COMMERS. In the German universities, a party of students assembled for the purpose of making an excursion to some place in the country for a day’s jollification. On such an occasion, the students usually go “in a long train of carriages with outriders”; generally, a festive gathering of the students.—Howitt’s Student Life of Germany, Am. ed., p. 56; see also Chap. XVI.
COMMISSARY. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., an officer under the Chancellor, and appointed by him, who holds a court of record for all privileged persons and scholars under the degree of M.A. In this court, all causes are tried and determined by the civil and statute law, and by the custom of the University.—Cam. Cal.
COMMON. To board together; to eat at a table in common.
COMMONER. A student of the second rank in the University of Oxford, Eng., who is not dependent on the foundation for support, but pays for his board or commons, together with all other charges. Corresponds to a PENSIONER at Cambridge. See GENTLEMAN COMMONER.
2. One who boards in commons.
In all cases where those who do damage to the table furniture, or in the steward’s kitchen, cannot be detected, the amount shall be charged to the commoners.—Laws Union Coll., 1807, p. 34.
The steward shall keep an accurate list of the commoners.—Ibid., 1807, p. 34.
COMMON ROOM. The room to which all the members of the college have access. There is sometimes one common room for graduates, and another for undergraduates.—Crabb’s Tech. Dict.
Oh, could the days once more but come,
When calm I smoak’d in common room.
The Student, Oxf. and Cam., 1750, Vol. I. p. 237.
COMMONS. Food provided at a common table, as in colleges, where many persons eat at the same table, or in the same hall.—Webster.
Commons were introduced into Harvard College at its first establishment, in the year 1636, in imitation of the English universities, and from that time until the year 1849, when they were abolished, seem to have been a never-failing source of uneasiness and disturbance. While the infant College with the title only of “school,” was under the superintendence of Mr. Nathaniel Eaton, its first “master,” the badness of commons was one of the principal causes of complaint. “At no subsequent period of the College history,” says Mr. Quincy, “has discontent with commons been more just and well founded, than under the huswifery of Mrs. Eaton.” “It is perhaps owing,” Mr. Winthrop observes in his History of New England, “to the gallantry of our fathers, that she was not enjoined in the perpetual malediction they bestowed on her husband.” A few years after, we read, in the “Information given by the Corporation and Overseers to the General Court,” a proposition either to make “the scholars’ charges less, or their commons better.” For a long period after this we have no account of the state of commons, “but it is not probable,” says Mr. Peirce, “they were materially different from what they have been since.”
During the administration of President Holyoke, from 1737 to 1769, commons were the constant cause of disorders among the students. There appears to have been a very general permission to board in private families before the year 1737: an attempt was then made to compel the undergraduates to board in commons. After many resolutions, a law was finally passed, in 1760, prohibiting them “from dining or supping in any house in town, except on an invitation to dine or sup gratis.” “The law,” says Quincy, “was probably not very strictly enforced. It was limited to one year, and was not renewed.”
An idea of the quality of commons may be formed from the following accounts furnished by Dr. Holyoke and Judge Wingate. According to the former of these gentlemen, who graduated in 1746, the “breakfast was two sizings of bread and a cue of beer”; and “evening commons were a pye.” The latter, who graduated thirteen years after, says: “As to the commons, there were in the morning none while I was in College. At dinner, we had, of rather ordinary quality, a sufficiency of meat of some kind, either baked or boiled; and at supper, we had either a pint of milk and half a biscuit, or a meat pye of some other kind. Such were the commons in the hall in my day. They were rather ordinary; but I was young and hearty, and could live comfortably upon them. I had some classmates who paid for their commons and never entered the hall while they belonged to the College. We were allowed at dinner a cue of beer, which was a half-pint, and a sizing of bread, which I cannot describe to you. It was quite sufficient for one dinner.” By a vote of the Corporation in 1750, a law was passed, declaring “that the quantity of commons be as hath been usual, viz. two sizes of bread in the morning; one pound of meat at dinner, with sufficient sauce” (vegetables), “and a half a pint of beer; and at night that a part pie be of the same quantity as usual, and also half a pint of beer; and that the supper messes be but of four parts, though the dinner messes be of six.” This agrees in substance with the accounts given above. The consequence of such diet was, “that the sons of the rich,” says Mr. Quincy, “accustomed to better fare, paid for commons, which they would not eat, and never entered the hall; while the students whose resources did not admit of such an evasion were perpetually dissatisfied.”
About ten years after, another law was made, “to restrain scholars from breakfasting in the houses of town’s people,” and provision was made “for their being accommodated with breakfast in the hall, either milk, chocolate, tea, or coffee, as they should respectively choose.” They were allowed, however, to provide themselves with breakfasts in their own chambers, but not to breakfast in one another’s chambers. From this period breakfast was as regularly provided in commons as dinner, but it was not until about the year 1807 that an evening meal was also regularly provided.
In the year 1765, after the erection of Hollis Hall, the accommodations for students within the walls were greatly enlarged; and the inconvenience being thus removed which those had experienced who, living out of the College buildings, were compelled to eat in commons, a system of laws was passed, by which all who occupied rooms within the College walls were compelled to board constantly in common, “the officers to be exempted only by the Corporation, with the consent of the Overseers; the students by the President only when they were about to be absent for at least one week.” Scarcely a year had passed under this new régime “before,” says Quincy, “an open revolt of the students took place on account of the provisions, which it took more than a month to quell.” “Although,” he continues, “their proceedings were violent, illegal, and insulting, yet the records of the immediate government show unquestionably, that the disturbances, in their origin, were not wholly without cause, and that they were aggravated by want of early attention to very natural and reasonable complaints.”
During the war of the American Revolution, the difficulty of providing satisfactory commons was extreme, as may be seen from the following vote of the Corporation, passed Aug. 11th, 1777.
“Whereas by law 9th of Chap. VI. it is provided, ‘that there shall always be chocolate, tea, coffee, and milk for breakfast, with bread and biscuit and butter,’ and whereas the foreign articles above mentioned are now not to be procured without great difficulty, and at a very exorbitant price; therefore, that the charge of commons may be kept as low as possible,—
“Voted, That the Steward shall provide at the common charge only bread or biscuit and milk for breakfast; and, if any of the scholars choose tea, coffee, or chocolate for breakfast, they shall procure those articles for themselves, and likewise the sugar and butter to be used with them; and if any scholars choose to have their milk boiled, or thickened with flour, if it may be had, or with meal, the Steward, having reasonable notice, shall provide it; and further, as salt fish alone is appointed by the aforesaid law for the dinner on Saturdays, and this article is now risen to a very high price, and through the scarcity of salt will probably be higher, the Steward shall not be obliged to provide salt fish, but shall procure fresh fish as often as he can.”—Quincy’s Hist. Harv. Univ., Vol. II. p. 541.
Many of the facts in the following account of commons prior to, and immediately succeeding, the year 1800, have been furnished by Mr. Royal Morse of Cambridge.
The hall where the students took their meals was usually provided with ten tables; at each table were placed two messes, and each mess consisted of eight persons. The tables where the Tutors and Seniors sat were raised eighteen or twenty inches, so as to overlook the rest. It was the duty of one of the Tutors or of the Librarian to “ask a blessing and return thanks,” and in their absence, the duty devolved on “the senior graduate or undergraduate.” The waiters were students, chosen from the different classes, and receiving for their services suitable compensation. Each table was waited on by members of the class which occupied it, with the exception of the Tutor’s table, at which members of the Senior Class served. Unlike the sizars and servitors at the English universities, the waiters were usually much respected, and were in many cases the best scholars in their respective classes.
The breakfast consisted of a specified quantity of coffee, a size of baker’s biscuit, which was one biscuit, and a size of butter, which was about an ounce. If any one wished for more than was provided, he was obliged to size it, i.e. order from the kitchen or buttery, and this was charged as extra commons or sizings in the quarter-bill.
At dinner, every mess was served with eight pounds of meat, allowing a pound to each person. On Monday and Thursday the meat was boiled; these days were on this account commonly called “boiling days.” On the other days the meat was roasted; these were accordingly named “roasting days.” Two potatoes were allowed to each person, which he was obliged to pare for himself. On boiling days, pudding and cabbage were added to the bill of fare, and in their season, greens, either dandelion or the wild pea. Of bread, a size was the usual quantity apiece, at dinner. Cider was the common beverage, of which there was no stated allowance, but each could drink as much as he chose. It was brought, on in pewter quart cans, two to a mess, out of which they drank, passing them from mouth to mouth like the English wassail-bowl. The waiters replenished them as soon as they were emptied.
No regular supper was provided, but a bowl of milk, and a size of bread procured at the kitchen, supplied the place of the evening meal.
Respecting the arrangement of the students at table, before referred to, Professor Sidney Willard remarks: “The intercourse among students at meals was not casual or promiscuous. Generally, the students of the same class formed themselves into messes, as they were called, consisting each of eight members; and the length of one table was sufficient to seat two messes. A mess was a voluntary association of those who liked each other’s company; and each member had his own place. This arrangement was favorable for good order; and, where the members conducted themselves with propriety, their cheerful conversation, and even exuberant spirits and hilarity, if not too boisterous, were not unpleasant to that portion of the government who presided at the head table. But the arrangement afforded opportunities also for combining in factious plans and organizations, tending to disorders, which became infectious, and terminated unhappily for all concerned.”—Memories of Youth and Manhood, Vol. II. pp. 192, 193.
A writer in the New England Magazine, referring to the same period, says: “In commons, we fared as well as one half of us had been accustomed to at home. Our breakfast consisted of a good-sized biscuit of wheaten flour, with butter and coffee, chocolate, or milk, at our option. Our dinner was served up on dishes of pewter, and our drink, which was cider, in cans of the same material. For our suppers, we went with our bowls to the kitchen, and received our rations of milk, or chocolate, and bread, and returned with them to our rooms.”—Vol. III. p. 239.
Although much can be said in favor of the commons system, on account of its economy and its suitableness to health and study, yet these very circumstances which were its chief recommendation were the occasion also of all the odium which it had to encounter. “That simplicity,” says Peirce, “which makes the fare cheap, and wholesome, and philosophical, renders it also unsatisfactory to dainty palates; and the occasional appearance of some unlucky meat, or other food, is a signal for a general outcry against the provisions.” In the plain but emphatic words of one who was acquainted with the state of commons, as they once were at Harvard College, “the butter was sometimes so bad, that a farmer would not take it to grease his cart-wheels with.” It was the usual practice of the Steward, when veal was cheap, to furnish it to the students three, four, and sometimes five times in the week; the same with reference to other meats when they could be bought at a low price, and especially with lamb. The students, after eating this latter kind of meat for five or six successive weeks would often assemble before the Steward’s house, and, as if their natures had been changed by their diet, would bleat and blatter until he was fain to promise them a change of food, upon which they would separate until a recurrence of the same evil compelled them to the same measures.
The annexed account of commons at Yale College, in former times, is given by President Woolsey, in his Historical Discourse, pronounced at New Haven, August 14th, 1850.
“At first, a college without common meals was hardly conceived of; and, indeed, if we trace back the history of college as they grew up at Paris, nothing is more of their essence than that students lived and ate together in a kind of conventual system. No doubt, also, when the town of New Haven was smaller, it was far more difficult to find desirable places for boarding than at present. But however necessary, the Steward’s department was always beset with difficulties and exposed to complaints which most gentlemen present can readily understand. The following rations of commons, voted by the Trustees in 1742, will show the state of college fare at that time. ‘Ordered, that the Steward shall provide the commons for the scholars as follows, viz.: For breakfast, one loaf of bread for four, which [the dough] shall weigh one pound. For dinner for four, one loaf of bread as aforesaid, two and a half pounds beef, veal, or mutton, or one and three quarter pounds salt pork about twice a week in the summer time, one quart of beer, two pennyworth of sauce [vegetables]. For supper for four, two quarts of milk and one loaf of bread, when milk can conveniently be had, and when it cannot, then apple-pie, which shall be made of one and three fourth pounds dough, one quarter pound hog’s fat, two ounces sugar, and half a peck apples.’ In 1759 we find, from a vote prohibiting the practice, that beer had become one of the articles allowed for the evening meal. Soon after this, the evening meal was discontinued, and, as is now the case in the English colleges, the students had supper in their own rooms, which led to extravagance and disorder. In the Revolutionary war the Steward was quite unable once or twice to provide food for the College, and this, as has already appeared, led to the dispersion of the students in 1776 and 1777, and once again in 1779 delayed the beginning of the winter term several weeks. Since that time, nothing peculiar has occurred with regard to commons, and they continued with all their evils of coarse manners and wastefulness for sixty years. The conviction, meanwhile, was increasing, that they were no essential part of the College, that on the score of economy they could claim no advantage, that they degraded the manners of students and fomented disorder. The experiment of suppressing them has hitherto been only a successful one. No one, who can retain a lively remembrance of the commons and the manners as they were both before and since the building of the new hall in 1819, will wonder that this resolution was adopted by the authorities of the College.”—pp. 70-72.
The regulations which obtained at meal-time in commons were at one period in these words: “The waiters in the hall, appointed by the President, are to put the victuals on the tables spread with decent linen cloths, which are to be washed every week by the Steward’s procurement, and the Tutors, or some of the senior scholars present, are to ask a blessing on the food, and to return thanks. All the scholars at mealtime are required to behave themselves decently and gravely, and abstain from loud talking. No victuals, platters, cups, &c. may be carried out of the hall, unless in case of sickness, and with liberty from one of the Tutors. Nor may any scholar go out before thanks are returned. And when dinner is over, the waiters are to carry the platters and cloths back into the kitchen. And if any one shall offend in either of these things, or carry away anything belonging to the hall without leave, he shall be fined sixpence.”—Laws of Yale Coll., 1774, p. 19.
From a little work by a graduate at Yale College of the class of 1821, the accompanying remarks, referring to the system of commons as generally understood, are extracted.
“The practice of boarding the students in commons was adopted by our colleges, naturally, and perhaps without reflection, from the old universities of Europe, and particularly from those of England. At first those universities were without buildings, either for board or lodging; being merely rendezvous for such as wished to pursue study. The students lodged at inns, or at private houses, defraying out of their own pockets, and in their own way, all charges for board and education. After a while, in consequence of the exorbitant demands of landlords, halls were built, and common tables furnished, to relieve them from such exactions. Colleges, with chambers for study and lodging, were erected for a like reason. Being founded, in many cases, by private munificence, for the benefit of indigent students, they naturally included in their economy both lodging-rooms and board. There was also a police reason for the measure. It was thought that the students could be better regulated as to their manners and behavior, being brought together under the eye of supervisors.”
Omitting a few paragraphs, we come to a more particular account of some of the jocose scenes which resulted from the commons system as once developed at Yale College.
“The Tutors, who were seated at raised tables, could not, with all their vigilance, see all that passed, and they winked at much they did see. Boiled potatoes, pieces of bread, whole loaves, balls of butter, dishes, would be flung back and forth, especially between Sophomores and Freshmen; and you were never sure, in raising a cup to your lips, that it would not be dashed out of your hands, and the contents spilt upon your clothes, by one of these flying articles slyly sent at random. Whatever damage was done was averaged on our term-bills; and I remember a charge of six hundred tumblers, thirty coffee-pots, and I know not how many other articles of table furniture, destroyed or carried off in a single term. Speaking of tumblers, it may be mentioned as an instance of the progress of luxury, even there, that down to about 1815 such a thing was not known, the drinking-vessels at dinner being capacious pewter mugs, each table being furnished with two. We were at one time a good deal incommoded by the diminutive size of the milk-pitchers, which were all the while empty and gone for more. A waiter mentioned, for our patience, that, when these were used up, a larger size would be provided. ‘O, if that’s the case, the remedy is easy.’ Accordingly the hint was passed through the room, the offending pitchers were slyly placed upon the floor, and, as we rose from the tables, were crushed under foot. The next morning the new set appeared. One of the classes being tired of lamb, lamb, lamb, wretchedly cooked, during the season of it, expressed their dissatisfaction by entering the hall bleating; no notice of which being taken, a day or two after they entered in advance of the Tutors, and cleared the tables of it, throwing it out of the windows, platters and all, and immediately retired.
“In truth, not much could be said in commendation of our Alma Mater’s table. A worse diet for sedentary men than that we had during the last days of the old hall, now the laboratory, cannot be imagined. I will not go into particulars, for I hate to talk about food. It was absolutely destructive of health. I know it to have ruined, permanently, the health of some, and I have not the least doubt of its having occasioned, in certain instances which I could specify, incurable debility and premature death.”—Scenes and Characters in College, New Haven, 1847, pp. 113-117.
See INVALID’S TABLE. SLUM.
That the commons at Dartmouth College were at times of a quality which would not be called the best, appears from the annexed paragraph, written in the year 1774. “He [Eleazer Wheelock, President of the College] has had the mortification to lose two cows, and the rest were greatly hurt by a contagious distemper, so that they could not have a full supply of milk; and once the pickle leaked out of the beef-barrel, so that the meat was not sweet. He had also been ill-used with respect to the purchase of some wheat, so that they had smutty bread for a while, &c. The scholars, on the other hand, say they scarce ever have anything but pork and greens, without vinegar, and pork and potatoes; that fresh meat comes but very seldom, and that the victuals are very badly dressed.”—Life of Jeremy Belknap, D.D., pp. 68, 69.
The above account of commons applies generally to the system as it was carried out in the other colleges in the United States. In almost every college, commons have been abolished, and with them have departed the discords, dissatisfactions, and open revolts, of which they were so often the cause.
See BEVER.
COMMORANTES IN VILLA. Latin; literally, those abiding in town. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., the designation of Masters of Arts, and others of higher degree, who, residing within the precincts of the University, enjoy the privilege of being members of the Senate, without keeping their names on the college boards. —Gradus ad Cantab.
To have a vote in the Senate, the graduate must keep his name on the books of some college, or on the list of the commorantes in villâ.—Lit. World, Vol. XII. p. 283.
COMPOSITION. At the University of Cambridge, Eng., translating English into Greek or Latin is called composition.—Bristed.
In composition and cram I was yet untried.—Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 34.
You will have to turn English prose into Greek and Latin prose, English verse into Greek Iambic Trimeters, and part of some chorus in the Agamemnon into Latin, and possibly also into English verse. This is the “composition,” and is to be done, remember, without the help of books or any other assistance.—Ibid., p. 68.
The term Composition seems in itself to imply that the translation is something more than a translation.—Ibid., p. 185.
Writing a Latin Theme, or original Latin verses, is designated Original Composition.—Bristed.
COMPOSUIST. A writer; composer. “This extraordinary word,” says Mr. Pickering, in his Vocabulary, “has been much used at some of our colleges, but very seldom elsewhere. It is now rarely heard among us. A correspondent observes, that ’it is used in England among musicians.’ I have never met with it in any English publications upon the subject of music.”
The word is not found, I believe, in any dictionary of the English tongue.
COMPOUNDER. One at a university who pays extraordinary fees, according to his means, for the degree he is to take. A Grand Compounder pays double fees. See the Customs and Laws of Univ. of Cam., Eng., p. 297.
CONCIO AD CLERUM. A sermon to the clergy. In the English universities, an exercise or Latin sermon, which is required of every candidate for the degree of D.D. Used sometimes in America.
In the evening the “concio ad clerum” will be preached.—Yale Lit. Mag., Vol. XII. p. 426.
CONDITION. A student on being examined for admission to college, if found deficient in certain studies, is admitted on condition he will make up the deficiency, if it is believed on the whole that he is capable of pursuing the studies of the class for which he is offered. The branches in which he is deficient are called conditions.
Talks of Bacchus and tobacco, short sixes, sines, transitions,
And Alma Mater takes him in on ten or twelve conditions.
Poem before Y.H. Soc., Harv. Coll.
Praying his guardian powers
To assist a poor Sub Fresh at the dread Examination,
And free from all conditions to insure his first vacation.
Poem before Iadma of Harv. Coll.
CONDITION. To admit a student as member of a college, who on being examined has been found deficient in some particular, the provision of his admission being that he will make up the deficiency.
A young man shall come down to college from New Hampshire, with no preparation save that of a country winter-school, shall be examined and “conditioned” in everything, and yet he shall come out far ahead of his city Latin-school classmate.—A Letter to a Young Man who has just entered College, 1849, p. 8.
They find themselves conditioned on the studies of the term, and not very generally respected.—Harvard Mag., Vol. I. p. 415.
CONDUCT. The title of two clergymen appointed to read prayers at Eton College, in England.—Mason. Webster.
CONFESSION. It was formerly the custom in the older American colleges, when a student had rendered himself obnoxious to punishment, provided the crime was not of an aggravated nature, to pardon and restore him to his place in the class, on his presenting a confession of his fault, to be read publicly in the hall. The Diary of President Leverett, of Harvard College, under date of the 20th of March, 1714, contains an interesting account of the confession of Larnel, an Indian student belonging to the Junior Sophister class, who had been guilty of some offence for which he had been dismissed from college.
“He remained,” says Mr. Leverett, “a considerable time at Boston, in a state of penance. He presented his confession to Mr. Pemberton, who thereupon became his intercessor, and in his letter to the President expresses himself thus: ‘This comes by Larnel, who brings a confession as good as Austin’s, and I am charitably disposed to hope it flows from a like spirit of penitence.’ In the public reading of his confession, the flowing of his passions was extraordinarily timed, and his expressions accented, and most peculiarly and emphatically those of the grace of God to him; which indeed did give a peculiar grace to the performance itself, and raised, I believe, a charity in some that had very little I am sure, and ratified wonderfully that which I had conceived of him. Having made his public confession, he was restored to his standing in the College.”—Quincy’s Hist. Harv. Univ., Vol. I. pp. 443, 444.
CONGREGATION. At Oxford, the house of congregation is one of the two assemblies in which the business of the University, as such, is carried on. In this house the Chancellor, or his vicar the Vice-Chancellor, or in his absence one of his four deputies, termed Pro-Vice-Chancellors, and the two Proctors, either by themselves or their deputies, always preside. The members of this body are regents, “either regents ‘necessary’ or ‘ad placitum,’ that is, on the one hand, all doctors and masters of arts, during the first year of their degree; and on the other, all those who have gone through the year of their necessary regency, and which includes all resident doctors, heads of colleges and halls, professors and public lecturers, public examiners, masters of the schools, or examiners for responsions or ’little go,’ deans and censors of colleges, and all other M.A.’s during the second year of their regency.” The business of the house of congregation, which may be regarded as the oligarchical body, is chiefly to grant degrees, and pass graces and dispensations.—Oxford Guide.
CONSERVATOR. An officer who has the charge of preserving the rights and privileges of a city, corporation, or community, as in Roman Catholic universities.—Webster.
CONSILIUM ABEUNDI. Latin; freely, the decree of departure. In German universities, the consilium abeundi “consists in expulsion out of the district of the court of justice within which the university is situated. This punishment lasts a year; after the expiration of which, the banished student can renew his matriculation.”—Howitt’s Student Life of Germany, Am. ed., p. 33.
CONSISTORY COURT. In the University of Cambridge, England, there is a consistory court of the Chancellor and of the Commissary. “For the former,” says the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, “the Chancellor, and in his absence the Vice-Chancellor, assisted by some of the heads of houses, and one or more doctors of the civil law, administers justice desired by any member of the University, &c. In the latter, the Commissary acts by authority given him under the seal of the Chancellor, as well in the University as at Stourbridge and Midsummer fairs, and takes cognizance of all offences, &c. The proceedings are the same in both courts.”
CONSTITUTIONAL. Among students at the University of Cambridge, Eng., a walk for exercise.
The gallop over Bullington, and the “constitutional” up Headington.—Lond. Quart. Rev., Am. ed., Vol. LXXIII. p. 53.
Instead of boots he [the Cantab] wears easy low-heeled shoes, for greater convenience in fence and ditch jumping, and other feats of extempore gymnastics which diversify his “constitutionals”.—Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 4.
Even the mild walks which are dignified with the name of exercise there, how unlike the Cantab’s constitutional of eight miles in less than two hours.—Ibid., p. 45.
Lucky is the man who lives a mile off from his private tutor, or has rooms ten minutes’ walk from chapel: he is sure of that much constitutional daily.—Ibid., p. 224.
“Constitutionals” of eight miles in less than two hours, varied with jumping hedges, ditches, and gates; “pulling” on the river, cricket, football, riding twelve miles without drawing bridle,… are what he understands by his two hours’ exercise.—Ibid., p. 328.
CONSTITUTIONALIZING. Walking.
The most usual mode of exercise is walking,—constitutionalizing is the Cantab for it.—Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 19.
CONVENTION. In the University of Cambridge, England, a court consisting of the Master and Fellows of a college, who sit in the Combination Room, and pass sentence on any young offender against the laws of soberness and chastity.—Gradus ad Cantabrigiam.
CONVICTOR. Latin, a familiar acquaintance. In the University of Oxford, those are called convictores who, although not belonging to the foundation of any college or hall, have at any time been regents, and have constantly kept their names on the books of some college or hall, from the time of their admission to the degree of M.A., or Doctors in either of the three faculties.—Oxf. Cal.
CONVOCATION. At Oxford, the house of convocation is one of the two assemblies in which the business of the University, as such, is transacted. It consists both of regents and non-regents, “that is, in brief, all masters of arts not ‘honorary,’ or ’ad eundems’ from Cambridge or Dublin, and of course graduates of a higher order.” In this house, the Chancellor, or his vicar the Vice-Chancellor, or in his absence one of his four deputies, termed Pro-Vice-Chancellors, and the two Proctors, either by themselves or their deputies, always preside. The business of this assembly—which may be considered as the house of commons, excepting that the lords have a vote here equally as in their own upper house, i.e. the house of congregation—is unlimited, extending to all subjects connected with the well-being of the University, including the election of Chancellor, members of Parliament, and many of the officers of the University, the conferring of extraordinary degrees, and the disposal of the University ecclesiastical patronage. It has no initiative power, this resting solely with the hebdomadal board, but it can debate, and accept or refuse, the measures which originate in that board.—Oxford Guide. Literary World, Vol. XII. p. 223.
In the University of Cambridge, England, an assembly of the Senate out of term time is called a convocation. In such a case a grace is immediately passed to convert the convocation into a congregation, after which the business proceeds as usual.—Cam. Cal.
2. At Trinity College, Hartford, the house of convocation consists of the Fellows and Professors, with all persons who have received any academic degree whatever in the same, except such as may be lawfully deprived of their privileges. Its business is such as may from time to time be delegated by the Corporation, from which it derives its existence; and is, at present, limited to consulting and advising for the good of the College, nominating the Junior Fellows, and all candidates for admissions ad eundem; making laws for its own regulation; proposing plans, measures, or counsel to the Corporation; and to instituting, endowing, and naming with concurrence of the same, professorships, scholarships, prizes, medals, and the like. This and the Corporation compose the Senatus Academicus.—Calendar Trin. Coll., 1850, pp. 6, 7.
COPE. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., the ermined robe worn by a Doctor in the Senate House, on Congregation Day, is called a cope.
COPUS. “Of mighty ale, a large quarte.”—Chaucer.
The word copus and the beverage itself are both extensively used among the men of the University of Cambridge, England. “The conjecture,” says the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, “is surely ridiculous and senseless, that Copus is contracted from Episcopus, a bishop, ‘a mixture of wine, oranges, and sugar.’ A copus of ale is a common fine at the student’s table in hall for speaking Latin, or for some similar impropriety.”
COPY. At Cambridge, Eng., this word is applied exclusively to papers of verse composition. It is a public-school term transplanted to the University.—Bristed.
CORK, CALK. In some of the Southern colleges, this word, with a derived meaning, signifies a complete stopper. Used in the sense of an entire failure in reciting; an utter inability to answer an instructor’s interrogatories.
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. In the older American colleges, corporal punishment was formerly sanctioned by law, and several instances remain on record which show that its infliction was not of rare occurrence.
Among the laws, rules, and scholastic forms established between the years 1642 and 1646, by Mr. Dunster, the first President of Harvard College, occurs the following: “Siquis scholarium ullam Dei et hujus Collegii legem, sive animo perverso, seu ex supinâ negligentiâ, violârit, postquam fuerit bis admonitus, si non adultus, virgis coërceatur, sin adultus, ad Inspectores Collegii deferendus erit, ut publicè in eum pro merítis animadversio fiat.” In the year 1656, this law was strengthened by another, recorded by Quincy, in these words: “It is hereby ordered that the President and Fellows of Harvard College, for the time being, or the major part of them, are hereby empowered, according to their best discretion, to punish all misdemeanors of the youth in their society, either by fine, or whipping in the Hall openly, as the nature of the offence shall require, not exceeding ten shillings or ten stripes for one offence; and this law to continue in force until this Court or the Overseers of the College provide some other order to punish such offences.”—Quincy’s Hist. Harv. Univ., Vol. I. pp. 578, 513.
A knowledge of the existence of such laws as the above is in some measure a preparation for the following relation given by Mr. Peirce in his History of Harvard University.
“At the period when Harvard College was founded,” says that gentleman, “one of the modes of punishment in the great schools of England and other parts of Europe was corporal chastisement. It was accordingly introduced here, and was, no doubt, frequently put in practice. An instance of its infliction, as part of the sentence upon an offender, is presented in Judge Sewall’s MS. Diary, with the particulars of a ceremonial, which was reserved probably for special occasions. His account will afford some idea of the manners and spirit of the age:—
“‘June 15, 1674, Thomas Sargeant was examined by the Corporation finally. The advice of Mr. Danforth, Mr. Stoughton, Mr. Thacher, Mr. Mather (the present), was taken. This was his sentence:
“‘That being convicted of speaking blasphemous words concerning the H.G., he should be therefore publickly whipped before all the scholars.
“‘2. That he should be suspended as to taking his degree of Bachelor. (This sentence read before him twice at the President’s before the Committee and in the Library, before execution.)
“‘3. Sit alone by himself in the Hall uncovered at meals, during the pleasure of the President and Fellows, and be in all things obedient, doing what exercise was appointed him by the President, or else be finally expelled the College. The first was presently put in execution in the Library (Mr. Danforth, Jr. being present) before the scholars. He kneeled down, and the instrument, Goodman Hely, attended the President’s word as to the performance of his part in the work. Prayer was had before and after by the President, July 1, 1674.’”
“Men’s ideas,” continues Mr. Peirce, “must have been very different from those of the present day, to have tolerated a law authorizing so degrading a treatment of the members of such a society. It may easily be imagined what complaints and uneasiness its execution must frequently have occasioned among the friends and connections of those who were the subjects of it. In one instance, it even occasioned the prosecution of a Tutor; but this was as late as 1733, when old rudeness had lost much of the people’s reverence. The law, however, was suffered, with some modification, to continue more than a century. In the revised body of Laws made in the year 1734, we find this article: ‘Notwithstanding the preceding pecuniary mulcts, it shall be lawful for the President, Tutors, and Professors, to punish Undergraduates by Boxing, when they shall judge the nature or circumstances of the offence call for it.’ This relic of barbarism, however, was growing more and more repugnant to the general taste and sentiment. The late venerable Dr. Holyoke, who was of the class of 1746, observed, that in his day ‘corporal punishment was going out of use’; and at length it was expunged from the code, never, we trust, to be recalled from the rubbish of past absurdities.”—pp. 227, 228.
The last movements which were made in reference to corporal punishment are thus stated by President Quincy, in his History of Harvard University. “In July, 1755, the Overseers voted, that it [the right of boxing] should be ‘taken away.’ The Corporation, however, probably regarded it as too important an instrument of authority to be for ever abandoned, and voted, ‘that it should be suspended, as to the execution of it, for one year.’ When this vote came before the Overseers for their sanction, the board hesitated, and appointed a large committee ‘to consider and make report what punishments they apprehend proper to be substituted instead of boxing, in case it be thought expedient to repeal or suspend the law which allows or establishes the same.’ From this period the law disappeared, and the practice was discontinued.”—Vol. II. p. 134.
The manner in which corporal punishment was formerly inflicted at Yale College is stated by President Woolsey, in his Historical Discourse, delivered at New Haven, August, 1850. After speaking of the methods of punishing by fines and degradation, he thus proceeds to this topic: “There was a still more remarkable punishment, as it must strike the men of our times, and which, although for some reason or other no traces of it exist in any of our laws so far as I have discovered, was in accordance with the ‘good old plan,’ pursued probably ever since the origin of universities. I refer—’horresco referens’—to the punishment of boxing or cuffing. It was applied before the Faculty to the luckless offender by the President, towards whom the culprit, in a standing position, inclined his head, while blows fell in quick succession upon either ear. No one seems to have been served in this way except Freshmen and commencing ‘Sophimores.’12 I do not find evidence that this usage much survived the first jubilee of the College. One of the few known instances of it, which is on other accounts remarkable, was as follows. A student in the first quarter of his Sophomore year, having committed an offence for which he had been boxed when a Freshman, was ordered to be boxed again, and to have the additional penalty of acting as butler’s waiter for one week. On presenting himself, more academico, for the purpose of having his ears boxed, and while the blow was falling, he dodged and fled from the room and the College. The beadle was thereupon ordered to try to find him, and to command him to keep himself out of College and out of the yard, and to appear at prayers the next evening, there to receive further orders. He was then publicly admonished and suspended; but in four days after submitted to the punishment adjudged, which was accordingly inflicted, and upon his public confession his suspension was taken off. Such public confessions, now unknown, were then exceedingly common.”
After referring to the instance mentioned above, in which corporal punishment was inflicted at Harvard College, the author speaks as follows, in reference to the same subject, as connected with the English universities. “The excerpts from the body of Oxford statutes, printed in the very year when this College was founded, threaten corporal punishment to persons of the proper age,—that is, below the age of eighteen,—for a variety of offences; and among the rest for disrespect to Seniors, for frequenting places where ‘vinum aut quivis alius potus aut herba Nicotiana ordinarie venditur,’ for coming home to their rooms after the great Tom or bell of Christ’s Church had sounded, and for playing football within the University precincts or in the city streets. But the statutes of Trinity College, Cambridge, contain more remarkable rules, which are in theory still valid, although obsolete in fact. All the scholars, it is there said, who are absent from prayers,—Bachelors excepted,—if over eighteen years of age, ‘shall be fined a half-penny, but if they have not completed the year of their age above mentioned, they shall be chastised with rods in the hall on Friday.’ At this chastisement all undergraduates were required to be lookers on, the Dean having the rod of punishment in his hand; and it was provided also, that whosoever should not answer to his name on this occasion, if a boy, should be flogged on Saturday. No doubt this rigor towards the younger members of the society was handed down from the monastic forms which education took in the earlier schools of the Middle Ages. And an advance in the age of admission, as well as a change in the tone of treatment of the young, may account for this system being laid aside at the universities; although, as is well known, it continues to flourish at the great public schools of England.”—pp. 49-51.
CORPORATION. The general government of colleges and universities is usually vested in a corporation aggregate, which is preserved by a succession of members. “The President and Fellows of Harvard College,” says Mr. Quincy in his History of Harvard University, “being the only Corporation in the Province, and so continuing during the whole of the seventeenth century, they early assumed, and had by common usage conceded to them, the name of “The Corporation,” by which they designate themselves in all the early records. Their proceedings are recorded as being done ‘at a meeting of the Corporation,’ or introduced by the formula, ‘It is ordered by the Corporation,’ without stating the number or the names of the members present, until April 19th, 1675, when, under President Oakes, the names of those present were first entered on the records, and afterwards they were frequently, though not uniformly, inserted.”—Vol. I. p. 274.
2. At Trinity College, Hartford, the Corporation, on which the House of Convocation is wholly dependent, and to which, by law, belongs the supreme control of the College, consists of not more than twenty-four Trustees, resident within the State of Connecticut; the Chancellor and President of the College being ex officio members, and the Chancellor being ex officio President of the same. They have authority to fill their own vacancies; to appoint to offices and professorships; to direct and manage the funds for the good of the College; and, in general, to exercise the powers of a collegiate society, according to the provisions of the charter.—Calendar Trin. Coll., 1850, p. 6.
COSTUME. At the English universities there are few objects that attract the attention of the stranger more than the various academical dresses worn by the members of those institutions. The following description of the various costumes assumed in the University of Cambridge is taken from “The Cambridge Guide,” Ed. 1845.
“A Doctor in Divinity has three robes: the first, a gown made of scarlet cloth, with ample sleeves terminating in a point, and lined with rose-colored silk, which is worn in public processions, and on all state and festival days;—the second is the cope, worn at Great St. Mary’s during the service on Litany-days, in the Divinity Schools during an Act, and at Conciones ad Clerum; it is made of scarlet cloth, and completely envelops the person, being closed down the front, which is trimmed with an edging of ermine; at the back of it is affixed a hood of the same costly fur;—the third is a gown made of black silk or poplin, with full, round sleeves, and is the habit commonly worn in public by a D.D.; Doctors, however, sometimes wear a Master of Arts’ gown, with a silk scarf. These several dresses are put over a black silk cassock, which covers the entire body, around which it is fastened by a broad sash, and has sleeves coming down to the wrists, like a coat. A handsome scarf of the same materials, which hangs over the shoulders, and extends to the feet, is always worn with the scarlet and black gowns. A square black cloth cap, with silk tassel, completes the costume.
“Doctors in the Civil Law and in Physic have two robes: the first is the scarlet gown, as just described, and the second, or ordinary dress of a D.C.L., is a black silk gown, with a plain square collar, the sleeves hanging down square to the feet;—the ordinary gown of an M.D. is of the same shape, but trimmed at the collar, sleeves, and front with rich black silk lace.
“A Doctor in Music commonly wears the same dress as a D.C.L.; but on festival and scarlet-days is arrayed in a gown made of rich white damask silk, with sleeves and facings of rose-color, a hood of the same, and a round black velvet cap with gold tassel.
“Bachelors in Divinity and Masters of Arts wear a black gown, made of bombazine, poplin, or silk. It has sleeves extending to the feet, with apertures for the arms just above the elbow, and may be distinguished by the shape of the sleeves, which hang down square, and are cut out at the bottom like the section of a horseshoe.
“Bachelors in the Civil Law and in Physic wear a gown of the same shape as that of a Master of Arts.
“All Graduates of the above ranks are entitled to wear a hat, instead of the square black cloth cap, with their gowns, and the custom of doing so is generally adopted, except by the HEADS, Tutors, and University and College Officers, who consider it more correct to appear in the full academical costume.
“A Bachelor of Arts’ gown is made of bombazine or poplin, with large sleeves terminating in a point, with apertures for the arms, just below the shoulder-joint.13 Bachelor Fellow-Commoners usually wear silk gowns, and square velvet caps. The caps of other Bachelors are of cloth.
“All the above, being Graduates, when they use surplices in chapel wear over them their hoods, which are peculiar to the several degrees. The hoods of Doctors are made of scarlet cloth, lined with rose-colored silk; those of Bachelors in Divinity, and Non-Regent Masters of Arts, are of black silk; those of Regent Masters of Arts and Bachelors in the Civil Law and in Physic, of black silk lined with white; and those of Bachelors of Arts, of black serge, trimmed with a border of white lamb’s-wool.
“The dresses of the Undergraduates are the following:—
“A Nobleman has two gowns: the first in shape like that of the Fellow-Commoners, is made of purple Ducape, very richly embroidered with gold lace, and is worn in public processions, and on festival-days: a square black velvet cap with a very large gold tassel is worn with it;—the second, or ordinary gown, is made of black silk, with full round sleeves, and a hat is worn with it. The latter dress is worn also by the Bachelor Fellows of King’s College.
“A Fellow-Commoner wears a black prince’s stuff gown, with a square collar, and straight hanging sleeves, which are decorated with gold lace; and a square black velvet cap with a gold tassel.
“The Fellow-Commoners of Emmanuel College wear a similar gown, with the addition of several gold-lace buttons attached to the trimmings on the sleeves;—those of Trinity College have a purple prince’s stuff gown, adorned with silver lace,14 and a silver tassel is attached to the cap;—at Downing the gown is made of black silk, of the same shape, ornamented with tufts and silk lace; and a square cap of velvet with a gold tassel is worn. At Jesus College, a Bachelor’s silk gown is worn, plaited up at the sleeve, and with a gold lace from the shoulder to the bend of the arm. At Queen’s a Bachelor’s silk gown, with a velvet cap and gold tassel, is worn: the same at Corpus and Magdalene; at the latter it is gathered and looped up at the sleeve,—at the former (Corpus) it has velvet facings. Married Fellow-Commoners usually wear a black silk gown, with full, round sleeves, and a square velvet cap with silk tassel.15
“The Pensioner’s gown and cap are mostly of the same material and shape as those of the Bachelor’s: the gown differs only in the mode of trimming. At Trinity and Caius Colleges the gown is purple, with large sleeves, terminating in a point. At St. Peter’s and Queen’s, the gown is precisely the same as that of a Bachelor; and at King’s, the same, but made of fine black woollen cloth. At Corpus Christi is worn a B.A. gown, with black velvet facings. At Downing and Trinity Hall the gown is made of black bombazine, with large sleeves, looped up at the elbows.16
“Students in the Civil Law and in Physic, who have kept their Acts, wear a full-sleeved gown, and are entitled to use a B.A. hood.
“Bachelors of Arts and Undergraduates are obliged by the statutes to wear their academical costume constantly in public, under a penalty of 6s. 8d. for every omission.17
“Very few of the University Officers have distinctive dresses.
“The Chancellor’s gown is of black damask silk, very richly embroidered with gold. It is worn with a broad, rich lace band, and square velvet cap with large gold tassel.
“The Vice-Chancellor dresses merely as a Doctor, except at Congregations in the Senate-House, when he wears a cope. When proceeding to St. Mary’s, or elsewhere, in his official capacity, he is preceded by the three Esquire-Bedells with their silver maces, which were the gift of Queen Elizabeth.
“The Regius Professors of the Civil Law and of Physic, when they preside at Acts in the Schools, wear copes, and round black velvet caps with gold tassels.
“The Proctors are not distinguishable from other Masters of Arts, except at St. Mary’s Church and at Congregations, when they wear cassocks and black silk ruffs, and carry the Statutes of the University, being attended by two servants, dressed in large blue cloaks, ornamented with gold-lace buttons.
“The Yeoman-Bedell, in processions, precedes the Esquire-Bedells, carrying an ebony mace, tipped with silver; his gown, as well as those of the Marshal and School-Keeper, is made of black prince’s stuff, with square collar, and square hanging sleeves.”—pp. 28-33.
At the University of Oxford, Eng., the costume of the Graduates is as follows:—
“The Doctor in Divinity has three dresses: the first consists of a gown of scarlet cloth, with black velvet sleeves and facings, a cassock, sash, and scarf. This dress is worn on all public occasions in the Theatre, in public processions, and on those Sundays and holidays marked (*) in the Oxford Calendar. The second is a habit of scarlet cloth, and a hood of the same color lined with black, and a black silk scarf: the Master of Arts’ gown is worn under this dress, the sleeves appearing through the arm-holes of the habit. This is the dress of business; it is used in Convocation, Congregation, at Morning Sermons at St. Mary’s during the term, and at Afternoon Sermons at St. Peter’s during Lent, with the exception of the Morning Sermon on Quinquagesima Sunday, and the Morning Sermons in Lent. The third, which is the usual dress in which a Doctor of Divinity appears, is a Master of Arts’ gown, with cassock, sash, and scarf. The Vice-Chancellor and Heads of Colleges and Halls have no distinguishing dress, but appear on all occasions as Doctors in the faculty to which they belong.
“The dresses worn by Graduates in Law and Physic are nearly the same. The Doctor has three. The first is a gown of scarlet cloth, with sleeves and facings of pink silk, and a round black velvet cap. This is the dress of state. The second consists of a habit and hood of scarlet cloth, the habit faced and the hood lined with pink silk. This habit, which is perfectly analogous to the second dress of the Doctor in Divinity, has lately grown into disuse; it is, however, retained by the Professors, and is always used in presenting to Degrees. The third or common dress of a Doctor in Law or Physic nearly resembles that of the Bachelor in these faculties; it is a black silk gown richly ornamented with black lace; the hood of the Bachelor of Laws (worn as a dress) is of purple silk, lined with white fur.
“The dress worn by the Doctor of Music on public occasions is a rich white damask silk gown, with sleeves and facings of crimson satin, a hood of the same material, and a round black velvet cap. The usual dresses of the Doctor and of the Bachelor in Music are nearly the same as those of Law and Physic.
“The Master of Arts wears a black gown, usually made of prince’s stuff or crape, with long sleeves which are remarkable for the circular cut at the bottom. The arm comes through an aperture in the sleeve, which hangs down. The hood of a Master of Arts is black silk lined with crimson.
“The gown of a Bachelor of Arts is also usually made of prince’s stuff or crape. It has a full sleeve, looped up at the elbow, and terminating in a point; the dress hood is black, trimmed with white fur. In Lent, at the time of determining in the Schools, a strip of lamb’s-wool is worn in addition to the hood. Noblemen and Gentlemen-Commoners, who take the Degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts, wear their gowns of silk.”
The costume of the Undergraduates is thus described:—
“The Nobleman has two dresses; the first, which is worn in the Theatre, in processions, and on all public occasions, is a gown of purple damask silk, richly ornamented with gold lace. The second is a black silk gown, with full sleeves; it has a tippet attached to the shoulders. With both these dresses is worn a square cap of black velvet, with a gold tassel.
“The Gentleman-Commoner has two gowns, both of black silk; the first, which is considered as a dress gown, although worn on all occasions, at pleasure, is richly ornamented with tassels. The second, or undress gown, is ornamented with plaits at the sleeves. A square black velvet cap with a silk tassel, is worn with both.
“The dress of Commoners is a gown of black prince’s stuff, without sleeves; from each shoulder is appended a broad strip, which reaches to the bottom of the dress, and towards the top is gathered into plaits. Square cap of black cloth and silk tassel.
“The student in Civil Law, or Civilian, wears a plain black silk gown, and square cloth cap, with silk tassel.
“Scholars and Demies of Magdalene, and students of Christ Church who have not taken a degree, wear a plain black gown of prince’s stuff, with round, full sleeves half the length of the gown, and a square black cap, with silk tassel.
“The dress of the Servitor is the same as that of the Commoner, but it has no plaits at the shoulder, and the cap is without a tassel.”
The costume of those among the University Officers who are distinguished by their dress, may be thus noted:—
“The dress of the Chancellor is of black damask silk, richly ornamented with gold embroidery, a rich lace band, and square velvet cap, with a large gold tassel.
“The Proctors wear gowns of prince’s stuff, the sleeves and facings of black velvet; to the left shoulder is affixed a small tippet. To this is added, as a dress, a large ermine hood.
“The Pro-Proctor wears a Master of Arts’ gown, faced with velvet, with a tippet attached to the left shoulder.”
The Collectors wear the same dress as the Proctors, with the exception of the hood and tippet.
The Esquire Bedels wear silk gowns, similar to those of Bachelors of Law, and round velvet caps. The Yeoman Bedels have black stuff gowns, and round silk caps.
The dress of the Verger is nearly the same as that of the Yeoman Bedel.
“Bands at the neck are considered as necessary appendages to the academic dress, particularly on all public occasions.”—Guide to Oxford.
See DRESS.
COURTS. At the English universities, the squares or acres into which each college is divided. Called also quadrangles, abbreviated quads.
All the colleges are constructed in quadrangles or courts; and, as in course of years the population of every college, except one,18 has outgrown the original quadrangle, new courts have been added, so that the larger foundations have three, and one19 has four courts.—Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 2.
CRACKLING. At the University of Cambridge, Eng., in common parlance, the three stripes of velvet which a member of St. John’s College wears on his sleeve, are designated by this name.
Various other gowns are to be discerned, the Pembroke looped at the sleeve, the Christ’s and Catherine curiously crimped in front, and the Johnian with its unmistakable “Crackling”—Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 73.
CRAM. To prepare a student to pass an examination; to study in view of examination. In the latter sense used in American colleges.
In the latter [Euclid] it is hardly possible, at least not near so easy as in Logic, to present the semblance of preparation by learning questions and answers by rote:—in the cant phrase of undergraduates, by getting crammed.—Whalely’s Logic, Preface.
For many weeks he “crams” him,—daily does he rehearse. Poem before the Iadma of Harv. Coll., 1850.
A class of men arose whose business was to cram the candidates. —Lit. World, Vol. XII. p. 246.
In a wider sense, to prepare another, or one’s self, by study, for any occasion.
The members of the bar were lounging about that tabooed precinct, some smoking, some talking and laughing, some poring over long, ill-written papers or large calf-bound books, and all big with the ponderous interests depending upon them, and the eloquence and learning with which they were “crammed” for the occasion.—Talbot and Vernon.
When he was to write, it was necessary to cram him with the facts and points.—F.K. Hunt’s Fourth Estate, 1850.
CRAM. All miscellaneous information about Ancient History, Geography, Antiquities, Law, &c.; all classical matter not included under the heads of TRANSLATION and COMPOSITION, which can be learned by CRAMMING. Peculiar to the English Universities.—Bristed.
2. The same as CRAMMING, which see.
I have made him promise to give me four or five evenings of about half an hour’s cram each.—Collegian’s Guide, p. 240.
It is not necessary to practise “cram” so outrageously as at some of the college examinations.—Westminster Rev., Am. ed., Vol. XXXV. p. 237.
3. A paper on which is written something necessary to be learned, previous to an examination.
“Take care what you light your cigars with,” said Belton, “you’ll be burning some of Tufton’s crams: they are stuck all about the pictures.”—Collegian’s Guide, p. 223.
He puzzled himself with his crams he had in his pocket, and copied what he did not understand.—Ibid., p. 279.
CRAMBAMBULI. A favorite drink among the students in the German universities, composed of burnt rum and sugar.
Crambambuli, das ist der Titel Des Tranks, der sich bei uns bewährt. Drinking song.
To the next! let’s have the crambambuli first, however.—Yale Lit. Mag., Vol. XII. p. 117.
CRAM BOOK. A book in which are laid down such topics as constitute an examination, together with the requisite answers to the questions proposed on that occasion.
He in consequence engages a private tutor, and buys all the cram books published for the occasion.—Gradus ad Cantab., p. 128.
CRAMINATION. A farcical word, signifying the same as cramming; the termination tion being suffixed for the sake of mock dignity.
The —— scholarship is awarded to the student in each Senior Class who attends most to cramination on the College course.—Burlesque Catalogue, Yale Coll., 1852-53, p. 28.
CRAM MAN. One who is cramming for an examination.
He has read all the black-lettered divinity in the Bodleian, and says that none of the cram men shall have a chance with him.—Collegian’s Guide, p. 274.
CRAMMER. One who prepares another for an examination.
The qualifications of a crammer are given in the following extract from the Collegian’s Guide.
“The first point, therefore, in which a crammer differs from other tutors, is in the selection of subjects. While another tutor would teach every part of the books given up, he virtually reduces their quantity, dwelling chiefly on the ‘likely parts.’
“The second point in which a crammer excels is in fixing the attention, and reducing subjects to the comprehension of ill-formed and undisciplined minds.
“The third qualification of a crammer is a happy manner and address, to encourage the desponding, to animate the idle, and to make the exertions of the pupil continually increase in such a ratio, that he shall be wound up to concert pitch by the day of entering the schools.”—pp. 231, 232.
CRAMMING. A cant term, in the British universities, for the act of preparing a student to pass an examination, by going over the topics with him beforehand, and furnishing him with the requisite answers.—Webster.
The author of the Collegian’s Guide, speaking of examinations, says: “First, we must observe that all examinations imply the existence of examiners, and examiners, like other mortal beings, lie open to the frauds of designing men, through the uniformity and sameness of their proceedings. This uniformity inventive men have analyzed and reduced to a system, founding thereon a certain science, and corresponding art, called Cramming.”—p. 229.
The power of “cramming”—of filling the mind with knowledge hastily acquired for a particular occasion, and to be forgotten when that occasion is past—is a power not to be despised, and of much use in the world, especially at the bar.—Westminster Rev., Am. ed., Vol. XXXV. p. 237.
I shall never forget the torment I suffered in cramming long lessons in Greek Grammar.—Dickens’s Household Words, Vol. I. p. 192.
CRAM PAPER. A paper in which are inserted such questions as are generally asked at an examination. The manner in which these questions are obtained is explained in the following extract. “Every pupil, after his examination, comes to thank him as a matter of course; and as every man, you know, is loquacious enough on such occasions, Tufton gets out of him all the questions he was asked in the schools; and according to these questions, he has moulded his cram papers.”—Collegian’s Guide, p. 239.
We should be puzzled to find any questions more absurd and unreasonable than those in the cram papers in the college examination.—Westminster Rev., Am. ed., Vol. XXXV. p. 237.
CRIB. Probably a translation; a pony.
Of the “Odes and Epodes of Horace, translated literally and rhythmically” by W. Sewell, of Oxford, the editor of the Literary World remarks: “Useful as a ‘crib,’ it is also poetical.”—Vol. VIII. p. 28.
CROW’S-FOOT. At Harvard College a badge formerly worn on the sleeve, resembling a crow’s foot, to denote the class to which a student belongs. In the regulations passed April 29, 1822, for establishing the style of dress among the students at Harvard College, we find the following. A part of the dress shall be “three crow’s-feet, made of black silk cord, on the lower part of the sleeve of a Senior, two on that of a Junior, and one on that of a Sophomore.” The Freshmen were not allowed to wear the crow’s-foot, and the custom is now discontinued, although an unsuccessful attempt was made to revive it a few years ago.
The Freshman scampers off at the first bell for the chapel, where, finding no brother student of a higher class to encourage his punctuality, he crawls back to watch the starting of some one blessed with a crow’s-foot, to act as vanguard.—Harv. Reg., p. 377.
The corded crow’s-feet, and the collar square,
The change and chance of earthly lot must share.
Class Poem at Harv. Coll., 1835, p. 18.
What if the creature should arise,—
For he was stout and tall,—
And swallow down a Sophomore,
Coat, crow’s-foot, cap, and all.
Holmes’s Poems, 1850, p. 109.
CUE, KUE, Q. A small portion of bread or beer; a term formerly current in both the English universities, the letter q being the mark in the buttery books to denote such a piece. Q would seem to stand for quadrans, a farthing; but Minsheu says it was only half that sum, and thus particularly explains it: “Because they set down in the battling or butterie bookes in Oxford and Cambridge, the letter q for half a farthing; and in Oxford when they make that cue or q a farthing, they say, cap my q, and make it a farthing, thus, [Symbol: small q with a line over]. But in Cambridge they use this letter, a little f; thus, f, or thus, s, for a farthing.” He translates it in Latin calculus panis. Coles has, “A cue [half a farthing] minutum.”—Nares’s Glossary.
“A cue of bread,” says Halliwell, “is the fourth part of a half-penny crust. A cue of beer, one draught.”
J. Woods, under-butler of Christ Church, Oxon, said he would never sitt capping of cues.—Urry’s MS. add. to Ray.
You are still at Cambridge with size kue.—Orig. of Dr., III. p. 271.
He never drank above size q of Helicon.—Eachard, Contempt of Cl., p. 26.
“Cues and cees,” says Nares, “are generally mentioned together, the cee meaning a small measure of beer; but why, is not equally explained.” From certain passages in which they are used interchangeably, the terms do not seem to have been well defined.
Hee [the college butler] domineers over freshmen, when they first come to the hatch, and puzzles them with strange language of cues and cees, and some broken Latin, which he has learnt at his bin.—Earle’s Micro-cosmographie, (1628,) Char. 17.
The word cue was formerly used at Harvard College. Dr. Holyoke, who graduated in 1746, says, the “breakfast was two sizings of bread and a cue of beer.” Judge Wingate, who graduated thirteen years after, says: “We were allowed at dinner a cue of beer, which was a half-pint.”
It is amusing to see, term after term, and year after year, the formal votes, passed by this venerable body of seven ruling and teaching elders, regulating the price at which a cue (a half-pint) of cider, or a sizing (ration) of bread, or beef, might be sold to the student by the butler.—Eliot’s Sketch of Hist. Harv. Coll., p. 70.
CUP. Among the English Cantabs, “an odious mixture … compounded of spice and cider.”—Westminster Rev., Am. ed., Vol. XXXV. p. 239.
CURL. In the University of Virginia, to make a perfect recitation; to overwhelm a Professor with student learning.
CUT. To be absent from; to neglect. Thus, a person is said to “cut prayers,” to “cut lecture,” &c. Also, to “cut Greek” or “Latin”; i.e. to be absent from the Greek or Latin recitation. Another use of the word is, when one says, “I cut Dr. B——, or Prof. C——, this morning,” meaning that he was absent from their exercises.
Prepare to cut recitations, cut prayers, cut lectures,—ay, to cut even the President himself.—Oration before H.L. of I.O. of O.F. 1848.
Next morn he cuts his maiden prayer, to his last night’s text abiding.—Poem before Y.H. of Harv. Coll., 1849.
As soon as we were Seniors,
We cut the morning prayers,
We showed the Freshmen to the door,
And helped them down the stairs.
Presentation Day Songs, June 15, 1854.
We speak not of individuals but of majorities, not of him whose ambition is to “cut” prayers and recitations so far as possible. —Williams Quarterly, Vol. II. p. 15.
The two rudimentary lectures which he was at first forced to attend, are now pressed less earnestly upon his notice. In fact, he can almost entirely “cut” them, if he likes, and does cut them accordingly, as a waste of time,—Household Words, Vol. II. p. 160.
To cut dead, in student use, to neglect entirely.
I cut the Algebra and Trigonometry papers dead my first year, and came out seventh.—Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 51.
This word is much used in the University of Cambridge, England, as appears from the following extract from a letter in the Gentleman’s Magazine, written with reference to some of the customs there observed:—“I remarked, also, that they frequently used the words to cut, and to sport, in senses to me totally unintelligible. A man had been cut in chapel, cut at afternoon lectures, cut in his tutor’s rooms, cut at a concert, cut at a ball, &c. Soon, however, I was told of men, vice versa, who cut a figure, cut chapel, cut gates, cut lectures, cut hall, cut examinations, cut particular connections; nay, more, I was informed of some who cut their tutors!”—Gent. Mag., 1794, p. 1085.
The instances in which the verb to cut is used in the above extract without Italics, are now very common both in England and America.
To cut Gates. To enter college after ten o’clock,—the hour of shutting them.—Gradus ad Cantab., p. 40.
CUT. An omission of a recitation. This phrase is frequently heard: “We had a cut to-day in Greek,” i.e. no recitation in Greek. Again, “Prof. D—— gave us a cut,” i.e. he had no recitation. A correspondent from Bowdoin College gives, in the following sentence, the manner in which this word is there used:—“Cuts. When a class for any reason become dissatisfied with one of the Faculty, they absent themselves from his recitation, as an expression of their feelings”