Commencement Day is still a gala occasion to a number of cap-and-gowned young men and their relatives and admirers, who are the actors in the colorful drama enacted under the Japanese lanterns in the dim aisles of the Yard. But two hundred years ago, Commencement Day was the occasion of a general jollification among the populace of Massachusetts as a whole. Drawn not by the main, or academic tent, whose attractions at this time consisted chiefly of orations in Latin, Hebrew, and Greek, but by the side-shows clustering around the big top, the countryfolk and townspeople flocked to Cambridge, and choked the quiet precincts of the town and college until, we are reminded, the place was nothing less than Revere Beach in eighteenth century miniature.

Not a Pretty Picture

There is in existence an extremely rare poem written in 1718 by persons unknown, the flamboyant title of this opus is "A Satyrical Description of Commencement: Calculated to the meridian of Cambridge in New England." The picture that it gives is neither wholesome nor pretty, and it is to be hoped, that since it is termed "satyrical", it is not too faithful to fact.

It is a fact that in the early years of the eighteenth century the crowds attending Commencement became noisier and more disorderly. The riff-raff of the town, attracted by the crowd and showiness, attended in force. In the third decade of the century, the University made endeavors to keep secret the date of Commencement, with a view toward eliminating the unpleasant congestion. It is doubtful if this measure was successful. One might as well try to hide the date of the Yale football game in this day and age.

If the University could take no sweeping action against the townspeople, it severely curbed the carnival aspirations of the students themselves, who probably contributed in no small measure to the cup of revelry. In 1722 there was a law prohibiting the students from preparing or providing either plum cake, or roasted, baked, or boiled meats, or pies of any kind, and from furnishing distilled liquors or any Composition made therewith upon pain of being fined 20 shillings, and the forfeiture of the provisions and liquors, to be seized by the tutors." Evidently distilled liquors, or any Composition made therewith, were not considered as noxious in the possession of the tutors as in that of the undergraduates. And one cannot help wondering what are the wiles of "plumb cake" or meats or pies. Apparently this law like many little annoying things, carried its sting in its tail.

The guests of the students must have complained of the mildness of the entertainment provided, for a few years later came a repeal of the law against punch-drinking: "It shall be no offense if the scholars, in a sober manner, entertain one another and strangers with punch, which, as it is now usually made, is no intoxicating liquor." On what grounds did the authorities make this last calm statement?

Female Vanity Observed

There were other Commencement vanities savoring less of the flesh and the devil. On the great day the ladies of the Colony turned out in full regalla, calculated to shame the lilies of the field. There is a famous story of an elderly dame who sat up all night before the 1758 Commencement to save her hair, done up the previous evening by the coiffeuse, who had no other tine for that particular lady. Another writer on Commencement--one bitter toward the fop-pishdress--declares that a roomy family coach could carry but two ladies, one sitting forward and one backward, with their hoops protruding on either side.

But these, after all, were petty devil-trios, and for a first-hard account of the celebration, one is referred to the Satyrical Description, found in "The Magazine of History, with Notes and Queries," reprinted at Tarrytown, New York, in 1920.

The Introduction

In the hot sultry month that's called July (Forever famous to Posterity)

A Day is yearly kept, no doubt with Zeal

By some, who to New England's common Weal

Wish well, in these apostatizing days

Wherein Religion sensibly decays.