Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Cant Phrases In The University Of Cambridge Explained.
When the Cambridge Tripos originated , the three learned genflemen of Christ ' s , Clare , and Jesus , can best inform us . Perhaps it arose cotemporary with the Oxonian celebrated Terra Stilus , which was abolished on account of its abusive and licentious tendency . The last writer of Terrm-Filius gives this description of it , in the first number of a work periodically published under that title :
" It has , till of late ( says he ) , been a custom , from time immemorial , for one - of our family to niount the rostrum at Oxford , at certain seasons , and divert an innumerable croud of spectators , who flocked thither to hear him from all parts , with a merry oration in thefescennine manner , interspersed with secrethistovy , raillery , and sarcasm , as the occasions of the times supplied him with matter . " Now the Cambridge Tripos was , probably , in old time , delivered like the Taras-Fitiusfrom a tripoda three-legged-stool . or rostrum
, , , , in humble imitation of the Delphic oracle . That it is of great antiquity cannot be doubted ; and that , in the year 1626 , it very much resembled the Terrre-Filius , as above described , will appear manifest from the Cambridge statute , " De tollendis ineptiis in publicis dispu' tationibus ; " enacted , at that time , in order to repress the encreasing asperity and impertinence of those annual productions . The statute
runs thus : ' ' . ' Cum statutis Academi _ 2 cautum sit , ut modestiam ord ' mi sua convementem omnes omnibus in locis colant : ' eamque majores nostri precipua in publicis comitiis ita observarunt , ut philosophi quajstiones suas tractare . it sei'ij , p | - _ . varicatores veritatem philoSophicam qua poterant contradicendi subtilitate eluderent , TripoJes sua qua-sita . ' ingeniosS et apijosit- defeilderent , gestibus au ' . ein bistrionicis , Jtagithsis faceliis et ineptiispuer ' dcs risus captare miperrimificcuti malitiosum sit ihve ' nhim : ad anliquain
'Academics' modestiam & gvavitatem restaurandam & in posterum retinendam , dcmiuus Procaiicellarius it Propositi Collegiorum sic prcsdictum statutuir . intevpretantur , & " interpretaiido decertumt ; ut praivaricatores , Tripodes , aliique omnes disputarites veterenl Academia . formam & consuetudinera in publicis disputationious observetit , & ab hoc rkliailo mor ' ionum iis-a & impuder . tii promts abstincant : neqne leges , stattita vel ordinationes Academ ' ue ; nequ' facitllaliiiii , lingiiaruin , aut arlium . professiones ; neque magistratus , professores , ant graduaios ctijuiciiiique tituli aut nomtnls , salutalionibns mimicis , gesliciilalionibits ridiculis , jocis scurrilibus , dicleriis malit ; os , s perslr . tigere aut illiidere prccsuwant , i _ vc . S _ 7 c . " ,
The Jesuits , are the inhabitants or J ' - " College ; the Christians , those of Christ's ; the john ' ian bogs were originally remarkable , on account of the squalid figdres aud low habits of the students , and especially of the sizars , of Saint John ' s College ; Catharine-Puritans , inhabitants of Catharine Hall ; so punningly called from . ia 9 o . _ fo » . They are also yclept Catharine-doves , for the same reason ; doves being emblems of purity . ' Hence perhaps we derive the epithet of
" a plucked puritan . " . Trinity bull-dogs , from their ferocious deportment , in consequence of peculiar immunities attached to their college , and of their remarkable dress ' . I am yet to learn , the etymology of Sidney-owls , and of Clare-hall greyhounds : although I have frequently heard the young men of Sidney College , and of Clare-ball , thus comically and invariably characterised . Smart , who was himself of Pembroke College , Cambridge , and consequently well versed in the appellations incidental . to each society , adverts partly to these distinctions in a ballad , written at college in
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Cant Phrases In The University Of Cambridge Explained.
When the Cambridge Tripos originated , the three learned genflemen of Christ ' s , Clare , and Jesus , can best inform us . Perhaps it arose cotemporary with the Oxonian celebrated Terra Stilus , which was abolished on account of its abusive and licentious tendency . The last writer of Terrm-Filius gives this description of it , in the first number of a work periodically published under that title :
" It has , till of late ( says he ) , been a custom , from time immemorial , for one - of our family to niount the rostrum at Oxford , at certain seasons , and divert an innumerable croud of spectators , who flocked thither to hear him from all parts , with a merry oration in thefescennine manner , interspersed with secrethistovy , raillery , and sarcasm , as the occasions of the times supplied him with matter . " Now the Cambridge Tripos was , probably , in old time , delivered like the Taras-Fitiusfrom a tripoda three-legged-stool . or rostrum
, , , , in humble imitation of the Delphic oracle . That it is of great antiquity cannot be doubted ; and that , in the year 1626 , it very much resembled the Terrre-Filius , as above described , will appear manifest from the Cambridge statute , " De tollendis ineptiis in publicis dispu' tationibus ; " enacted , at that time , in order to repress the encreasing asperity and impertinence of those annual productions . The statute
runs thus : ' ' . ' Cum statutis Academi _ 2 cautum sit , ut modestiam ord ' mi sua convementem omnes omnibus in locis colant : ' eamque majores nostri precipua in publicis comitiis ita observarunt , ut philosophi quajstiones suas tractare . it sei'ij , p | - _ . varicatores veritatem philoSophicam qua poterant contradicendi subtilitate eluderent , TripoJes sua qua-sita . ' ingeniosS et apijosit- defeilderent , gestibus au ' . ein bistrionicis , Jtagithsis faceliis et ineptiispuer ' dcs risus captare miperrimificcuti malitiosum sit ihve ' nhim : ad anliquain
'Academics' modestiam & gvavitatem restaurandam & in posterum retinendam , dcmiuus Procaiicellarius it Propositi Collegiorum sic prcsdictum statutuir . intevpretantur , & " interpretaiido decertumt ; ut praivaricatores , Tripodes , aliique omnes disputarites veterenl Academia . formam & consuetudinera in publicis disputationious observetit , & ab hoc rkliailo mor ' ionum iis-a & impuder . tii promts abstincant : neqne leges , stattita vel ordinationes Academ ' ue ; nequ' facitllaliiiii , lingiiaruin , aut arlium . professiones ; neque magistratus , professores , ant graduaios ctijuiciiiique tituli aut nomtnls , salutalionibns mimicis , gesliciilalionibits ridiculis , jocis scurrilibus , dicleriis malit ; os , s perslr . tigere aut illiidere prccsuwant , i _ vc . S _ 7 c . " ,
The Jesuits , are the inhabitants or J ' - " College ; the Christians , those of Christ's ; the john ' ian bogs were originally remarkable , on account of the squalid figdres aud low habits of the students , and especially of the sizars , of Saint John ' s College ; Catharine-Puritans , inhabitants of Catharine Hall ; so punningly called from . ia 9 o . _ fo » . They are also yclept Catharine-doves , for the same reason ; doves being emblems of purity . ' Hence perhaps we derive the epithet of
" a plucked puritan . " . Trinity bull-dogs , from their ferocious deportment , in consequence of peculiar immunities attached to their college , and of their remarkable dress ' . I am yet to learn , the etymology of Sidney-owls , and of Clare-hall greyhounds : although I have frequently heard the young men of Sidney College , and of Clare-ball , thus comically and invariably characterised . Smart , who was himself of Pembroke College , Cambridge , and consequently well versed in the appellations incidental . to each society , adverts partly to these distinctions in a ballad , written at college in