Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/156

 124 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. iv. ADO. 12,1905. •employs certain illustrations and turns of expression peculiar to the learned doctor. is a help to identify the title of the book and the name of its author, besides the second •chapter already given. I will mention two or three of the others. The first is ' A Censure of the Epidemicall practice of reproaching Red-hair'd Men'; the third, 'A Censure of that common evill practice of Reproaching the Feminine Sex,'wherein no reference is made to Browne's queer language m Ins 'Religio Medici'about the propagation of the human race, which was regarded by Sir Kenelm Digby and James Howell as an attack on marriage, "•the prime Link of human Society, the chiefert Happmeaa of Mortals, and wherein Heaven hath a •special Hand," as the latter holds it to be (' Familiar Letters,' bk i sec 6, Ix. : eleventh edition, 1754, ,p 300). But as by this time, say 1660 bir Thomas was the father of a dozen children ("olive branches"), which came to him in the usual way, the author of this little book preter- mitted any notice of what the young physician had published in 1643, and written some me seven,,., and last chapter is A Censure •of the common evill practice of Hailing against an Adversary in Opinion, which is an admirable plea for toleration, and tem- perate language in religious controversy. I shall be thankful for any information as to the authorship of this most interesting little volume, which I shall henceforth keep beside my Burton, Si parva licet componere magnis. JOHN T. CURRY. TRIPOS: TRIPOS VERSES. THESE Cambridge terms are no doubt obscure to many, and I think it worth while to give an excellent passage concern- ing them in ' Mathematical Recreations and Essays' a learned and amusing book by Mr. V W Rouse Ball, now in its fourth edition. Allowing myself long quotations from it, I hope I shall induce some new readers to secure it. There were formerly three occasions on which the degree of Bachelor was conferred. "In the fifteenth century," says Mr. Ball (p. 235), " an important part in the ceremony on each ot these occasions was taken by a certain ' onld baehilour ' who sat upon ft three-legged stool or Ss before the proctors and tested the abilities of he would-be graduates by arguing some question with the 'eldest son,'who was selected from then, as he r re tentative. To assist the latter .in wha x aSo ten an unequal contest, his 'father - that is, the officer of his college who was to present lim for his degree—was allowed to come to his assistance. " Originally the ceremony was a serious one, and lad a certain religious character. It took place in 3reat St. Mary's Church, and marked the admission of the student to a position with new responsi- bilities, while the season of Lent was chosen with a view to bring this into prominence. The Puritan party objected to the observance of such ecclesi- istical ceremonies, and in the course of the six- teenth century they introduced much licence and buffoonery into the proceedings. The part played by the questionist became purely formal. A serious debate still sometimes took place between the father of the senior questionist and a regent master who represented the University; but the discussion was prefaced by a speech by the bachelor, who came to be called the Tripos, just as we speak of a judge as the bench, or of a rower as an oar. Ulti-, mately public opinion permitted the Tripos to say pretty much what he pleased, so long as it was not dull and was scandalous. The speeches he delivered or the verses he recited were generally preserved by the Registrary, and were known as the tripos verses : originally they referred to the subjects of the dis- putations then propounded. ; The earliest copies now extant are those for 1575." Mr. Ball goes on to quote from Mr. Mul- linger, the historian of Cambridge :— " About the year 1747-8, the moderators initiated the practice of printing the honour lists on the back of the sheets containing the tripos verses, and after the year 1755 this became the invariable practice. By virtue of this purely arbitrary con- nexion these lists themselves became known as the tripos; and eventually the examination itself, of which they represented the results, also became known by the same designation." I think it well to add, from Prof. Skeats masterly 'Etymological Dictionary of the English Language' (second edition, 1888), the following, s.v. ' Tripod' :— " Tripos, an honour examination at Cambridge, so called at present because the successful candi- dates are arranged in three classes ; but we muet not forget that a tripo* sometimes meant an oracle (see Johnson), and that there was formerly a certain scholar who went by the name of tripo*. being otherwise called prevaricator at Cambridge or ten-it- filiwi at Oxford ; he was a master of arts chosen at, a commencement to make an ingenious satirical speech reflecting on the misdemeanours of members of the university, a practice which no doubt gave rise to the so-called tripos rfrxe.*, i.e., facetious Latin verses printed on the back of the tripos-lists." One would expect the spelling "tripus," which the same dictionary (p. 832, ' Errata and Addenda') quotes from the 'English Garner,' vii. 267 (1670). In view of these authorities no other theory of the origin of the modern use of the word " tripos " need be considered. i As to the tripos verses, I learn from the next page of Mr. Ball's book that "in 1895 the proctors and moderators, without con-