The Classical Tripos and the Romantic Movement at Cambridge

Abstract

Abstract Between the Napoleonic wars and the royal commissions sent to reform the University in the 1850s, Cambridge could best be described as a university in quiet ferment. The languid days of the eighteenth century were past and now replaced with an atmosphere fed by growing matriculations and earnest debate. The topics mooted by dons, fellows, and students alike included the admission of dissenters, the role of the University in the Church of England, and the manner in which students should be ranked and examined. One way in which this ranking took place were the honors, or ‘Tripos’ examinations, which arose first in mathematics (by 1800) and then in classics (first used in 1824). A close look at the origins of such an examination in classics and its early history illustrates how romanticism informed thinking at the University about teaching, learning, and the curriculum and contributed to the spirit of renewal felt at Cambridge in the first half of the nineteenth century.