Astronomical Lore in Chaucer Part 6

Thus the astrological pa.s.sages in the _Franklin's Tale_ do not suggest total disbelief in astrology on Chaucer's part, and much less do they show him to have been lacking in true artistic sense. Probably his att.i.tude toward astrology was about this: he was very much interested in it, perhaps in much the same way that Dante was, because of the philosophical ideas at the basis of astrology and out of curiosity as to the problems of free will, providence, and so on, that naturally arose from it. For the shady practices and quackery connected with its use in his own day he had nothing but scorn.

But while Chaucer was at one with the educated men of his century in his att.i.tude toward astrology, and with them had a strong distaste for certain aspects of judicial astrology, nevertheless he made wide use of the greater faith of the majority of people of his time in portraying character in his poetry. For men's ideas and beliefs const.i.tute a very important part of their character, and Chaucer knew this very well. Men believed that whatever happened to them, whether fortunate or unfortunate, could in some way be traced to the influence of the stars, the agents and instruments of destiny. The configuration of the heavens at the moment of one's birth was considered especially important, since the positions and interrelations of the different celestial bodies at this time could determine the most momentous events of one's life. Now the nature of the influence exerted by the different stars, especially the planets and zodiacal constellations, varied greatly. Mars and Venus, for instance, bestowed vastly different qualities upon the soul that was coming into being. Moreover, the power exerted by a planet or constellation fluctuated considerably according to its position. Each planet had in the zodiac a position of greatest and a position of least power called its 'exaltation'

and 'depression.' Furthermore, the 'aspect' or angular distance of one planet from another altered its influence in various ways. If Mars and Jupiter, for instance, were in trine or s.e.xtile aspect the portent was favorable, if in opposition, it was unfavorable.[148] These ideas are frequently expressed in Chaucer, when the characters seek to understand their misfortunes or to justify their conduct by tracing them back to the determinations of the heavens at their birth. When Palamon and Arcite have been thrown into prison the latter pleads with his companion to have patience; this misfortune was fixed upon them at the time of their birth by the disposition of the planets and constellations, and complaining is of no avail:

"'For G.o.ddes 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.'"[149]

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, G.o.d 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 G.o.de thewes born was she, As lyked to the G.o.ddes, 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sage 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 a.s.sendent, ne that no wikked planets have non aspects of enemite up-on the a.s.sendent;"[159]

The Wife of Bath attributes the two princ.i.p.al 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 l.u.s.t, my likerousnesse, And Mars yaf me my st.u.r.dy 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 superst.i.tion 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 G.o.ddes sevene Mow wepe and wayle, and pa.s.sioun 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. .h.i.t 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 G.o.ddes, Through pryde, or through thy grete rakelnesse, Swich thing as in the lawe of love forbode is?