Astronomical Lore in Chaucer Part 12

[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 cla.s.sical 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 pa.s.sed besides. (l. 4379). That the sun would on May 3 have pa.s.sed 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 d.u.c.h.esse_, 820-26.

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

[89] See Appendix VI.

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

To pa.s.s 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 pa.s.s 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.