Part 8

Professor Lounsbury (_Studies in Chaucer_, ii p. 186 and pp. 396-7) has difficulty in explaining why Chaucer makes the Wife of Bath attribute these moral maxims to Ptolemy. He is inclined to think that Chaucer, so to speak, was napping when he put these utterances into the mouth of the Wife of Bath; yet elsewhere he acknowledges that the supposition of confused memory on Chaucer's part in this case is hard to reconcile with the knowledge he elsewhere displays of Ptolemy's work. I think it very probable that Chaucer's seeming slip here is deliberate art. The Wife of Bath is one of Chaucer's most humorous creations and the blunders he here attributes to her are quite in keeping with her character. From her fifth husband, who was a professional scholar and a wide reader, she has picked up a store of scattered and incomplete information about books and names, and she loses no opportunity for displaying it. At any rate, whether or not Chaucer had read the _Almagest_ in translation, his many cosmological and astronomical references show clearly his acquaintance with the Ptolemaic system of astronomy.

[2] An Arabian scholar of the eighth century.

[3] 1.18 ff. "This tretis, divided in fyve parties, wole I shewe thee under ful lighte rewles and naked wordes in English; for Latin ne canstow yit but smal, my lyte sone."

[4] "And Lowis, yif so be that I shewe thee in my lighte English as trewe conclusiouns touching this matere, and naught only as trewe but as many and as subtil conclusiouns as ben shewed in Latin in any commune tretis of the Astrolabie, con me the more thank;" _Prologue to the Astrolabe_, 35-39.

[5] Skeat, _Notes on the Astrolabe, Prologue_, 62. "Warton says that 'John Some and Nicholas Lynne' were both Carmelite friars, and wrote calendars constructed for the meridian of Oxford. He adds that Nicholas Lynne is said to have made several voyages to the most northerly parts of the world, charts of which he presented to Edward III. These charts are, however, lost."

[6] _The Astrolabe_, I. 8.9. According to Warton the work in question is an introduction to judicial astronomy. (Lounsbury, II. 398.)

[7] F. 1273. "His tables Toletanes forth he broght."

[8] _Englische Studien_ III 209. See also J. S. P. Tatlock, "Chaucer and Dante," in _Modern Philology_, III, 367. 1905.

[9] _Parlement of Foules_, 57-59.

[10] _Compleynt of Mars_, 29.

[11] _Lenvoy de Chaucer a Scogan_, 8-12.

"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."

[12] Since Chaucer calls Mars the lord of the third heaven and elsewhere speaks of Venus as presiding over that sphere it is evident that he sometimes reckons from the earth outwards, and sometimes from the outer sphere of Saturn towards the earth. The regular order of the planets, counting from the earth, was supposed to be as follows: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, making Mars the third from the last.

[13] III. 1-2.

[14]

"O firste moevyng cruel firmament, With thy diurnal sweigh that crowdest ay And hurlest al from Est til Occident, That naturelly wolde holde another way." (B. 295-8)

Chaucer does not use the term 'firmament' with sole reference to the star-sphere. Here it clearly refers to the _primum mobile_; it often applies to the whole expanse of the heavens.

[15] _Boethius_, Book I: Metre V, 1-4. The conception of God as the creator and unmoved mover of the universe originated in the philosophy of Aristotle, who was the one great authority, aside from Scripture and the Church Fathers, recognized by the Middle Ages. God's abode was thought to be in the Empyrean, the motionless sphere beyond the ninth, and the last heaven. This is the meaning in the reference to the eternal throne ("perdurable chayer") of God.

[16] Many of these beautiful descriptions, however, are not strictly Chaucer's own, since they occur in his translation of Boethius. It will suffice to quote one of these descriptions:

"And, right by ensaumple as the sonne is hid whan the sterres ben clustred (_that is to seyn, whan sterres ben covered with cloudes_) by a swifte winde that highte Chorus, and that the firmament stant derked by wete ploungy cloudes, and that the sterres nat apperen up-on hevene, so that the night semeth sprad up-on erthe: yif thanne the wind that highte Borias, y-sent out of the caves of the contres of Trace, beteth this night (_that is to seyn, chaseth it a-wey_), and descovereth the closed day: than shyneth Phebus y-shaken with sodein light, and smyteth with his bemes in mervelinge eyen." (_Boethius_, Book I.: Metre III. 3-12.)

[17] _Hymn on the Nativity_, XIII.

[18] _The Merchant of Venice_, Act. V. Sc. i.

[19] _Parlement of Foules_, 60-63.

[20] _Troilus and Criseyde_, V. 1811-1813.

[21] A. 2297-9.

[22] _Hous of Fame_, ii. 713 ff.

[23] _Seconde Nonnes Tale_, G. 45-47.

[24] _The Seconde Nonnes Tale_, G. 113-115.

[25] A. 1200.

[26] B. 300 ff.

[27] _The Persones Tale_, I. 169 ff.: "ther shal the sterne and wrothe luge sitte above, and under him the horrible put of helle open to destroyen him that moot biknowen hise sinnes, whiche sinnes openly been shewed biforn god and biforn every creature. And on the left syde, mo develes than herte may bithinke, for to harie and drawe the sinful soules to the pyne of helle. And with-inne the hertes of folk shal be the bytinge conscience, and withoute-forth shal be the world al brenninge."

[28] _The Persones Tale_, I. 216-217.

[29] _The Wife of Bath's Prologue_, D. 489.

[30] _The Marchantes Tale_, E. 1645 ff.

[31] _The Knightes Tale_, A. 1224-7.

[32] _Troilus and Criseyde_, Bk. IV. 864.

[33] _Marchantes Tale_, E. 1265.

[34] _Ibid._ E. 1331-1332.

[35] _The Legend of Good Women_, III. 1103 ff.

[36] _The Monkes Tale_, B. 3200.

[37] _The Pardoneres Tale_, C. 505-511.

[38] In the time of Hamurabi, 2,000 years before Christ, the Chaldeans worshipped as beneficent or formidable powers, the Earth, that may give or refuse sustenance to man, the Waters that fertilize or devastate, the Winds that blow from the four quarters of the world, Fire that warms or devours and all forces of nature which, in their sidereal religion, they confounded with the stars, giving them the generic name of 'Elements.' But the system that recognizes only four elements as the original sources of all that exists in nature, was created by the Greek philosophers.

See F. Cumont, _Astrology and Religion among the Greeks and Romans_ (1912), p. 33.

[39] _Paradiso_ i. 92-93.

[40] _Paradiso_ i. 130-135.

[41] Book III.: Metre IX. 13 ff.

[42] _The Knightes Tale_, A. 2991-3.

[43] _Troilus and Criseyde_, V. 1807-10.

[44] _Boethius_, Book IV.; Metre I. l ff.

[45] _The Hous of Fame_, II. 972-978.

[46] _Boethius_, Book II.: Metre VIII. l. 1 ff.

"That the world with stable feith varieth acordable chaunginges; that the contrarious qualitee of elements holden among hemself aliaunce perdurable; ... --al this acordaunce of things is bounden with Love, that governeth erthe and see, and hath also commaundements to the hevenes. And yif this Love slakede the brydeles, alle things that now loven hem to-gederes wolden maken a bataile continuely, and stryven to fordoon the fasoun of this worlde, the whiche they now leden in acordable feith by faire moevinges."

The thought of love as the harmonizing bond between diverse elements is dealt with more poetically in _Troilus and Criseyde_, Bk. III. 1744-1757.

"'Love, that of erthe and see hath governaunce, Love, that his hestes hath in hevene hye, . . . . . . . . . . That that the world with feyth, which that is stable, Dyverseth so his stoundes concordinge, That elements that been so discordable Holden a bond perpetuely duringe. That Phebus mote his rosy day forth bringe, And that the mone hath lordship over the nightes, Al this doth Love; ay heried be his mightes!'"

[47] Skeat, _Notes to Boethius_, II.: Metre 9, 1. 14.

[48] 11.379-381.

[49] _The Phisiciens Tale_, C. 11-26.

[50] See Appendix, I.

[51] B. l ff.

"Our Hoste sey wel that the brighte sonne The ark of his artificial day had ronne The fourthe part, and half an houre, and more; And though he were not depe expert in lore, He wiste it was the eightetethe day Of April, that is messager to May; And sey wel that the shadwe of every tree Was as in lengthe the same quantitee That was the body erect that caused it. And therefor by the shadwe he took his wit That Phebus, which that shoon so clere and brighte, Degrees was fyve and fourty clombe on highte; And for that day, as in that latitude, It was ten of the clokke, he gan conclude, And sodeynly he plighte his hors aboute."

For Chaucer's accuracy in this reference see Appendix II.

[52] _Prologue_, 267-68.

[53] Planets are said to be in conjunction with one another when they appear as one object or very close together within a limited area of the sky.

[54] _The Hous of Fame_, Book I. 503-8. Cf. Dante, _Paradiso_ i. 58-63:

"I not long endured him, nor yet so little but that I saw him sparkle all around, like iron issuing molten from the furnace. And, of a sudden, meseemed that day was added unto day, as though he who hath the power, had adorned heaven with a second sun."

[55] _The Marchantes Tale_, E. 2219-21.

[56] _Prologue to the Legend of Good Women_, 125-9.

[57] _Troilus and Criseyde_, V. 8.

[58] _Ibid._ V, 1107.

[59] _Compleynt of Mars_, 7.

The epithet "candel of Ielosye" is an allusion to the classical myth according to which Phoebus (the Sun), having discovered the amour between Mars and Venus, revealed it to Vulcan thus arousing him to jealousy.

[60] _Troilus and Criseyde_, II, 904-907.

[61] _Ibid._ V. 278-279.

[62] _Troilus and Criseyde_, III. 1702-5.

[63] _Compleynt of Mars_, 81-84.

[64] _Frankeleyns Tale_, F. 1016-18.

[65] See Appendix III.

[66] _Knightes Tale_, A. 1493-1496.

[67] _Parson's Prologue_, I. 1-9. See Appendix IV.

[68] _Nonne Preestes Tale_, B. 4381-89. Chaucer has already indicated the date as May 3 by saying that March is complete and thirty-two days have passed besides. (l. 4379). That the sun would on May 3 have passed the 21st degree of Aries can be verified by reference to Fig. 1 in Skeat's _Introduction to the Astrolabe_. A straight edge ing May 3 would cross the circle of the zodiacal signs at a point a little past the 21st degree of Aries.

[69] Ascension means 'ascending degree.'

[70] _Nonne Preestes Tale_, B. 4043-4048.

[71] The sun reaches his farthest point to the south at noon when on the meridian. See appendix I.

[72] _Prologue_, 197.

[73] _Ibid._ 60-61.

[74] _Marchantes Tale_, E. 1795-7.

[75] _Frankeleyns Tale_, F. 1016-17.

[76] See Appendix I. 82 ff., 84 ff.

[77] _Prologue to the Canterbury Tales_, A. 7-8.

At the beginning of April the sun is a little past the middle of Aries and at the beginning of May, roughly speaking, he is in the middle of Taurus. Thus the sun in April runs a half-course in Aries and a half-course in Taurus. Chaucer means here that the former of these half-courses is completed, so that it is some time after the eleventh of April.

[78] _Troilus and Criseyde_, II. 50-56. On the third of May, in Chaucer's time, the sun would be past the twentieth degree of Taurus.

[79] The sun's declination means his angular distance north or south of the celestial equator. The solstices mark his maximum declination north or south. See Appendix I. 83 ff.

[80] V. 8-14.

[81] _Frankeleyns Tale_, F. 1031-35. See Appendix V.

[82] Latoun was a compound metal containing chiefly copper and zinc.

[83] F. 1245-49.

[84] _Astrolabe_, _Prologue_, 64-70.

[85] _Legend of Good Women_, III. 1162-4.

[86] _Troilus and Criseyde_, IV. 1591.

[87] _Book of the Duchesse_, 820-26.

[88] _Romaunt of the Rose_, 1010-12.

[89] See Appendix VI.

[90] _Marchantes Tale_, E. 1885-8.

To pass from the second degree of Taurus into Cancer the moon would have to traverse the remaining twenty-eight degrees of Taurus, thirty of Gemini and at least one of Cancer, making 59° of the zodiac in all. For the moon to do this is possible, as Skeat has shown. See Appendix VII.

[91] _Marchantes Tale_, E. 1893-6.

[92] _Troilus and Criseyde_, IV. 1590-96. Chaucer's reference to the moon's motion is again correct. It would, in fact, take the moon about ten days to pass from Aries through Leo, traversing four signs, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, and Leo, or about one-third of the whole zodiac. See Skeat, _Notes to Troilus and Criseyde_, p. 494.

[93] The moon.

[94] The 'sign-bearer'; that is, the zodiac. His candles are of course the stars and planets that appear in the zodiac.

[95] _Troilus and Criseyde_, V. 1018-22; 1027-29.

[96] _Legend of Good Women_, 2501-6.

[97] _Compleynt of Mars_, 235.

[98] _Hous of Fame_, 2110-17.

[99] _Troilus and Criseyde_, III. 624.

[100] _Ibid._ V. 652. "by the morwe" means 'early in the morning.'

[101] _Troilus and Criseyde_, III. EDT-EJ. See Appendix VIII. p. 91.

[102] Book I.: Metre V. 4-7.

[103] _Frankeleyns Tale_, F. 1045-54.

[104] _Frankeleyns Tale_, F. 1055-70. Skeat explains the lines:

"next at this opposicioun, Which in the signe shal be of the Leoun,"

thus: Earlier in the poem (l. 906) May 6 is mentioned and it is on this date that the events narrated so far are supposed to have taken place. In May the sun is in Taurus, so that the moon at her next opposition would have to be in the opposite sign, Scorpio. The reference must mean therefore:--"at the next opposition that takes place with the sun in Leo," not the very next one with the sun in Taurus, nor the next with the sun in Gemini or Cancer. This reason for waiting until there should be an opposition with the sun in Leo, was astrological. Leo was the _mansion_ of the Sun, so that the sun's power when in that sign would be greatest.

[105] B. 5333-46.

[106] Book IV.: Metre V. 8-9.

[107] Ibid. 10-11.

[108] See Appendix IX. p. ff.

[109] _Hous of Fame_, III. 1375-6.

[110] _Book of the Duchesse_, III. 408-9.

[111] _Astrolabe_, II. 35. 17-18. The attempt to explain the moon's motion by supposing her to move in an epicycle was hopelessly wrong. Chaucer means here simply that the moon's motion in her deferent is direct like that of the other planets (their apparent motion is in the direction west to east except at short periods of retrogression) but that the moon's direction of motion in her epicycle is the reverse of that of the other planets.

[112] II. 35.

[113] See Appendix IX. p. 92 ff.

[114] Book I: Metre II. 8-9.

[115] Mercury and Venus are always seen either just before sunrise or just after sunset because their distances from the sun are so comparatively small.

[116] _Boethius_, Bk. I.: Metre V. 8-11.

[117] _Ibid._ Bk. III.: Metre I. 6-8.

[118] _Troilus and Criseyde_, Bk. III. 1417-18.

[119] _Ibid._ V. 1016-17.

[120] A. 2214-16.

[121] 113.

[122] This is an astrological term. A _palace_, _mansion_ or _house_ was that zodiacal sign in which a planet was supposed to be peculiarly at home.

[123] _Compleynt of Mars_, 53-56. Mars is to hurry until he reaches Venus' palace and then advance as slowly as possible, to wait for her. Evidently Chaucer was aware of the varying apparent velocities of planetary motions.

[124] _Ibid._ 64-70. When Venus overtakes Mars they are in conjunction.

[125] _Ibid._ 98-112.

[126] That is, the motions of both planets are direct, not retrograde.

[127] _Ibid._ 129-138.

[128] _Ibid._ 142-147.

[129] That is, the two planets appear very close together in the sky.

[130] _Knightes Tale_, A. 2453-5.

[131] 71-72:

"The grete Ioye that was betwix hem two, Whan they be met, ther may no tunge telle."

[132] II. 32.

[133] III. 624-5.

[134] _Convivio_, II. xv. 10.

[135] 55-56.

[136] _Hous of Fame_, II. 935-956.

[137] _Inferno_, xvii. 107-108.

[138] _Convivio_, II. xv. 48-55.

[139] Mrs. John Evershed, _Dante and the Early Astronomers_, p. 200.

[140] _Prologue to the Canterbury Tales_, A. 412-418.

[141] ii. 4. 36-39.

[142] F. 1123-34.

[143] F. 1270-72.

[144] F. 1285-96.

[145] _Studies in Chaucer_, vol. ii. 498, ff.

[146] "The Scene of _The Franklin's Tale_ Visited," _Chaucer Society Publications_, (1914); "Astrology and Magic in Chaucer's _Franklin's Tale_;" _Kittredge Anniversary Papers_ (1913).

[147] _Chaucer and His Poetry_, p. 186, ff.

[148] The principal aspects were conjunction, sextile, quartile, trine, and opposition, corresponding respectively to the angular distances 0°, 60°, 90°, 120° and 180°.

[149] _Knightes Tale_, A. 1084-91.

[150] _Tale of the Man of Lawe_, B. 190-196.

[151] _Ibid._ 197-203.

[152] _Troilus and Criseyde_, IV. 743-746.

[153] IX. 2576-2599.

[154] Her father, Egistes, because he feared her husband, bade her kill him by cutting his throat, and threatened her with death if she refused.

[155] In astrology the signs of the zodiac were called 'houses' or 'mansions' and each was assigned to a particular planet. When a planet was in its house or mansion, its power was very great. Each of the planets had also a sign called its 'exaltation' and in this sign its power was greatest of all. The sign opposite a planet's mansion was called its 'fall' and that opposite its exaltation was called its 'depression'; these were the positions of least influence. Mars' mansions were Aries and Scorpio; his exaltation, Capricornus; his fall, Libra and Taurus, and his depression, Cancer. At the time of Hypermnestra's birth, then, we may suppose that Mars was in Libra, Taurus or in Cancer. If he was in Libra or Taurus, his influence would be suppressed by Venus, as these signs were in her mansions.

[156] _Knightes Tale_, A. 2453-2469.

[157] _Ibid._ 1087-1088.

[158] _Ibid._ 1328.

[159] _Astrolabe_, ii. 4. 21-25. The term "hous" is here used in a different sense from that in the passage explained above, p. 120. The whole heavens were divided into twelve portions by great circles passing through the north and south points of the horizon. The one of these just rising was called the 'house of the ascendant.'

[160] _Wife of Bath's Prologue_, D. 609-616. The line

"Myn ascendent was Taur, and Mars ther-inne"

means that at the time of her birth Taurus was just rising in the east and Mars was in this sign, and as Taurus was the mansion of Venus, the influences of the two planets would be mingled.

[161] D. 697-706.

[162] A. 3513-3518.

[163] III. 549-552.

[164] III. 624-628.

[165] 1-7.

[166] 8-14.

[167] 15-19.

[168] _Troilus and Criseyde_, IV. 260-266; 274-280.

[169] I. 1014-15.

[170] II. 967-973.

[171] A planet was said to be _combust_ when its light was extinguished by proximity to the sun. When Venus and Mercury were 'combust' their influence was lost.

[172] III. 712-718. It is sometimes hard to determine whether the beings prayed to are pagan gods and goddesses or heavenly bodies. This passage makes it clear that the planets were identified with the pagan divinities. In the rest of this prayer Troilus addresses Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, etc., as gods, referring in each case to some love affair, from ancient myth, that may win the god's sympathy and help.

[173] III. 1254-1257. The "wel-willy planete" means the propitious or favorable one.

[174] V. 638-644. Troilus needs the aid of Venus especially on the tenth night after Criseyde's departure, because she had promised to return on that night.

[175] F. 129-130.

[176] II. 71-76.

[177] _Knightes Tale_, A. 1079.

[178] _Ibid._ 1084-1091.

[179] A. 1163-69.

[180] A. 1303-8.

[181] A. 1663-1672. This is the mediaeval Christian idea of destiny or the fore-knowledge of God, and is appropriately uttered here by the Knight.

[182] A. 2209 ff; 2271 ff; 2367 ff.

[183] Diana was called _Luna_ (or the Moon) in heaven, on earth, _Diana_ or _Lucina_, and in hell, _Proserpina_.

[184] A. 2438-2446.

[185] A. 2453-2455; 2470-2476.

[186] _Troilus and Criseyde_, I. 1-5.

[187] _Ibid._ I. 6-7.

[188] II. 15-18.

[189] II. 48-49.

[190] IV. 1-14.

[191] V. 1037-1050.

[192] V. 1093-1099.

[193] _Troilus and Criseyde_, III. 617-620.

[194] For Chaucer's locality, 45°.

[195] See the _Astrolabe_, i. 18, 19. Vertical circles are called _azimuths_ by Chaucer.

[196] Strictly speaking, the equinoxes and solstices are each simply an instant of time.

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.

Subscripted characters are indicated by {subscript}.

End of Project Gutenberg's Astronomical Lore in Chaucer, by Florence M. Grimm