Part 5

In the _Man of Lawes Tale_ the effect of the stars at the time of a man's nativity is discussed somewhat at length. The Man of Law predicts the fate of the sultan by saying that the destiny written in the stars had perhaps allotted to him death through love:

"Paraventure in thilke large book Which that men clepe the heven, y-writen was With sterres, whan that he his birthe took, That he for love shulde han his deeth, allas! For in the sterres, clerer than is glas, Is writen, god wot, who-so coude it rede, The deeth of every man, withouten drede."[150]

Then he mentions the names of various ancient heroes whose death, he says was written in the stars "er they were born:"

"In sterres, many a winter ther-biforn, Was written the deeth of Ector, Achilles, Of Pompey, Iulius, er they were born; The stryf of Thebes; and of Ercules, Of Sampson, Turnus, and of Socrates The deeth; but mennes wittes been so dulle, That no wight can wel rede it atte fulle."[151]

When Criseyde learns that she is to be sent to the Greeks in exchange for Antenor she attributes her misfortune to the stars:

"'Alas!' quod she, 'out of this regioun I, woful wrecche and infortuned wight, And born in corsed constellacioun, Mot goon, and thus departen fro my knight;'"[152]

In the _Legend of Good Women_ we are told that Hypermnestra was "born to all good things" or qualities, and then the various influences of the particular planets upon her destiny are mentioned:

"The whiche child, of hir nativitee, To alle gode thewes born was she, As lyked to the goddes, or she was born, That of the shefe she sholde be the corn; The Wirdes, that we clepen Destinee, Hath shapen her that she mot nedes be Pitouse, sadde, wyse, and trewe as steel; And to this woman hit accordeth weel. For, though that Venus yaf her great beautee, With Jupiter compouned so was she That conscience, trouthe, and dreed of shame, And of hir wyfhood for to keep her name, This, thoughte her, was felicitee as here. And rede Mars was, that tyme of the yere, So feble, that his malice is him raft, Repressed hath Venus his cruel craft; What with Venus and other oppressioun Of houses, Mars his venim is adoun, That Ypermistra dar nat handle a knyf In malice, thogh she sholde lese her lyf. But natheles, as heven gan tho turne, To badde aspectes hath she of Saturne, That made her for to deyen in prisoun, As I shal after make mencioun."[153]

The purpose of this astrological passage is plainly to show why Hypermnestra was doomed to die in prison. The qualities given her by the planets, as shown by her horoscope, were such that she was unable to violate a wife's duty and kill her husband in order to save her own life.[154] Venus gave her great beauty and was also influential in repressing the influence of Mars who would have given her fighting qualities if his influence had been strong. The myth of the amour between Venus and Mars, which Chaucer makes the basis of his poem the _Compleynt of Mars_, would explain why Venus was able to influence Mars in this way. The feeble influence of Mars at Hypermnestra's nativity is accounted for also in another way. His influence is feeble because of the time of year and through the "oppressioun of houses" both of which amount to the same thing, namely, a position in the zodiac in which his power is at a minimum.[155] The influence of Jupiter, we are told, was to give Hypermnestra conscience, truth, and wifely loyalty. That of Saturn was evil and the cause of her death in prison.

The specific influences of Saturn are mentioned in detail in the _Knightes Tale_. Almost all the ills imaginable are attributable to his power:

"'My dere doghter Venus,' quod Saturne, 'My cours, that hath so wyde for to turne, Hath more power than wot any man. Myn is the drenching in the see so wan; Myn is the prison in the derke cote; Myn is the strangling and hanging by the throte; The murmure, and the cherles rebelling, The groyning, and the pryvee empoysoning; I do vengeance and pleyn correccioun Whyl I dwelle in the signe of the leoun. Myn is the ruine of the hye halles, The falling of the toures and of the walles Up-on the mynour or the carpenter. I slow Sampsoun in shaking the piler; And myne be the maladyes colde, The derke tresons, and the castes olde; My loking is the fader of pestilence.'"[156]

In the line,

"Myn is the prison in the derke cote;"

imprisonment is for the second time attributed to Saturn's influence. In an earlier passage in the _Knightes Tale_[157], (see p. 59) it is suggested when Palamon and Arcite's imprisonment is said to be due to 'some wicked aspect or disposition of Saturn' at the time of their birth. Later in the story Palamon specifically states that his imprisonment is through Saturn:

"But I mot been in prison thurgh Saturne,"[158]

That Mars and Saturn were generally regarded as planets of evil influence is shown by a passage in the _Astrolabe_. Chaucer has just explained what the 'ascendant', means in astrology. It is that degree of the zodiac that at the given time is seen upon the eastern horizon. Now, Chaucer says, the ascendant may be 'fortunate or unfortunate,' thus:

"a fortunat ascendent clepen they whan that no wykkid planete, as Saturne or Mars, or elles the Tail of the Dragoun, is in the house of the assendent, ne that no wikked planets have non aspects of enemite up-on the assendent;"[159]

The Wife of Bath attributes the two principal qualities of her disposition, amorousness and pugnaciousness, to the planets Venus and Mars:

"For certes, I am al Venerien In felinge, and myn herte is Marcien. Venus me yaf my lust, my likerousnesse, And Mars yaf me my sturdy hardinesse. Myn ascendent was Taur, and Mars ther-inne. Allas! allas! that ever love was sinne! I folwed ay myn inclinacioun By vertu of my constellacioun."[160]

A little later in her _Prologue_ the Wife contrasts the influences of Mercury and Venus. As a jibe at the Clerk who was in the company of Canterbury pilgrims she has just said that clerks cannot possibly speak well of wives, and that women could tell tales of clerks if they would. She upholds her statement thus: Wives are the children of Venus, clerks, of Mercury, two planets that are 'in their working full contrarious:'

"The children of Mercurie and of Venus Been in hir wirking ful contrarious; Mercurie loveth wisdom and science, And Venus loveth ryot and dispence. And, for hir diverse disposicioun, Ech falleth in otheres exaltacioun; And thus, got woot! Mercurie is desolat In Pisces, wher Venus is exaltat; And Venus falleth ther Mercurie is reysed; Therefore no womman of no clerk is preysed."[161]

Venus has her exaltation in the sign in which Mercury has his depression. Therefore the two signs have opposite virtues and influences, and the children of one can see little good in the children of the other.

We have seen how the stars were supposed to control human destiny by bestowing certain qualities upon souls at birth. We shall next consider how they were thought to influence men more indirectly, through their effects on terrestrial events. Certain positions of the heavenly bodies with regard to one another could cause heavy rains. The clerk in the _Milleres Tale_ predicts a great rain through observation of the moon's position:

"'Now John,' quod Nicholas, 'I wol nat lye; I have y-founde in myn astrologye, As I have loked in the mone bright, That now, a Monday next, at quarter-night, Shal falle a reyn and that so wilde and wood, That half so greet was never Noes flood.'"[162]

Such predictions as this were, however, by no means always believed in even by uneducated people. In this case, for the purposes of the story, the flood does not take place. The carpenter, John, is taken in because the story requires it, but Nicholas is a quack pure and simple, and of course the Miller who tells the story has no delusions.

In _Troilus and Criseyde_ we are told that the moon's conjunction with Jupiter and Saturn caused a heavy rain. Pandarus had the day before suspected that there was to be rain from the condition of the moon:

"Right sone upon the chaunging of the mone, Whan lightles is the world a night or tweyne, And that the welken shoop him for to reyne, He streight a-morwe un-to his nece wente;"[163]

and on the next night the rain came:

"The bente mone with hir hornes pale, Saturne, and Iove, in Cancro ioyned were, That swich a rayn from hevene gan avale, That every maner womman that was there Hadde of that smoky reyn a verray fere;"[164]

Perhaps the moon alone in Cancer, which was her mansion, would have caused a rain, and it was the additional presence of Saturn and Jupiter that made it such a heavy downpour.

Chaucer humorously makes use of this astrological superstition that the planets cause rains in the _Lenvoy a Scogan_:

"To-broken been the statuts hye in hevene That creat were eternally to dure, Sith that I see the brighte goddes sevene Mow wepe and wayle, and passioun endure, As may in erthe a mortal creature. Allas, fro whennes may this thing procede? Of whiche errour I deye almost for drede."[165]

Here it is not the planets' positions that cause the rain, but the planets are weeping as mortals do and their tears are the rain. In the next stanza we learn that even Venus, from whose sphere divine law once decreed no tear should ever fall, is weeping so that mortals are about to be drenched. And it is all Scogan's fault!

"By worde eterne whylom was hit shape That fro the fifte cercle, in no manere, Ne mighte a drope of teres doun escape. But now so wepeth Venus in hir spere, That with hir teres she wol drenche us here. Allas! Scogan! this is for thyn offence! Thou causest this deluge of pestilence."[166]

So the ultimate cause of the rain was Scogan's offense. And in the next stanza we learn what that offence was. Instead of vowing to serve his lady forever, though his love is unrequited, Scogan has rebelled against the law of love:

"Hast thou not seyd, in blaspheme of this goddes, Through pryde, or through thy grete rakelnesse, Swich thing as in the lawe of love forbode is? That, for thy lady saw nat thy distresse, Therefor thou yave hir up at Michelmesse!"[167]

I have said that Chaucer makes wide use of the astrological beliefs of his century in portraying character and have shown how some of the strange astrological ideas of the people of his time are reflected in Chaucer's poetry. It remains to consider somewhat more closely the relations between astrological faith and conduct, and Chaucer's application of these relations to the dramatic action in his poems.

The inevitable logical outcome of astrological faith is the doctrine of Necessity. The invariability of the celestial motions suggested to early astrologers that there must be a higher power transcending and controlling them, and this power could be none other than Necessity. But, since the stars by their movements and positions were the regulators of mundane events and human affairs, it followed that human destiny on the earth was also under the sway of this relentless power of Necessity or Fate. Now it was the Stoics alone who developed a thorough-going fatalism and at the same time made it consistent with practical life and virtue. They taught that man could best find himself in complete submission to the divine law of destiny. The early Babylonian astrologers who originated the doctrine of necessity did not develop it to its logical consequences. Reasoning from certain very unusual occurrences that sometimes took place in the heavens, such as the appearance of comets, meteors and falling stars, they reached the conclusion that divine will at times arbitrarily interfered in the destined course of nature. So priests foretold future events from the configuration of the heavens, but professed ability to ward off threatened evils by spells and incantations, or, by purifications and sacrifices, to make the promised blessings more secure.

Now the fatalism of Chaucer's characters is something like this. The general belief in the determination of human destiny by Fortune or Necessity is present and is expressed usually at moments of deep despair, when the longings of the heart and the struggles of the will have been relentlessly thwarted. When the Trojans decree that Criseyde must go to the Greeks in exchange for Antenor, Troilus pleads with Fortune:

"Than seyde he thus, 'Fortune! allas the whyle! What have I doon, what have I thus a-gilt? How mightestow for reuthe me bigyle? Is ther no grace, and shall I thus be spilt? Shal thus Criseyde awey, for that thou wilt? Allas! how maystow in thyn herte finde To been to me thus cruel and unkinde? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Allas! Fortune! if that my lyf in Ioye Displesed hadde un-to thy foule envye, Why ne haddestow my fader, king of Troye, By-raft the lyf, or doon my bretheren dye, Or slayn my-self, that thus compleyne and crye, I, combre-world, that may of no-thing serve, But ever dye, and never fulle sterve?'"[168]

But there is present, too, in spite of all obstacles and defeats, an undying hope that somehow--by prayers and sacrifices to the celestial powers, or by the choice of astrologically favorable times of doing things--that somehow the course of human lives, mapped out at birth by the stars under the control of relentless destiny, may be altered. So the characters in Chaucer's poems pray to the orbs of the sky to help in their undertakings. The love-lorn Troilus undertakes scarcely a single act without first beseeching some one of the celestial powers for help. When he has confessed his love to Pandarus and the latter has promised to help him, Troilus prays to Venus:

"'Now blisful Venus helpe, er that I sterve, Of thee, Pandare, I may som thank deserve.'"[169]

and when the first step has been taken and he knows that Criseyde is not ill disposed to be his friend at least, he praises Venus, looking up to her as a flower to the sun:

"But right as floures, thorugh the colde of night Y-closed, stoupen on hir stalkes lowe, Redressen hem a-yein the sonne bright, And spreden on hir kinde cours by rowe; Right so gan tho his eyen up to throwe This Troilus, and seyde, 'O Venus dere, Thy might, thy grace, y-heried be it here!'"[170]

When Troilus is about to undertake a step that will either win or lose Criseyde he prays to all the planetary gods, but especially to Venus, begging her to overcome by her aid whatever evil influences the planets exercised over him in his birth:

"'Yit blisful Venus, this night thou me enspyre,' Quod Troilus, 'as wis as I thee serve, And ever bet and bet shal, til I sterve. And if I hadde, O Venus ful of murthe, Aspectes badde of Mars or of Saturne, Or thou combust[171] or let were in my birthe, Thy fader prey al thilke harm disturne.'"[172]

Troilus does not forget to praise Venus when Criseyde is won at last:

"Than seyde he thus, 'O, Love, O, Charitee, Thy moder eek, Citherea the swete, After thy-self next heried be she, Venus mene I, the wel-willy planete;'"[173]

And after Criseyde has gone away to the Greeks, it is to Venus still that the lover utters his lament and prayer, saying that without the guidance of her beams he is lost:

"'O sterre, of which I lost have al the light, With herte soor wel oughte I to bewayle, That ever derk in torment, night by night, Toward my deeth with wind in stere I sayle; For which the tenthe night if that I fayle The gyding of thy bemes brighte an houre, My ship and me Caribdis wol devoure:'"[174]

Another effect of astrological faith on conduct was the choice of times for doing things of importance with reference to astrological conditions. When a man wished to set out on any enterprise of importance he very often consulted the positions of the stars to see if the time was propitious. Thus in the _Squieres Tale_ it is said that the maker of the horse of brass

"wayted many a constellacioun, Er he had doon this operacioun;"[175]

that is, he waited carefully for the moment when the stars would be in the most propitious position, so that his undertaking would have the greatest possible chance of success. Pandarus goes to his niece Criseyde to plead for Troilus at a time when the moon is favorably situated in the heavens:

"And gan to calle, and dresse him up to ryse, Remembringe him his erand was to done From Troilus, and eek his greet empryse; And caste and knew in good plyt was the mone-- To doon viage, and took his wey ful sone Un-to his neces paleys ther bi-syde."[176]

The kind of fatalism that Chaucer's characters, as a rule, represent is well illustrated in the story of Palamon and Arcite, told by the Knight in the _Canterbury Tales_. These two young nobles of Thebes, cousins by relationship, are captured by Theseus, king of Athens, and imprisoned in the tower of his palace. From the window of the tower Palamon espies the king's beautiful sister Emelye walking in the garden and instantly falls in love. Arcite, seeing his cousin's sudden pallor and hearing his exclamation which, Chaucer says, sounded

"As though he stongen were un-to the herte."[177]

thinks that Palamon is complaining because of his imprisonment and urges him to bear in patience the decree of the heavens:

"'For Goddes love, tak al in pacience Our prisoun, for it may non other be; Fortune hath yeven us this adversitee. Som wikke aspect or disposicioun Of Saturne, by sum constellacioun, Hath yeven us this, al-though we hadde it sworn; So stood the heven whan that we were born; We moste endure it; this is the short and pleyn.'"[178]

This is the doctrine of Necessity, and it suggests the Stoic virtue of submission to fate; yet Arcite's attitude toword his misfortune is not truly stoic, for there is none of that joy in submission here that the Stoic felt in surrendering himself to the will of the powers above. Arcite would resist fate if he could.

Palamon explains the cause of his woe and when Arcite looks out and sees Emelye he too falls a victim to love. Then Palamon knits his brows in righteous indignation. Did he not love the beautiful lady first and trust his secret to his cousin and sworn brother? And was it not Arcite's duty and solemn pledge to help and not hinder him in his love? Arcite's defence shows that the fatalism that dominates his thought is a fatalism that excuses him for doing as he pleases: Love knows no law, but is a law unto itself. Therefore he must needs love Emelye.

"Wostow nat wel the olde clerkes sawe, That 'who shal yeve a lover any lawe?' Love is a gretter lawe, by my pan, Than may be yeve to any erthly man. And therefore positif lawe and swich decree Is broke al-day for love, in ech degree. A man moot nedes love, maugree his heed."[179]

When Arcite is released from prison but banished from Athens with the threat of death should he return, both men are utterly unhappy, Arcite, because he can no longer see Emelye, and Palamon because he fears that Arcite will return to Athens with a band of kinsmen to aid him, and carry off Emelye by force. After Arcite has gone Palamon reproaches the gods for determining the destiny of men so irrevocably without consulting their wishes or their deserts:

"'O cruel goddes, that governe This world with binding of your word eterne, And wryten in the table of athamaunt Your parlement, and your eterne graunt, What is mankinde more un-to yow holde Than is the sheep, that rouketh in the folde?'"[180]

Many a man, Palamon says, suffers sickness, imprisonment and other misfortunes unjustly because of the inexorable destiny imposed upon him by the gods. Even the lot of the beasts is better, for they do as they will and have nothing to suffer for it after death; whereas man must suffer both in this life and the next. This, surely, is not willing submission to fate.

After some years Palamon escapes from prison and encounters Arcite, who has returned in disguise and become Theseus' chief squire. They arrange to settle their differences by a duel next day. But destiny was guiding Theseus' conduct too, so the narrator of the story says, and was so powerful that it caused a coincidence that might not happen again in a thousand years:

"The destinee, ministre general, That executeth in the world over-al The purveyaunce, that God hath seyn biforn, So strong it is, that, though the world had sworn The contrarie of a thing, by ye or nay, Yet somtyme it shal fallen on a day That falleth nat eft with-inne a thousand yere. For certeinly, our appetytes here, Be it of werre, or pees, or hate, or love, Al is this reuled by the sighte above."[181]

Theseus goes hunting and with him, the queen and Emelye. They of course interrupt the duel between Palamon and Arcite. Through the intercession of the two women the duelists are pardoned and it is arranged that they settle their dispute by a tournament set for about a year later.

On the morning before the tournament Palamon, Arcite, and Emelye all go, at different hours, to pray and sacrifice to their respective patron deities. The times of their prayers are chosen according to astrological considerations, each going to pray in the hour[182] that was considered sacred to the planet with which his patron deity was identified. Palamon prays to Venus only that he may win his love, whether by victory or defeat in the tournament makes no difference to him. After his sacrifices are completed, the statute of Venus shakes and Palamon, regarding this as a favorable sign goes away with glad heart. Arcite prays Mars for victory and is answered by a portent even more favorable than that given to Palamon. Not only does the statue of Mars tremble so that his coat of mail resounds, but the very doors of the temple shake, the fire on the altar burns more brightly and Arcite hears the word "Victory" uttered in a low dim murmur. Emelye does not want to be given in marriage to any man and so she prays to Diana[183], as the protectress of maidenhood, to keep her a maid. Diana, the goddess, appears in her characteristic form as a huntress and tells Emelye that the gods have decreed her marriage either to Palamon or to Arcite, but that it cannot yet be revealed to which one she is to be given.

But now there is trouble in heaven. Venus has promised that Palamon shall have his love, and Mars has promised Arcite the victory. How are both promises to be fulfilled? Chaucer humorously expresses the dilemma thus:

"And richt anon swich stryf ther is bigonne For thilke graunting, in the hevene above, Bitwixe Venus, the goddesse of love, And Mars, the sterne god armipotente, That Iupiter was bisy it to stente; Til that the pale Saturnus the colde, That knew so manye of aventures olde, Fond in his old experience an art, That he ful sone hath plesed every part."[184]

We had almost forgotten that all the gods to whom prayers have been uttered and sacrifices offered were anything more than pagan gods. But now, by the reference to Saturn, "the pale Saturnus the colde" suggesting the dimness of his appearance in the sky, we are reminded that these gods are also planets.

But, to resume the story, Saturn finds the remedy for the embarrassing situation. He rehearses his powers and then tells Venus that her knight shall have his lady, but that Mars shall be able to help his knight also.