A true description of a number of tyrannical pedagogues
Subtitle: a poem. Dedicated to the sons of H*****D. By Clementiae Amator
Series: Collections of the Harvard University Archives; Harvard in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
Publisher: [s.n.]
Published: 1769
Place of publication: Boston?
Language: eng
Number of pages: 3
Subjects: Students; Humor; College wit and humor; Satire; Faculty; Harvard University
Description: The 8-page pamphlet is bound in a modern hardcover binding with multiple blank pages added at end. The satirical poem is written to the "Sons of Harvard" with unflattering descriptions of Harvard tutors. The poem begins, "Begin, O Muse! and let your themes be these / Tutors forever should their pupils please." The four tutors are not identified by name, but a footnote in the poem indicates by first letter their names. The caustic descriptions begin for the tutors: "For if instead of freedom and of care, The Roman uses supercilious airs" to describe Andrew Eliot, "The stiff logician wipes his greasy face" for Stephen Scales, "The geographic tutor be a fool" for Timothy Hilliard, and "If too instead of an engaging bow, / A frown comes tumbling from the Grecian brow" for Joseph Willard. In the closing lines the poem refers to Harvard by name: "Such are the mushrooms of the present day, That hold o'er H*****d a despotick sway...I would advise the sons of H*****d then, / To let them know, that they are sons of men; / Not brutes, as they would to the world display..."
Notes: "Feb. 14, 1908 Bright fund." -- note on bookplate.

"The four tutors described were Andrew Eliot, Stephen Scales, Timothy Hilliard and Joseph Williard (afterwards President)." --Note interleaved in binding.

Evans, 11210

Wegelin, O. Amer. poetry, 806

English Short Title Catalog, W28393.

A collection of humorous verses and sketches relating to Harvard College (Harvard Archives HUD 2769.88.3) includes a manuscript version of the poem and additional satricial depictions of Harvard tutors.

The satirical poem was published in 1769 and fell within a series of actions by Harvard students criticizing Harvard's faculty and administration including the Butter Rebellion of 1766, a 1768 renouncement of tea by the seniors, and student gatherings by the "Rebellion Elm" in Harvard Yard. In an April 6, 1784 letter to Rev. William Bentley (AB 1777), Harvard alumnus James Winthrop (AB 1769) notes the poem was "at the time generally attributed to my classmate J. W. A." Bentley was presumably referring to Jonathan Williams Austin (AB 1769). Jonathan Williams Austin (1751-1779 Class of 1769) was a law clerk for John Adams and served as major in the Revolutionary War. Winthrop's letter is part of the Papers of William Bentley (HUG 1203.5) in the Harvard University Archives.