Terræ filius
{{Short description|Satirical orator who spoke at public ceremonies of the University of Oxford until the 18th century}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}
{{italic title}}
File:Terrae Filius Hogarth.jpg]]
The terræ filius (son of the soil) was a satirical orator who spoke at public ceremonies of the University of Oxford, for over a century. There was official sanction for personal attacks, but some of the speakers overstepped the line and fell into serious trouble. The custom was terminated during the 18th century.{{cite book|author=John Dougill|title=Oxford in English Literature: The Making, and Undoing, Of the English Athens|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OcjApkbFTsYC&pg=PA306|date=19 October 2010|publisher=AuthorHouse|isbn=978-1-4670-0467-1|page=306}}{{cite book|author=Cuthbert Bede|author-link=Cuthbert Bede|title=The Rook's Garden: Essays and Sketches|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xLxAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA196|year=1865|publisher=Sampson Low, Son, and Marston|page=196}} The comparable speaker at the University of Cambridge was called "prevaricator".{{cite book|author1=Dale B. J. Randall|author2=Jackson C. Boswell|title=Cervantes in Seventeenth-Century England: The Tapestry Turned: The Tapestry Turned|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l3-0e3uoyNUC&pg=PA321|date=29 January 2009|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-156158-0|page=321 note 10}}
The bawdy poem The Oxford-Act (1693) contains a terræ filius speech, and is attributed to Alicia D'Anvers.{{cite ODNB|id=74080|title=D'Anvers, Alicia|first=Holly Faith|last=Nelson}} Nicholas Amhurst took Terrae-filius, Or, The Secret History of the University of Oxford for the title of a series of periodical essays appearing from 1721, making up a 1726 book.{{cite book|author=Nicholas Amhurst|title=Terrae-filius, Or, The Secret History of the University of Oxford, 1721-1726|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IzXUOekhwx8C&pg=PA13|year=2004|publisher=University of Delaware Press|isbn=978-0-87413-801-6|pages=13–5}}
List of ''terræ filii''
{{expand list|date=January 2014}}
- 1591 Supposedly "Thomas Tomkins", although this individual cannot be traced. This is the earliest known terræ filius.[https://www.academia.edu/1407300/Imagined_Universities_Public_Insult_and_the_Terrae_Filius_in_Early_Modern_Oxford Imagined Universities: Public Insult and the Terrae Filius in Early Modern Oxford]
- 1592 John Hoskins, expelled{{cite DNB|wstitle=Hoskins, John (1566-1638)|volume=27}}
- 1637 "Mr. Masters," expelled
- 1651 William Levinz{{cite DNB|wstitle=Levinz, William|volume=33}} and Thomas Careles{{cite book |last1=Wood |first1=Anthony |last2=Clark |first2=Andrew |title=The life and times of Anthony Wood, antiquary of Oxford, 1632-1695 |date=1891 |publisher=Oxford : Printed for the Oxford Historical Society at the Clarendon Press |url=https://archive.org/details/lifetimesofanth02wood/page/562/mode/2up}}
- 1655 Robert WhitehallChristopher Wordsworth, Social Life at the English Universities in the Eighteenth Century (1874) p. 296; [https://archive.org/stream/sociallifeateng00unkngoog#page/n335/mode/2up archive.org.] and John Glendall
- c. 1656 unnamed terræ filius was forcibly arrested at the podium and taken to Bocardo Prison due to offensive language
- 1657 Daniel Danvers{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Bromley |last2=Ehninger |first2=Douglas |title=The Terrafilial disputations at oxford |journal=Quarterly Journal of Speech |date=October 1950 |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=333–339 |doi=10.1080/00335635009381578}}
- 1657 Lancelot Addison, forced to retract{{cite DNB|wstitle=Addison, Lancelot|volume=1}}
- 1658 Thomas Pittys, expelled
- 1661 (one of several) Arthur Brett{{cite ODNB|id=3342|title=Brett, Arthur|first=Jonathan|last=Pritchard}}
- 1663 John Edwards and Joseph Brooks
- 1664 William Cave and Richard Wood, "stopped in their regency"
- 1665-8 no terræ filius
- 1669 Thomas Hayes and Henry Gerard, both expelled
- 1670 no terræ filius
- 1671 John Roderham and Nicholas Hall
- 1673 John Shirley{{cite DNB|wstitle=Shirley, John (1648-1679)|volume=52}}
- 1674 Charles Layfield
- 1675 Venables Keeling
- 1676 Balthazar Vigures, expelled,{{cite book|title=Annals of the universe: containing an account of the most memorable actions, affairs, and occurrences which have happen'd in the world: but especially in Europe. From the year 1660. where Mr. Whitlock leaves off, to the year 1680. In two decades: with an index to the whole. Being a continuation of the said Mr. Whitlock's Memorials|date=1709|publisher=printed for William Carter, and to be sold by John Morphew|location=London|page=347|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RB4UAAAAQAAJ|accessdate=18 October 2014}} and John Crofts, chaplain of New College, who retracted after the speech so was not expelled
- 1681 John More, beaten with a cudgel following the speech
- 1682 Henry Boles{{cite book |last1=Wood |first1=Anthony |title=The Life and Times of Anthony Wood, Antiquary, of Oxford, 1632-1695: 1682-1695 |date=1894 |publisher=Oxford Historical Society, at the Clarendon Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pOkVAAAAYAAJ&dq=Life%20and%20Times%20of%20Anthony%20Wood%2C%20antiquary%2C%20of%20Oxford%2C&pg=PA24 |language=en}} and Jacob Allestry{{cite DNB|wstitle=Allestry, Jacob|volume=1}}
- 1683 Michael Smith
- 1684 Henry Walbanke and Thomas Easton
- 1693 Robert Turner and Henry Aldworth. Their full speeches (in Latin) survive in the notebook of Thomas Hearne.
- 1703 Robert Roberts;{{cite book|author=Bodleian Library|title=Catalogi codicum manuscriptorum bibliothecae Bodleianae ...|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=At8PAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA35|year=1860|page=35}} this year William Delaune was attacked{{cite DNB|wstitle=Delaune, William (1659-1728)|volume=14}}
- 1706 Theodore Brooke
- 1713 Bernard Gardiner suppressed a Whig speech, as a threat to political stability.{{cite ODNB|id=10355|title=Gardiner, Bernard|first=William|last=Gibson}} The speech was printed, but some copies were burned.
- 1713-33 No terræ filius
- 1733 No terræ filius but a speech was printed anonymously.
- 1763 Final appearance of the terræ filius, closely censored by the university and free of improper remarks.