_Tripos_ (Vol. iv., p. 484.).--The original _tripos_, from which the
Cambridge class lists have derived their names, was _a three-legged
stool_, on which on Ash Wednesday a Bachelor of one or two years'
standing (called therefrom the _Bachelor of the Stool_) used formerly to
take his seat, and play the part of public disputant in the quaint
proceedings which accompanied admission to the degree of B.A. In course
of time the name was transferred from the stool to him that sat on it,
and the disputant was called the _Tripos_; and thence by successive
steps it passed to the _day_ when the three-legged stool became "for the
nonce" a post of honour; then to the _lists_ published on that day,
containing the seniority of commencing B.A.s arranged according to the
pleasure of the Proctors; and ultimately it obtained the enlarged
meaning now universally recognised, according to which it stands for the
examination whether in mathematics, classics, moral or physical science,
as well as the list by which the result of that examination is made
known.
The Latin verses which do, or till very lately did, accompany the
printed lists, and which it was expected were to partake more or less of
a burlesque character, are the only existing relics of the functions of
the _Bachelor of the Stool_ (performed in 1556/7 by Abp. Whitgift), to
whom, as to the _Prævaricator_ at commencements, or the _Terræ Filius_
at Oxford, considerable license of language was allowed; a privilege
which, in spite of the exhortation of the Father (see Bedle Buck's book)
"to be witty but modest withal," was not unfrequently abused.
Those who desire further information on this subject may consult the
appendixes to Dean Peacock's admirable work _On the Statutes of the
University_, pp. ix. x. lxx.