versity studies. This period, extending, in the Faculty of Arts, over seven years in all, was divided, as now, into two parts-the period of Undergraduateship extending from the time of admission to the attainment of the B. A. dedegree; and the subsequent period of Bachelorship terminating with the attainment of the M. A. degree.

Originally, according to the statutes, a complete quadriennium or four years' course of studies-that is to say, twelve full terms of residence in a College, and of standing as matriculated students in the books of the University*—was required for the degree of B. A. Each year of the quadriennium had its appropriate studies; and, during the last year of it, the students rose to the rank of "Sophisters," and were then entitled to partake in the disputations in the public schools. During the last year (and in practice it was generally.during the last term) of their quadriennium, they were required by the statutes of the University to keep two "Acts" or "Responsions" and two "Opponencies" in the public schools-exercises for which they were presumed to be prepared by similar practice in their respective Colleges. The nature of these "Acts" and "Opponencies" were as follows:-One of the Proctors having at the beginning of the academic year collected the names of all the students of the various Colleges who intended to take the degree of B. A. that year, each of them received an intimation shortly after the beginning of the Lent Term that on a future day (generally about a fortnight after the notice was given) he would have to appear as Respondent" in the public schools. The student so designated had to give in a list of three propositions which he would maintain in debate. The question actually selected was usually a moral or metaphysical The Proctor then named three Sophisters, belonging to other Colleges, who were to appear as "Opponents." When the day arrived, the Respondent and the Opponents met in the schools, some Master of Arts presiding as Moderator, and the other Sophisters and Graduates forming an audience. The Respondent read a Latin thesis on the selected point; and the Opponents, one after another, tried to refute his arguments syllogistically in such Latin as they had provided or could muster. When one of the speakers was at loss, it was the duty of the Moderator to help him out. When all the Opponents had spoken, and the Moderator had dismissed them and the Respondent with such praise as he thought they had severally deserved, the "Act" was over.

one.

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When a student had kept two Responsions and two Opponencies, (and in order to get through all the Acts of the two or three hundred Sophisters who every year came forward, it is evident that the "schools" must have been continually busy,) he was further examined in his own College, and, if approved, was sent up as a "quæstionist," or candidate for the B. A. degree. The "quæs tionists" from the various Colleges were then submitted to a distinct examination-which usually took place on three days in the week before Ash Wednesday week-in the public schools before the Proctors and others of the University. Those who passed this examination were furnished by their Colleges with a supplicat to the Vice-Chancellor and Senate, praying that they might be admitted, as the phrase was, ad respondendum quæstioni. Then, on a day before

The reader must distinguish between admission into a College and matriculation in the general University Registers. Both were necessary, but the acts were distinct. The College books certified all the particulars of a student's counection with his College and residence there; but, for degrees and the like, a student's standing in the University was certified by the matriculation-book kept by the University Registrar.

Ash Wednesday, all the quæstionists from each College went up, headed by a Fellow of the College, to the public school, where, some question out of Aristotle's Prior Analytics having been proposed and answered by each of the quæstionists, (this process being called "entering their Priorums,") they became what was called "determiners." From Ash Wednesday till the Thursday before Palm Sunday, the candidates were said to stand in quadragesimâ, and had a further course of exercises to go through; and on this latter day their probation ended, and they were pronounced by the Proctor to be full Bachelor of Arts.

Many students, of course, never advanced so far as the B. A. degree, but, after a year or two at the University, removed to study law at the London Inns of Court, or to begin other business. Oliver Cromwell, for example, had left Sidney Sussex College in 1617, after about a year's residence. Those who did take their B. A. degree, and meant to advance farther, were required by the original statutes to reside three years more, and during that time to go through certain higher courses of study and perform certain fresh Acts in the public schools and their Colleges. These regulations having been complied with, they were, after being examined in their Colleges and provided with supplicats, admitted by the Chancellor or Vice-Chancellor ad incipiendum in artibus; and then, after certain other formalities, they were ceremoniously created Masters of Arts either at the greater Comitia or general "Commencement" at the close of the academic year, (the first Tuesday in July,) or on the day immediately preceding. These two days-the Vesperia Comitiorum, or day before Commencement-day, and the Comitia, or Commencement-day itself-were the galadays of the University. Besides the M. A. degrees, such higher degrees as LL. D., M. D., and D. D. were then conferred.

By the original statutes, the connection of the scholar with the University was not yet over. Every Master of Arts was sworn to continue his "regency" or active University functions for five years; which implied almost continual residence during that time, and a farther course of study in theology and He- . brew, and of Acts, disputations and preachings. Then, after seven full years from the date of commencing M. A., he might, after a fresh set of forms, become a Doctor of either Law or Medicine, or a Bachelor of Divinity; but for the Doctorate of Divinity, five additional years were necessary for the attainment of the rank of D. D.; and fourteen years for the attainment of the Doctorates of Law and Medicine.

Framed for a state of society which had passed away, and too stringent even for that state of society, these rules had fallen into modification or disuse. (1.) As respected the quadriennium, or the initiatory course of studies preparatory to the degree of B. A., there had been a slight relaxation, consisting in an abatement of one term of residence out of the twelve required by the Elizabethan statutes. This had been done in 1578, by a formal decree of the ViceChancellor and Heads. It was then ordered that every student should enroll his name in the University Register, and take his matriculation oath within a certain number of days after his first joining any College and coming to reside; and that, for the future, all persons who should have so enrolled and matriculated "before, at or upon the day when the ordinary sermon ad Clerum is or ought to be made in the beginning of Easter Term," and who should be proved by the Commons-books of their Colleges to have in the meantime resided regu

larly, should be considered to have "wholly and fully" discharged their quadriennium in the fourth Lent following the said sermon. In other words, the Lent Term in which a student went through his exercises for his B. A. degree, was allowed to count as one of the necessary twelve. Since that time another of the required terms has been lopped off, so that now, ten real terms of residence are sufficient. This practice seems to have been introduced prior to 1681; but in Milton's time the interpretation of 1578 was in force. Even then, however, matriculation immediately after joining a College was not rigorously insisted on, and a student who matriculated any time during the Easter Term might graduate B. A. in the fourth Lent Term following. (2.) It was impossible, consistently with the demands of the public service for men of education, that all scholars who had taken their B. A. degree should thereafter continue to reside as punctually as before during the three additional years required for their M. A. degree, and should then farther bind themselves to seven years of active academic duty, if they aspired to the Doctorate in Laws or Medicine, and to still longer probation if they aspired to the Doctorate in Theology. Hence, despite of oaths, there had been gradual relaxations. The triennium of continued residence between the B. A. degree and the M. A. degree was still for a good while regarded as imperative; but after this second degree had been taken, the connection with the University was slackened. Those only remained in the University beyond this point who had obtained Fellowships, or who filled University offices, or who were assiduously pursuing special branches of study; and the majority were allowed to distribute themselves in the Church and through society-there being devices for keeping up their nominal connection with the University, so as to advance to the higher degrees. (3.) Not even here had the process of relaxation stopped. The obligation of three years of continued residence between the B. A. degree and commencing M. A., had been found to be burdensome; and, after giving way in practice, it had been formally abrogated. The decree authorizing this important modification was passed March 25, 1608, so that the modification was in force in Milton's time, and for seventeen years before it. "Whereas," says this decree, "doubt hath lately risen whether actual Bachelors in Arts, before they can be admitted ad incipiendum, (the phrase for "commencing" M. A.,) must of necessity be continually commorant in the University nine whole terms, We, for the clearing of all controversies in that behalf, do declare, that those, who for their learning and manners are according to statute admitted Bachelors in Arts, are not so strictly tied to a local commorancy and study in the University and Town of Cambridge, but that, being at the end of nine terms able by their accustomed exercises and other examinations to approve themselves worthy to be Masters of Arts, they may justly be admitted to that degree." Reasons, both academical and social, are assigned for the relaxation. At the same time, lest it should be abused, it is provided that the statutory Acts and exercises ad incipiendum shall still be punctually required, and also that every Bachelor who shall have been long absent, shall, on coming back to take his Master's degree, bring with him certificates of good conduct, signed by "three preaching ministers, Masters of Arts at least, living on their benefices," near the place where he (the Bachelor) has been longest residing.

[Masson thus treats of the famous tradition of Milton's having been the victim of corporal punishment during his second year's residence at Cambridge:]

The tradition of some incident in Milton's University life, of a kind which his enemies, by exaggerating and misrepresenting it, were able afterwards to use to his discredit, is very old. It was probably first presented in the definite shape in which we now have it, by Dr. Johnson in his memoir of the poet: "I am ashamed to relate what I fear is true, that Milton was one of the last students in either University that suffered the public indignity of corporal correction."

Warton, Todd, and others have entered somewhat largely into the question of the possibility of the alleged punishment consistently with the College practice of the time. On this head there is no denying that the thing was possible enough. The "virgâ a suis corrigatur" of the old statutes certainly remained in force for young under-graduates both at Oxford and Cambridge. As late as 1649, Henry Stubbe, a writer of so much reputation in his day that Wood gives a longer memoir of him than of Milton, was publicly flogged in the refectory of Christ Church, Oxford, when eighteen years of age, for "insolent and pragmatical" conduct. Other instances might be produced to show that in any case Johnson's phrase, "one of the last at either University who," etc., would be historically wrong. There can be no doubt, however, that the practice was getting out of repute. In the new Oxford Statutes of 1635, corporal punishment was restricted (though Stubbe, it seems, did not benefit by the restriction) to boys under sixteen.

Johnson's authority for the statement, we now know, was Aubrey's MS. life of Milton. The original passage is as follows:—

"And was a very hard student in the University, and performed all his exercises with very good applause. His first tutor there was Mr. Chappell, from whipt him

whom receiving some unkindness, he was (though it seemed contrary to the rules of the College) transferred to the tuition of one Mr. Tovell, (miswritten for Tovey,) who died parson of Lutterworth."

This passage occurs in a paragraph of particulars expressly set down by Aubrey in his MS. as having been derived from the poet's brother Christopher. It seems impossible, therefore, to doubt that it is in the main authentic. Of the whole statement, however, precisely that which has the least look of authenticity is the pungent fact of the interlineation. That it is an interlineation, and not a part of the text, suggests that Aubrey did not get it from Christopher Milton, but picked it up from gossip afterwards; and it is exactly the kind of fact that gossip likes to invent. But take the passage fully as it stands, the interlineation included, and there are still two respects in which it fails to bear out Johnson's formidable phrase, "one of the last students in either University who," etc., especially in the circumstantial form which subsequent writers have given to the phrase by speaking of the punishment as a public one at the hands of Dr. Bainbrigge, the College Master. (1.) So far as Aubrey hints, the quarrel was originally but a private one between Milton and his tutor, Chappell-at most, a tussle between the tutor and the pupil in the tutor's rooms, with which Bainbrigge, in the first instance, might have had nothing to do. (2.) Let the incident have been as flagrant as might be, it appertains and can appertain only to one particular year, and that an early one, of Milton's undergraduateship. At no time in the history of the University had any except undergraduates been liable by statute to corporal punishment; and even undergraduates, if over the age of eighteen, had usually, if not invariably, been considered exempt.

Now Milton attained the age of eighteen complete on the 9th of December, 1626. Unless, therefore, he was made an exception to all rule, the incident must have taken place, if it took place at all, either in his first term of residence, or in the course of that year, 1625-6, with which we are now concerned.

That the quarrel, whatever was its form, did take place in this very year, is all but established by a reference which Milton has himself made to it. The reference occurs in the first of his Latin Elegies: which is a poetical epistle to his friend Diodati, and the date of the composition of which may be fixed, with something like certainty, in April or May, 1626.

Diodati, it seems, had a fancy for writing his letters occasionally in Greek. After taking his degree in December, 1625, Diodati resided for a while in Cheshire, whence, in April or May, 1626, he directs a short but sprightly epistle in Greek to Milton, who was then in London.

"I have no fault to find," he says, "with my present mode of life, except that I am deprived of any mind fit to converse with. In other respects all passes pleasantly here in the country; for what else is wanting, when the days are long, the scenery around blooming with flowers, and waving and teeming with leaves, on every branch a nightingale or goldfinch or other bird of song delighting with its warblings, most varied walks, a table neither scant nor overburdened, and sleep undisturbed?" Then, wishing that Milton were with him, he adds, "But you, wondrous youth, why do you despise the gifts of nature; why do you persist inexcusably in tying yourself night and day to your books? Live, laugh, enjoy your youth and the present hour. I, in all things else your inferior, both think myself and am superior to you in this, that I know a moderation in my labors."

[To this Greek letter Milton replies in a pastoral epistle, which he has preserved among his Latin Elegies. From this we give in translation a few lines evidently bearing on his college troubles.]

"Me at present that city contains which the Thames washes with its ebbing wave; and me, not unwilling, my father's house now possesses. At present it is not my care to revisit the reedy Cam; nor does the love of my forbidden rooms yet cause me grief (nec dudum vetiti me laris angit amor.) Nor do naked fields please me, where soft shades are not to be had. How ill that place suits the votaries of Apollo! Nor am I in the humor still to bear the threats of a harsh master (duri minas perferre magistri,) and other things not to be submitted to by my genius (cæteraque ingenio non subeunda meo.) If this be exile (si sit hoc exilium,) to have gone to my father's house, and, free from cares, to be pursuing agreeable relaxations, then certainly I refuse neither the name nor the lot of a fugitive (non ego vel profugi nomen sortemque recuso,) and gladly I enjoy the condition of exile (lætus et exilii conditione fruor.) O that that poet, the tearful exile in the Pontic territory, [i. e. Ovid,] had never endured worse things!" [The poet then dwells on his theater-going, etc.-upon which his biographer thus comments:]

This epistle so far tells its own story. It shows that some time in the course of the spring of 1626, Milton was in London, amusing himself as during a holiday, and occasionally visiting the theaters in Bankside. The question, however, remains, what was the occasion of this temporary absence from Cambridge, and how long it lasted. Was it merely that Milton, as any other student might have done, spent the Easter vacation of that year with his family in town