COMMEXOBA'TION, or ENC,E'NIA, the great festival of the Oxford academic year, usually takes place on the third Wednesday after Trinity Sunday. It is of very ancient date, public exercises and recitations having been held from time immemorial in honor of the act, or period when masters of arts and doctors complete their degrees, at first in St. Mary's church, but, subsequently to the erection of the Sheldonian theater (1669), in that building.
At present, the proceedings consist of a Latin oration in honor of founders and bene factors, delivered in alternate years (according to the bequest of lord Crewe, bishop of Durham) by the public orator and the professor of poetry; the presentation of the honor ary degree of D.C.L. to strangers eminent in science, politics, etc., who are introduced to the chancellor, or, in his absence, to the vice-chancellor, by the public orator, in a short Latin speech; and the recitation of the Newdigate cr English prize poem, the Latin prize poem, and the Latin and English prize essays, the three last named prizes being the gift of the chancellor. During the ceremonial, the northern extremity of the theater is occupied by the vice-chancellor, doctors, proctors, ete.; the area or pit by masters of arts and their friends; the lower seats in the semicircle by lady visitors; and the upper, or gallery, by bachelors and undergraduates, who claim on this occasion all the time-honored privileges of a gallery audience. Commemoration day itself is only the culminating point of a
week of gayety, in which concerts, balls, theatrical representations, etc., replace the usual studies of the university, and in which beads of houses and tutors are only toler ated in so far as they give a sort of official sanction to the general festivity. in the theater itself, the more strictly academic and solemn portion of the proceedings receives hut scanty respect from the majority of the audience. A momentary pause may per haps be made when the "Newdigate" is being recited, or when some "lion" of unusual mark advances to receive his degree; but as a rule, the noisy humors of the gallery command much more attention than the stately periods 'of the public orator, or the timid recitations of the prize essayists. Of late, however, a feeling has sprung up ammg the senior members of the university (shared in, it is said, by several distin guished strangers) that the license of the gallery has exceeded all due limits; and in 1876 a change was made in the interior arrangements, the under-graduates not occupy ing a separate gallery, but being distributed the ladies.
The vice-chancellor, who holds his office for four years, generally presides at C., but it is usual for the chancellor to de so once in the period of each vice-chancellorship. These occasions are called grand commemorations.