UNIVERSITY DRESS
[Sidenote: Importance attached to dress.]
'From the soberest drab to the high flaming scarlet, spiritual
idiosyncrasies unfold themselves in the choice of colour; if the cut
betoken intellect and talent, so does the colour betoken temper and
heart.'
Mediaeval Oxford would have agreed with Carlyle's German Professor in
his philosophy of clothes, as an instance or two will show. A solemn
enactment was passed in 1358 against the tailors, who were apparently
trying to shorten the length of University garments; 'for it is
honourable and in accordance with reason that clerks to whom God has
given an advantage over the lay folk in their adornments within, should
likewise differ from the lay folk outwardly in dress.' If any tailor
broke the statute, he was to be imprisoned.
[Illustration: _PROCURATOR_]
[Illustration: _COMMENSALIS Superioris ordinis_]
[Sidenote: Statute as to M.A.s.]
The observance of this principle was strictly enjoined also on members
of the University; the Master of Arts at his inception had to swear that
he has 'of his own' the dress proper for his degree, and that he will
wear it on all proper occasions. Moreover it was further provided
that Masters should wear 'boots either black or as near black as
possible', and that they should never give 'ordinary lectures' when
wearing 'shoes cut down or short in any way'.
[Sidenote: Sophisters[23].]
Naturally means had to be taken also to prevent members of the
University of lower rank from usurping the dress of their superiors. In
1489 it was ordained that 'whereas the insolence of many scholars in our
days is reaching such a pitch of audacity that they are not afraid to
wear hoods like Masters', henceforth they were to wear only the
'_liripipium consutum et non contextum_'[24], on pain of a fine of
2_s._; the fine was to be shared between the University, the Chancellor,
and the Proctors; it was further provided (which seems unnecessary) that
if any official had been negligent in exacting it, his portion should go
to the University.
[Sidenote: B.A.s.]
At the same time, the hoods of the B.A.s were legislated on: 'Whereas
the B.A.s in the different faculties, careless of the safety of their
own souls,' were wearing hoods insufficiently lined with fur, henceforth
all hoods were to be fully lined; a fortnight was given to the B.A.s to
put their scanty hoods right. The danger to salvation was incurred by
the perjury involved in the neglect of a statute which had been solemnly
accepted on oath.
[Sidenote: Tailors.]
The University further settled what was to be charged by tailors for
cutting the various dresses; the prices seem very low, only 3_d._ for a
furless gown (_toga_) and 6_d._ for a furred cope; but no doubt the
tailors of those days knew how to evade the statute by enhancing their
profit on the price of materials; we have one suit before the Chancellor
(in 1439) in which the furred gown in question was priced at no less
than 36_s._ 8_d._
These instances, which could be multiplied indefinitely, are enough to
show how careful the mediaeval University was as to dress. But it will
be noticed that they nearly all refer to the dress of graduates; the
modern University on the other hand practically leaves its M.A.s
alone[25], while it still enforces (at least in theory) academic dress
on its undergraduates, as to whom the mediaeval University had little to
say.
The Laudian Statutes here as elsewhere form the transition from the
arrangements of Pre-Reformation Oxford to those of our own day. They
enforce (on all alike) dress of a proper colour, short hair, and
abstinence from 'absurdus ille et fastuosus mos' of walking abroad in
fancy boots (_ocreae_); only while the graduate is fined 6_s._ 8_d._ for
offending, the undergraduate ('if his age be suitable') suffers '_poena
corporalis_' at the discretion of the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors.
Perhaps the following general points may be made as to University dress
in the olden times.
[Sidenote: (1) University Dress clerical.]
As all members of the University were _ipso facto_ clerks, their dress
had to correspond; the marks of clerical dress were that it was to be of
a certain length (later it was specified that it should reach the heels,
_talaris_), and that it should be closed in front, but there was great
licence as to colour; the 'black' or 'subfusc' prescribed by the
Laudian Statutes is the result of the asceticism of the Reformation, and
was unknown in Oxford before the sixteenth century. We have in the wills
of students and in the inventories of their properties, abundant
evidence that our mediaeval predecessors wore garments suitable to
'Merrie Englande', e.g. of green, blue or blood-colour. Sometimes the
founder of a college left directions what 'livery' all his students
should wear; e.g. Robert Eglesfield prescribed for the fellows of
Queen's College that they were to dine in Hall in purple cloaks, the
Doctors wearing these trimmed with fur, while the M.A.s wore theirs
'plain'; the colour was 'to suit the dignity of their position and to be
like the blood of The Lord'. Cambridge colleges still in some cases
prescribe for their undergraduates gowns of a special colour or cut.
One curious survival of the 'clerkship' of all students is the
requirement of the white tie in all University examinations and in the
degree ceremony. The 'bands', which (to quote Dr. Rashdall) 'are merely
a clerical collar', have disappeared from the necks of all lay members
of the University below the degree of Doctor, except the Vice-Chancellor
and the Proctors; the dress of the latter is the full-dress of an
ordinary M.A. in the seventeenth century, and preserves picturesque old
features which have been lost elsewhere.
[Sidenote: (2) The Cope and the Gown.]
The proper dress of the mediaeval Master, though probably an
undergraduate could also wear it, was the _cappa_ or cope; this at
Oxford was usually black in colour, but Doctors had quite early (i.e. in
the time of the Edwards) adopted as the colour for it some shade of red,
thus beginning the custom which still survives. The scarlet 'habit',
worn at Convocations by Oxford Doctors over their ordinary gowns,
retains the old name '_cappa_', but the shape has been completely
altered. The sister University, however, still preserves the old shape;
the Cambridge Vice-Chancellor presides at their degree ceremonies in a
sleeveless scarlet cloak, lined with miniver, which exactly corresponds
to the fourteenth-century picture of our Chancellor receiving the
charter from Edward III. The gown, the 'putting on' of which is now the
distinguishing mark of the taking of the B.A. or M.A., is simply the
survival of a mediaeval garment which was not even clerical, the long
gown (_toga_) or cassock, which was worn under the _cappa_. The dress of
the 'Blues' at Christ's Hospital preserves the gown in an earlier stage
of development. The modern usage which gives the gown of the B.A.
sleeves, while that of an M.A. has them cut away, has in some
unexplained way grown out of a similar usage as to the mediaeval
_cappa_.
[Sidenote: (3) The Hood.]
The mark, however, which specially distinguished the degree was the
hood, as to which the University was always strict, assigning the proper
material and the proper colour[26] to that of each faculty. The hood was
not a mere adornment or a badge, it was an article of dress. Originally
it seems to have been attached to the _cappa_, and, as its name implies,
was used for covering (the head) when required. Its practical purpose is
quaintly implied in the books of the Chancellor and the Proctors (sub
anno 1426), where it is provided that 'whereas reason bids that the
varieties of costume should correspond to the ordering of the seasons,
and whereas the Festival of Easter in its due course is akin from its
nearness to summer,' it is henceforth allowed that from Easter to All
Saints' day, 'graduates may wear silken hoods,' instead of fur ones,
'old custom notwithstanding.' The M.A. hood, even in its present
mutilated form, still presents survivals of the time when it was a real
head covering, survivals which should prevent those who wear it from
putting it on upside down, as many often do. The B.A. hood was already
in the fifteenth century lined with lamb's wool or rabbit's fur, and the
use of miniver by other than M.A.s and persons of birth or wealth[27]
was strictly forbidden by a statute of 1432.
[Sidenote: (4) The Cap.]
The last and not the least important part of mediaeval academic dress
still remains to be spoken of, the cap. The conferring of this with the
ring and the kiss of peace has been already mentioned (p. 27), these
being the marks of the admission of new Masters and Doctors. As under
the Roman Law the slave was manumitted by being allowed to put on a cap,
so the '_pileus_' of the M.A. was the sign of his independence; hence he
was bound to wear it at all University ceremonies. The cap was sometimes
square (_biretta_), sometimes round (_pileus_); Gascoigne (writing in
1456) tells us that in his day the round cap was worn by Doctors of
Divinity and Canon Law, and that it had always been so since the days of
King Alfred; not content with this antiquity, he also affirms that the
round cap was given by God Himself to the doctors of the Mosaic Law. He
adds the more commonplace but more trustworthy information that the cap
was in those days fastened by a string behind, to prevent its falling
off.
The modern stiff corners of the cap are an addition, which is not an
improvement; the old cap drooped gracefully from its tuft in the centre,
as can still be seen in the portraits of seventeenth-century divines,
e.g. in Vandyck's 'Archbishop Laud', so familiar from its many replicas
and copies. Later usage has specialized the round cap of velvet as
belonging to the Doctors of Law and Medicine, and a most beautiful
head-gear it is; it is preserved, in a less elaborate form, at the
degree ceremony in the round caps of the Bedels.
After the Reformation the cap began to be worn by B.A.s and
undergraduates, but originally without the tuft; the eighteenth century,
careless of the old traditions, replaced the tuft by the modern
commonplace tassel, and extended this to all caps except those of
servitors. With the disappearance of social distinctions in dress, the
tassel has been extended to all, except to choir-boys, and so the
coveted badge of the mediaeval Master is now the property of all
University ranks, and is undervalued and neglected in the same
proportion as it has been rendered meaningless.
Before leaving the subject of head-gear, it may be noted that the old
University custom of giving the son of a nobleman a gold tassel for his
cap has left a permanent mark in the familiar phrase 'tuft-hunting'; the
right of wearing this distinctive badge still exists for peers and for
their eldest sons[28], but they are at liberty not to avail themselves
of it, and it is practically never used. Academic dress has sadly lost
its picturesqueness, especially for the undergraduate; his gown no
longer reaches to his heels, as the statute still requires it to do, and
the injunction against 'novi et insoliti habitus' is surely a dead
letter in these days when Norfolk jackets and knickerbocker suits
penetrate even to University and college lecture-rooms. But what can the
University expect when M.A.s, in evasion of the statutes, come to
Congregation without gowns, and borrow them from each other in order to
vote, and when the University itself knows nothing of the 'exemplaria'
(models) which are supposed to be 'in archivis reposita'? Whether there
ever were these models of proper University dress, e.g. a doll in D.D.
habit, &c., is uncertain; what is certain is that there are none now. At
the present time the scanty relics of mediaeval usage are at the mercy
of the tailors; and though it must be said for their representatives in
Oxford that they do their best to maintain old traditions, yet there is
no doubt that innovations are slowly but steadily introduced, e.g. the
M.A. hood is losing in length, and is altering in colour.
The recent attempt on the part of the University to devise new gowns and
habits for the 'Research' Doctors is, it may be hoped, the beginning of
a better state of things; whatever may be thought of the aesthetic
success in this case, the subject was treated with seriousness and
expert evidence was taken. Perhaps in the near future Oxford may bestir
itself in this matter, and see that nothing more is lost of its
mediaeval survivals; restoration of what is actually gone is probably
hopeless. Such pious conservatism would be in accordance with the spirit
of the present age; for even the modern Radical, unlike his predecessor
of half a century back, cares, or at any rate professes to care, for the
external traces of the past.
[Sidenote: Oxford Hoods and Gowns.]
The following list makes no attempt to distinguish between the full
dress and the undress of Doctors; it is only intended as a help in
identifying the various functionaries who take part in the degree
ceremony.
_Doctors._
Divinity (D.D.[29]).--Scarlet hood and habit; the gown has black velvet
sleeves.
{Scarlet hood and
Civil Law (D.C.L.) {habit; the gown
Medicine (D.M.) {has sleeves of crimson
{silk.
The Master of Surgery (M.Ch.) wears the same hood, gown, and habit as an
M.D., and ranks next after him.
Science (D.Sc.) {Scarlet hood and habit;
Letters (D.Litt.) {the gown has sleeves of
{French grey.
The habits of these Doctors, though in the main similar, have different
facings, that of the D.D. being black, of the D.M. and D.C.L. crimson,
and of the D.Litt. and D.Sc. French grey.
Doctor of Music (Mus.Doc.).--Gown of crimson and cream brocade. The hood
is of the same colours. This gorgeous dress goes back for nearly 300
years. The gown is made of that rich kind of brocade which is popularly
said to be able to stand up by itself, and tradition (not very well
authenticated) has it that the identically same gown was worn by Richter
on his admission as Doctor in 1885, which had been worn by Haydn in the
preceding century. The Doctor of Music, however, unlike all other
Doctors, ranks after an M.A.; the reason is that musical graduates need
not take the ordinary Arts course, but the degrees in Music are open to
all who have passed Responsions, or an equivalent examination.
The undress gowns of all Doctors but those of Divinity have the sleeves
trimmed with lace; D.D.s wear also a scarf (fastened by a loop behind),
and a cassock under their habit or their gown.
All Doctorates are given, or at any rate are supposed to be given, for
original work that is a contribution to knowledge; but in the case of
the D.D. the theses have quite lost this character.
_The Proctors._
The Proctors, as the representatives of the M.A.s, wear their old
full-dress gown, which has otherwise disappeared from use. The sleeves
are of black velvet; the hoods are of miniver, and are passed on from
Proctor to Proctor. On the back of the gown is a curious triangular
tassel, called a 'tippet'; this is a survival of a bag or purse, which
was once used for collecting fees; the appropriateness of its retention
by Proctors will still be easily understood by undergraduates. They used
also to receive all fees for examinations, till about 1891.
_Master of Arts_ (M.A.)
Crimson hood and black gown, with the sleeves cut short and fitting
above the elbows, and hanging in a long bag, cut at the end into
crescent shape.
_Bachelors._
Divinity (B.D.).--The hood is black. A scarf is worn, and a cassock also
is worn under the gown.
The Bachelor of Divinity is placed here for convenience of reference;
but the degree is really higher than that of an M.A. and can only be
taken three years after a man has 'incepted' as M.A.
Civil Law (B.C.L.)}
Medicine (B.M.) } The hoods are blue,
Surgery (B.Ch.) } trimmed with lamb's
Music (B.Mus.) } wool.
The gown of all the above Bachelors has laced sleeves fitting to the
arm, like those of the M.A.s, but slit; the bag is straight and also
trimmed with lace.
Arts (B.A.).--The hood is trimmed with lamb's wool; the gown has full
sleeves, with strings to fasten back.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 23: When a candidate had passed Responsions, he was called a
'_sophista generalis_'. The title has now died out in the English
Universities, but survives in the form 'sophomore' in America.]
[Footnote 24: This adornment seems to have survived in Oxford till
within the last half-century; at all examinations subsequent to
'Responsions' a candidate, when going in for Viva Voce, had a little
black hood placed round his neck; this arrangement has now disappeared.]
[Footnote 25: The old statutes as to the dress of graduates are still in
force, and partially observed at conferment of degrees, examinations,
&c., but there is consideredable slackness as to them. It is only too
common to see a Dean 'presenting' in a coloured tie, although his
undergraduates are all compelled to don a white one.]
[Footnote 26: This is delightfully commemorated in the old custom of
Queen's College, by which, at the Gaudy dinner on Jan. 1st, each guest
receives a needle with a silk thread of the colour of his
faculty--Theologians black, Lawyers blue, Arts students red--and is
bidden 'Take this and be thrifty'. The mending of the hood was a duty
which must have often devolved on the poor mediaeval student. The custom
dates from the time of the Founder (1340). It is sad that so few
colleges have been careful, as Queen's has been, to preserve their old
customs.]
[Footnote 27: Those of royal blood, the sons of peers and members of
Parliament, and those who could prove an income of 60 marks a year, were
allowed the privilege of Masters.]
[Footnote 28: i.e. if they are admitted by a college as 'noblemen', and
are entered on the books as such.]
[Footnote 29: The initials S.T.P. (Sanctae Theologiae Professor), so
commonly used for Doctors of Divinity on monuments, are simply a
survival of the old usage according to which, in the Middle Ages,
Doctor, Professor, and Master were synonymous terms for the highest
degree. It was only later that 'professor' came to be especially applied
to a paid teacher in any subject.]