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BEQUEST OF
REV. CANON SCADDING, D. D.
TORONTO, 1901.
CHAUCER'S
TREATISE ON THE ASTROLABE.
THE TREATISE
ON THE ASTROLABE,
OF
eoffrep
EDITED
WITH NOTES AND I LLU ST KATI 0 NS,
BY
ANDREW EDMUND BRAE.
11 And to his sonne that called was Lowys
He made a treatise full noble and of gret prise."
LTDOATE.
LONDON :
JOHN KUSSELL SMITH,
36, SO HO SQUARE.
MDCCCLXX.
CONTENTS.
>UCTION ......
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES .
Proheme .......
of the Astrolabe . . . . .
LE CONCLUSIONS.
I. The Sun's Place .
II. Taking Altitudes . . . .
III. The Day of the Month
IV. The Hour of Day or Night and the Ascendant
V. The Technical Ascendant
VL The Mean of Almicanters
VII. Twilight
VIII. The Diurnal Arke ....
IX. The Conversion of Hours
X. The Vulgar Day .
XI. Hours Inequale by Day and Night
XII. Equal Hours .....
XIII. Planetary Hours ....
XIV. Oblique Ascension ....
XV. Declination of a Point in the Ecliptic
XVI. Latitude of Construction
XVII. Meridian Altitude .
XVIII. Sun's Place in the Ecliptic
XIX. Similar Days .....
XX. Similar Points in the Ecliptic .
XXI. Stars Indeterminate ....
XXII. Stars Determinate ....
XXIII. Elevation of the Pole ....
XXIV. Terrestrial Latitude ....
XXV. Altitude of the Pole ....
XXVI. Terrestrial Latitude ....
IXVII. Right and Oblique Ascensions
IVIII. Right Ascension of Signs
XXIX. Oblique Ascension of Signs .
XXX. The Cardinal Points ....
IXI. Celestial Latitudes
PAGE.
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22
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33
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42"
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48
49
5C
50
i CONTENTS.
PAGE.
XXXII. Azimuth at Rising .
XXXIII. Points of the Compass
XXXIV. Bearing of a Conjunction
XXXV. Azimuth in Altitude . . .
XXXVI. Celestial Longitudes .
XXXVII. Motion Direct or Retrograde . . . . 53
XXXVIII. Equations of Houses .
XXXIX. Equations of Houses . • 55
XL. Meridional Line . . • • • 5&
XLI. Terrestrial Longitude . • 56
XLII. (Apochryphal ?)
Practice of Umbra Recta and Umbra Versa . . .59
APPENDIX.
REPRINTS.
I. The Pilgrimage to Canterbury . .65
II. The Arke of Artificial Day . .68
III. Astronomical Evidence. . . . .71
IV. The Star Min Alauwa . . . 74
V. Tests of Positions . . -79
NOTES ON THE REPRINTS.
A. The Halfe Cours in Aries ... .81
B. The Zodiacal Signs . . i . .84
C. The Angle Meridional . . .86
D. The Star Min Al auwa ... .88
ESSAYS.
ON THE MEANING OF CHAUCER'S PRIME . . .90
ON THE CARRENARE. . • . '. •; . . 101
ON SHIPPES OPPOSTERES . . 106
ERRATA.
Page 5, line 2, for « 1798" read « 1598."
Page 56, Conclusion XL. — The alteration made in the text of this Con
clusion, as explained in the foot-note, is unnecessary. For the
apparatus may have been intended for the Winter and not for the
Summer Solstice, in which case the original proportion of one qua'/ter
of the shadow for the gnomon would be sufficiently correct.
Jhttrotwctton.
|LTHOUGH the Treatise on the Astrolabe is, in some respects, the
most interesting of Chaucer's works — inasmuch a* it brings us
into familiar and almost domestic communion with his individual
self, while he describes to his "lytel sonne," with delightful
simplicity and in the most inartificial language, the sort of scientific know-
edge which in those early days, even more than at present, was considered
necessary to a gentleman's education — yet it has received so little care and
attention from the editors of his works, that, since the edition of Urry, in
1721, it has not been included in any modern reprint. And even then, Urry
did little more than blindly copy from preceding editions, without any
attempt to explain, amend, or illustrate the text.
Several years ago (in 1851) I published a series of papers explanatory of the
astronomical allusions of Chaucer in the Canterbury Pilgrimage. These I
shall reprint in an Appendix to this volume — if for no better reason — to shew
the length of time my attention has been given to the subject, as well as to
rescue the papers themselves from the oblivion of ephemeral publication. In
the preparation of those papers I had necessarily recourse to Chaucer's Treatise
on the Astrolabe, as printed in Urry's edition of the works, and I found it in
such a deplorably faulty and neglected state, that the necessity of rectifying
such parts as I then required awakened in me a desire to re-edit the whole.
And although various causes had prevented the fulfilment of this object until
the present time, it had never been lost sight of. For it appeared very evident
to me then— and I have seen no reason since to alter the opinion — that a
direct connection may be traced between the subject I was then engaged upon,
namely, the astronomical evidence of date in the Canterbury Tales, and this
Treatise on the Astrolabe. The date of the Pilgrimage, as I then endeavoured
to shew, was 1388, and the avowed date of this Treatise is 1391 : it seems then
an almost unavoidable inference,— that we owe this practical treatise to the
preparative study of the subject undertaken by Chaucer for the purpose of in-
Vfiiliu^ ami verifying his intended astronomical phenomena in diversifying
the incidents of his Canterbury Pilgrimage.
2 INTRODUCTION.
And yet this interestieg attempt on the part of an imaginative poet to ren
der science familiar in what maybe termed one of our earliest and simplest
popular treatises, is that portion of Chaucer's works which, of all others, his
editors have most culpably misunderstood and neglected.
Nor is it in the editing only of former printed editions of this little treatise
that it appears to have been read with strange absence of care and intelligence ;
the same fate has attended it when only incidentally alluded to. For example,
J. Thompson, in his " Life of Geoffry Chaucer," prefixed to Urry's edition of
the works, writes : —
u He (Chaucer) retired to Woodstock ; and weary of a long series of hurry,
noise, danger, and confusion, he shifted it for quiet and the calm pleasure of a
studious safety, which produced his excellent Treatise of the Astrolabe, which
is calculated for the latitude of Woodstock, being a small matter different (as
he says) from that of Oxford."
This last assertion " (as he says)" Thompson attempts to support by referring
in a foot note to this passage in Chaucer's text, infra, page 47.
" I suppose that the sonne is thilk day at none 38 degrees of heyght ; abate
then 38 degrees out of 90, so leveth ther 52 ; then is 52 degrees the latitude.
I saye not this but for ensample, for wel I wote the latitude of Oxenforde is
certayne minutes lesse."
It seems hardly credible that any person of average intelligence could, even
in carelessness, so misapprehend this expression, " certaine minutes lesse,"
when it is so plain that it is Chaucer's reservation for having expressed the
latitude of Oxford in round numbers as 52 degrees, instead of that more exact
latitude of fifty-one degrees and fifty minutes he elsewhere assigns to it. And
yet, in the face of this, and in the face of Chaucer's express declaration to his
son that he presents him with '* A sufficient astrolabie compowned after the
latitude of Oxenforde," his biographer gravely declared, as a historical fact, that
this same Astrolabe was calculated for the latitude of Woodstock.
I have met with another reference to Chaucer's astrolabe, which might have
been valuable as an illustration had it not been vitiated by similar mis-read
ing. It occurs in a paper by Mr. Burrow, in the Appendix to the second
volume of Asiatic Researches (anno 1789), " I compared an astrolabe in the
Nagry character (brought by Dr. Mackinnon from Jynagur) with Chaucer's
description, and found them to agree most minutely ; even the centre-pin,
which Chaucer calls < the horses,' had a horse's head upon it." Now Chaucer
does not call the centre-pin "the horses" ; what he says is— "thorowe which
pin ther goeth a lytel wedge which is cleped the Horse." So that this compa
rison with the Indian Astrolabe, which might have been so interesting, becomes
of no value, in the uncertainty as to what part of it it was in which Mr. Bur
row really did see the horse's head.
Whether the wedge-like form of a horse's head was given to this cross-pin,
INTRODUCTION. 6
and thereon the likeness further engraved by way of ornament, or whether
some other fancy suggested the name, it is certain it was very generally given
to it ; the Arabs called it Al-pheras, a name also given to the knight's-piece at
Chess, which, as everyone knows, is but a horse's head. The use of the wedge,
when thrust through the great centre-pin, was to twitch up and render immov
able during observation certain adjustable plates in the interior of the instru
ment. Through these plates the centre-pin passed, and was jammed against
them by the wedge : but it is not clear from Chaucer's description how this
was done, nor on which side of the plate the wedge was applied. And, in ad
dition to these difficulties, it cannot be supposed that a loose pin, merely
wedged in, would afford anything like an invariable centering for a radial in
dex, on which so much of the correctness of such an instrument would depend,
On these points I shall hazard a conjecture when I come to describe the several
details.
The adjustable plates just mentioned are called by Chaucer " the plates for
divers clymates " — i.e., for divers latitudes : of which thai; particular plate
required for the observer's locality would be selected ; and being placed upper
most and adjusted to a proper position, would be there secured by the insertion
and jamming of the centrepin. Thus it would become " the plate under the
rete" as Chaucer calls it when describing its construction for the latitude of
Oxford.
It is interesting to find these plates confirmed and illustrated in "The
Arabian Nights," by mention of the Barber's astrolabe " of seven plates." But
this is only in Mr. Lane's translation, the corresponding description in Galland's
version being " un astrolabe bien propre ;" and in " The Book of 1000 Nights
and One Night "—a translation by Henry Torrens published in Calcutta in
1838, the same passage is rendered — "An astrolabe and it had seven tides
mounted with silver." Thus confirming in some degree Mr. Lane's translation ;
which, however, is greatly to be preferred, coinciding as it does so closely with
Chaucer's description. Mr. Lane, moreover, renders his translation still more
valuable as an illustration, by the following note to the passage : —
" The astrolabe is more commonly used by the Arabs than any other instru
ment for astronomical observations. It is generally between four and six
inches in diameter. It consists of a circular plate with a graduated rim,
within which fit several thinner plates ; and of a limb, moving on a pivot in
the centre, with two sights. The plates are engraved with complicated diagrams,
&c., for various calculations. The instrument is held by a ring, or by a loop
of cord attached to the ring, during an observation : and thus its own weight
answers the same purpose as the plumb line of the quadrant (which the Arabs
sometimes use m its stead) : the position of the moveable limb, with the
sights, marking the required altitude." — Lane's Arabian Nights, chap, v.,
not.- 57.
4 INTRODUCTION.
Here again it is to be regretted that the writer of this description of the
Arabian astrolabe had not a more practical knowledge of such instruments than is
evinced by his calling the index a limb : because the term limb, being derived
from limbus, is practically appropriated to the circular rim, and never to the
radial index. He would then, doubtless, have given a more detailed and more
reliable account; and would not have fallen into the strange mistake, in
another note to the same passage, of asserting : —
" A degree is four minutes ; it would have been more proper, therefore, to
have said eight degrees and two minutes, than seven degrees and six minutes."
—(Ibid., note 60).
This note seems to have proceeded from some unaccountable mental confu
sion between degrees of arc and minutes of time : and, although Mr. Lane
makes no allusion to Chaucer or his astrolabe, yet this division of a degree into
four minutes might seem curiously enough to have had Chaucer for its authority
in the following passage of this treatise— "and every degreof this bordure coii-
teineth foure minutes." But then Chaucer takes good care to add—" that is
to saie foure minutes of an hour " — a necessary distinction. I do not mention
these slight mistakes in a spirit of criticism, but simply because it would not
have been possible to quote these notes at all without noticing in some way
these mistakes in them. When Chaucer wrote " every degree containeth foure
minutes," he was comparing together two different accounts — but when Mr.
Lane wrote, " A degree is four minutes," it is plain from the context that (he
meant in one and the same account.
In describing the degrees of the outer border Chaucer again inculcates the
necessary distinction between time and arc : —
" And I have said five of these degrees maken a mile-waie and thre mile-
waie maken an hour : and every degre of this border conteyneth foure minutes,
and every minute fourtie secondes."
Here fourtie is a palpable error, the correction of which to foure renders the
meaning perfectly plain — i.e., every fifteen degrees of the outer border contain
(or are equivalent to) one hour of the inner (or time circle) : every degree of
the outer border is equal to four minutes of the inner : and every minute of the
outer to four seconds of the inner.
There can be no doubt that this is the substance of what Chaucer wrote ; yet
in all the MSS. that I have examined, and in all the printed copies previous
to Speght's second edition in 1602, the last five words are — " and every minute
Ix secondes." In Speght's second edition, which professed to be an amended
copy of the first, this " Ix " was changed into fourtie ; a still greater error,
which was copied into 1G87, and into Urry's edition of 1721. If the change had
been from Ix to xl, both being in roiuan numerals, it would appear to have been
a mere accidental transposition of the numerals, but that explanation is
barred by the substituted number being printed at length " fourtie." Therefore
INTRODUCTION. 5
the only way to account for the change is to suppose that Speght, in the interval
between 1708 and 1602, may have seen some MS. with the correct reading
" foure," and converted it into fourtie.
Another and a far more unaccountable error of the printed copies occurs in
Chaucer's Vllth Conclusion : —
" The nadyre of the sonne is thylk degre that is opposy te to the degre of the
sonne in the 320 signe."
So in Thynne's, and in all other printed copies previous to Speght's first
edition of 1598 ; in which, for some incomprehensible reason, he printed " in
the xxiii signe" ! But in his second edition of 1602— as if he regretted his
departure from the older copies — he restored, in his amended text, " the 320
sigue," in which he was again followed by 1687, and by Urry in 1721.
Now, this changing and rechanging show an amount of deliberation over this
error that renders its repetition and persistence doubly astonishing. Because
even if these editors had been ignorant of such a common place fact as that
there are only twelve signs altogether in the zodiac, they might have learnt it
from Chaucer in the very work they were engaged in editing. They all boast
of having compared their text with many MSS., and yet there is no manuscript
— none, at least, that has come under my observation — that would not in this
case have given the right reading, which, it is scarcely necessary to say, is " in
the VII signe."*
Although there are many manuscripts in the British Museum containing
poetical works of Chaucer. I could discover only three in which this prose Treatise
on the Astrolabe is to be found. Of these, that which is apparently the most
ancient is numbered 23002 (additional MSS.). It is a comparatively recent
acquisition, having been purchased for the Museum at Mr. Dawson Turner's
sale in 1859. It does not differ greatly from the other MSS., except in the
omission of some portions and the transposing of others. Altogether although
it may assist the text in some few cases, it cannot be looked upon as a faithful
or reliable copy.
The second is a Sloane MS. 314, chiefly remarkable for an assertion on the
fly-leaf that it is in the hand- writing of Chaucer himself ! And this was so
far credited by the Rev. Samuel Ascough, who compiled the Catalogue of the
Sloane Manuscripts in the British Museum, that he copied the assertion in his
catalogue and added — " if it is not in Chaucer's own writing, it is nearly of the
tame age" — But in this opinion he was surely mistaken : for, if there were no
other refutation of it, the rude and ill executed diagrams which are incorporated
with the text of this MS. are evidently copied from Stoeffler's book, De Fabrica
Astrolabii, which did not appear till the year 1513 (see infra, in description of
* " Nam in septimo signo fit solstitium a bruma : in septimo bruma a solstitio : in sep^
timo equinoctium ab oquinoctio."— AULUS GELLIUS, iii., 10.
6 INTRODUCTION.
Plate II, the note upon Chaucer's Scale of Umbra Kecta and Versa, which is
single, while that of Stoeffler is double ; and I take that to be one test by
which copies from Stoeffler may be detected.)
The third is also a Sloane MS., No. 261, and is very interesting, in so much
that although never printed it was evidently written and prepared for the press
with a view to publication. It has a regular title, dedication, and address to
the reader : emendations of, and comments upon the text ; and it is illustrated
by pen-and-ink diagrams similar to those in 314, and certainly also derived
from Stoeffler's book. But the most remarkable circumstance attending these
two manuscripts is that 314 was obviously in the possession of him who wrote
261 — probably the very original from which he copied it. For on the margins
of 314 are corrections and remarks in the hand writing of 261 : or, if the identity
of the hand writing be disputed, then there are references in the one to certain
alterations made in the text of the other which place the fact beyond all
reasonable doubt. From these circumstances attending its preparation the MS.
261 possesses almost the authority of a printed book zealously edited ; and
indeed it is very much more correct than any of the printed copies. And since
a comparison with it would unquestionably have corrected some of the more
glaring errors of Urry's edition, it is no slight reproach to him that he not
only had this MS. in his hands, but he left a record of that fact by inscribing
on the fly-leaf this autograph memorandum " This MS. belongs to Dr. Sloane,
T. Urry, 1709." The title of this MS. is " The Conclusions of the AstrolaUe
compykd by Geoffry Chaucer newly e amendyd." But while it has every other
requisite for a printed book, it is singular that no date is any where affixed to it ;
and as that is a very interesting particular I shall be at some pains to establish
it from the Dedication, which is as follows : —
" To the righte honorable and his verrie good lorde Edwarde earle of Devoshier
Walter Stevins wissheth continuall encrease of honoure."
" When I had amended this lyttell worke (my right honorable lorde) which I
now offer unto yower good lordship ; me thought my labours therein wolde not
onely be allowed of as manye as delyte in those wyttie conclusions of the
Astrolabie, but also not unthankefull to your exceeding wisdome ; who
amongst your other vertuous studies hath had a great felicitie and pleasure in
these mathematicall practises also; which thinges especiallie moveth me to
dedicate this my lytell travaile unto youre lordship. And although I confess
this to be so slender and simple an offer for youre excellencye, yet it may please
you to take it as an argumente of the faithfull good will and humble harte I
owe to your honour which God advance and encrease even as your vertues and
worthiness right well deserve."
Now it so happens that this dedication to Edward Earl of Devonshire affords
a very close determination of the date. There are only three noblemen, all of
the House of Courteney, to whom the name Edward, and the title Earl of
Devonshire could apply.
INTRODUCTION. 7
The first Edward succeeded to the title upon the death of his grandfather
Hugh in 1419.
The second Edward received the title from Henry VII after the battle of
Bosworth. He survived till 1509 ; but could not have been the object of the
Dedication, since Stoeffler's book, which is referred to in Stevins' MS., was not
written till 1510, nor printed till 1513.
The third Edward was that unfortunate young nobleman, the great grand
son of the preceding, whose father Henry, after having been created Marquis
of Exeter by Henry VIII, was attainted and executed in the same reign.
Thereupon this son Edward, then a boy of twelve years old, was imprisoned
and so remained during his whole youth and early manhood, until released
and restored in blood by Queen Mary in 1553. But even then his liberty
was of short duration, for in little more than two years he was again im
prisoned and only finally released to go into a sort of voluntary exile wherein
he died at Padua in 1556. He does not appear to have ever borne his
father's title of Marquis of Exeter, although he is so styled by Collins,
Courthope, and others ; and it is necessary to the complete identification
of the dedication to show that these authorities are wrong. In contemporary
chronicles he is invariably called Earl of Devonshire : and in the funeral oration
pronounced at his obsequies in Padua by Dr. Thomas Wylson, wherein, if ever,
all the honours and dignities to which he had been entitled would be declared —
and wherein his parents were severally mentioned as Marquis and Marchioness
of Exeter ; he is spoken of all through as Comes Devonian Thus, when the
favours are enumerated which Queen Mary had conferred upon him, they are
thus particularized : —
" Libertatem donavit, decus restauravit, et ad dignitatem summam evexit,
sic ut pientissima Reginse opera Comes Devonisa ab omnibus salutaretur."
But the most conclusive proof that this Edward was never Marquis of Exeter
is found in the Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, edited by Mr. Robert
Lemon. In this there is a list of upwards of 120 letters to and from this
Edward Courtnay during his absence abroad, up to his death at Padua ; and in
all these letters he is styled by himself and by others Earl of Devonshire.
Some of these letters are from his own mother, the Marchioness of Exeter, and
upon one, dated Nov. 8, 1555, there is this autographic address :
" To my son the erle of Deffonsher thys be delyvred."
Now, besides showing that the title Earl of Devonshire was the proper one for
a dedication to this young nobleman, it has been desirable to establish it for
another reason, and that is, that it narrows the date of the dedication to the
short interval of three years between his creation to the title of Earl of Devon
shire in 1553 and his death in 1556. Because, had the dedication been written
before his legal restoration, while yet a prisoner, the title given to him then by
his dependents would be one of compliment and courtesy, and in that case it
would assuredly have been the title his father had borne — Marquis of Exeter.
8 INTRODUCTION.
It only remains to establish the probability, or indeed the certainty, that it
was to this young nobleman Walter Stevins dedicated his Manuscript of the
Conclusions of the Astrolabie. Of this there are three very sufficient presump
tive proofs :
1. The mention of Streffler's book, which limits the date in one direction to
1513 ; and the absence of any Earl of Devonshire named Edward after 1556
which limits it in the other.
2. The probability derived from the studious character of this young nobleman,
of whom Dr. Wylson, in the funeral oration already mentioned, spoke in
these terms : —
" Nee angustia loci, nee solitudo, nee amissio libertatis ilium a litteris
avocaret. LTnde tarn avide philosophiam arriepat, et tantas in ea progres-
siones faciebat, nemo ut illi ex principibus par esset. Neque in hoc
solum laudabili studio seipse exercuit, sed intima natures scrutatus
mysteria : mathematicorum labyrinthum intravit fructu summo et voluptate
singulari."
A curious resemblance may be observed in these concluding words to a
passage in the dedication — " who, amongst your other vertuous studies,
hath a great felicitie and pleasure in those mathematical practises also."
3. The following note subjoined in the MS. to that passage in Chaucer's treatise
wherein the vernal equinox is attributed to the 12th March. " Albeit in
Chaucer's time upon the 12 daie of March the sonne entred into the hedde
of Aries, yet in oure time you shall finde that the sonne entreth therein on
the 10th daie of the same moneth."
It so happens that there is a rather curious evidence that the 10th March was
generally received about the middle of the sixteenth century as the day of the
vernal equinox. Puttenham, in his " Arte of English Poesie," treats the 10th
March as so notoriously identified with the vernal equinox, that he censures a
poet's particular assignment of that day to it as an unnecessary redundancy.
" For if," says he, " the thing or person they go about to describe by circum
stance be by the writer's improvidence otherwise bewrayed, it loseth the grace
of a figure, as he that said :
" The tenth of March when Aries received
Dan Phoebus' raies into his horned head " —
1 intending to describe the spring of the yeare which every man knoweth of
himself hearing the day of March named. The verses be very good, the figure
nought worth, if it were meant in periphrasis for the matter. That is, the
season of the yeare which should have been covertly disclosed by Ambage was
by and by blabbed out by naming the day of the moneth."
Lib. iii. " Of Ornament."
Puttenham, as was too often his wont, gives no reference or clue by which
the quotation thus criticised could be identified ; but with a little research I
INTRODUCTION. 9
have ascertained that it is one of George Gascoigne's poems, and may be found
in his "Hearbes," printed about 1575.* Now, unless the association of the
equinox with the 10th of March had been very notorious, and of long standing
there would have been no point in Puttenham's criticism. The question here
is not what really was the actual day of the equinox in any given year, but
what was popularly and generally supposed to be the day.
These accumulated proofs preclude all reasonable doubt that Walter Stevins
wrote this MS. about 1555, and dedicated it to Edward Earl of Devonshire, the
last of those names. The views and pretensions of the writer will best appear
in his own words in an address which immediately follows the dedication
already quoted, and which is also worth transcribing, for the additional reason
that many of the remarks made in it upon the state of the text of the Treatise
on the Astrolabe, in the writer's time, are as applicable to it now as they were
three centuries ago : —
" When I happenyd to look upon the conclusions of the Astrolabie compiled
by Geffray Chaucer and founde the same corrupte and false in so many and
sondrie places that I doubted whether the rudeness of the worke were not a
greater sclander to the authour than trouble and offense to the readers, I dyd
not a lytell mervell if a book should come oute of his handes so imperfect and
indigest whose other workes weare not onely rekoned for the best that ever
weare set forthe in oure english tonge, but also weare taken for a manifest
argument of his singular witte and generalitie in all kindes of knowledge.
However be it when I called to remembrance that in his prohem he promised
to sette forthe this worke in five partes, whereof weare never extante but those
two first partes onely, it made me to believe that either the work was never
fynisshed of the authour, or els to have ben corrupted sens by some other
meanes, or what other thynge might be the cause thereof, I wiste not Never
the lesse understanding that the worke, which before lay al neglected, to the
profit of no man and discourage of many, might be tourned to the commoditie
of as manye as hereafter should happen to travayl in that parte of knowledge
I thowght it a thinge worthe my laboure if I could sette it in better order and
frame. Which thinge however I have done it let be thine indifferent judge
ment which heretofore have readen th' other setting forth ; or liste to repaire
this and that together ; wherein I confess that besides the amendinge of verie
many words, I have displaced some conclusions, and in some places where the
"This tenth of March, when Aries receyu'd
Dan Phoebus rayes into his horned head :
And I my selfe by learned lore perceyu'd
That Ver approcht and frostie winter fled ;
I crost the Thames, to take the cherefull ayre
In open feeldes, the weather was so fayre," &c.
10 INTRODUCTION.
sentences weare imperfite I have supplied and filled them as necessitie required.
As for some conclusions I have altered them, and some have I cleane put out
for utterly false and untrew ; as namely the conclusion of direction and retro-
gradacion of planetes and the conclusions to know the longitudes of starres
whether thei be determinate or indeterminate in the Astrolabie. The conclu
sion to know with what degree of the zodiack any planet ascendeth on the
horizon whether his latitude be north e or southe — as the meanyng of the same
conclusion was most hardeset by reason of the imperfitenes thereof, so in
practise I found him most false — as he shall find that list to take the like
paines. Notwithstanding, this have I done not challenging for myself but
revising and leaving to worthie Chaucer his one praise for this worke, which if
it had come parfite into oure handes (no doubt) would have merited wonderful!
praise. As for me if I have done any thing therein it shall suffice if the lovers
of wittie Chaucer do adopt my good will and entente. VALE."
It will be seen in the course of the present reprint that I do not by any
means adopt all the alterations and additions made by Stevins. But as his zeal
in the work is unquestionable, and as he has judiciously corrected many of the
more glaring errors of the printed editions (of which no less than three — 1532,
1542, and 1545— had been published shortly before he prepared his MS.), his
corrections are worthy of being noted in the margins.
Of the conclusions specially mentioned by him towards the close of the fore
going address, namely : " The conclusion of direction and retrogradacion of
planetes " (XXXVIIth of this edition), and " the conclusions to know the longi
tudes of sterres whether thei be determinate " (XXII) " or indeterminate " (XXI)
— he has omitted the first and last,— or, as he expresses it, " cleane put out for
utterly false and untrew " — but he has inadvertently retained XXII, although
coupled by himself with XXI in the same sentence. He also specially mentions
" The conclusion to know with what degree of the zodiack any planet ascendeth
on the horizon whether his latitude be northe or southe " (XLII) ; and this he
retains and endeavours to render practicable by certain additions and altera
tions of hie own devising.
Now it seems probable that Stevins, in dealing with these Conclusions, was
not actuated by any judgment of his own, but was influenced by Stceffler's book,
with which he was well acquainted. It is certain that the three Conclusions
declared by him to be " utterly false and untrew " are three out of seven propo
sitions which Stcefiier especially condemns. These three, as numbered in his
list of seven, are : —
" IV. Inquirere an planeta sit directus aut anomalus sive retrogradus."
" V. Perscrutari in quo gradu signi sit quselibet stella fixa, in reti descripta
(Le., determinate).
" VII. Determinare signum et gradum cujuslibet stellco fixre, in aranea non
positce " (i.e., indeterminate).
INTRODUCTION. 11
Now these are, almost literally, Chaucer's XXXVIIth, XXIInd, and XXIst,
while his XLIInd, which Stevins retains, is not expressly denounced by
Stceffler.
My opinions respecting these Conclusions are stated in the notes subjoined
to them. That which Stevins has retained (the XLIInd) is the only one that I
absolutely repudiate and deny to be Chaucer's. It is quite foreign to his
manner of going to work in his other conclusions ; and he expressly defers, in
his Proem, the subject of this problem to the fourth part of this treatise :
which fourth part was either too laborious a task for him to complete, or, if
completed, was afterwards lost. The object of the XLIInd conclusion, the last
of the astronomical series, is : —
" To knowe with what degree of the Zodiake that any planet ascendeth on
the orizonte whether his latitude be north or south."
And at the end of the conclusion there is a special instruction to be observed
in finding " the arysing of the Hone." Now Chaucer, in his Proem, says : —
" The fourthe partye shall be a theorike to declare the mevyng of the celes-
tiale bodyes, with the causes : the which fourthe partye in special shal shewe,
in a table of the very mevynge of the Moone, from one to one, every daye and
every signe, after thin almanacke. Upon the which table there followeth a
canon sufficyent to teche, as wel in maner of workynge in the same conclusions,
as to knowe in oure orizonte with which degre of the Zodiac the Mone ariseth in any
latytude, and the arysynge of any planete after his latytude fro the eclyptike lyne."
Now, it may be observed that these concluding words are almost identical
with the XLIInd Conclusion ; and it is not improbable that that conclusion
was invented and interpolated in after times in an attempt to realize this pro
blem by the Astrolabe, independently of the tables to which it was relegated
by Chaucer. Had Chaucer himself attempted to do this, he would never have
had recourse to the clumsy machinery described, — which, I repeat, is quite foreign
to his manner of going to work. There is no scale of latitude — " fro the eclyptike
lyne " — upon the Astrolabe ; and it is not stated in the problem whence the
distance of the compass points is to be obtained : if from the meridional almi-
canters, there would be no necessity for the points of the compasses and the waxed
label, for Chaucer would have arrived at the same result in a far simpler way ;
he would have brought the degree of the planets' longitude to the meridional
line (as in Conclusion XV), and finding the given latitude, above or below the
ecliptic, in the almicanters, he would lay the label on it and mark it thereon
with a " prycke of inke :" he would then " turn the rete about joyntly with the
label," and bringing the mark to the horizon would observe with what degree of
the zodiac it would arise. But Chaucer seems to have been quite aware that
such a process would not give the true place of the planet (although it would
be just the same as that obtained by the ponderous method described in XLII; ;
and, therefore, he properly reserved this conclusion for determination by tables
of planetary motions.
12 INTRODUCTION.
When the period at which Chaucer wrote is taken into consideration, and
that after all he was but an amateur astronomer, his general correctness is
something admirable. The latitude assigned by him to Oxford differs by
scarcely more than four minutes from its rigid determination at the present
time as noted in the Nautical Almanac : and so sensitive was he on the score
of its correctness that when, for the sake of brevity, he had increased it by only
ten minutes, he takes care to explain his having done so — " for wel I wote the
latitude of Oxenforde is certayne minutes lesse." (See ante, page 2) Compare
this with a professed and pretentious astronomer (Stoeffler) who, a hundred
years later, in his " Tabula Regionum, Provinciarum, et Oppidorum Insigniorum
Europce " (wherein, by the way, he ignores London altogether), makes both
latitude and longitude of Oxford more than a degree too much : or with
Stoeffler's pupil, Sebastian Munster, the cosmographer, who declares the obli
quity of ecliptic to be 23 degrees only ; and who, as if to show that it was no
slip of the pen, assigns the longest day of 24 hours to the latitude of sixty
Now, the most remarkable anomaly attributable to Chaucer, is his adoption
of 23° 50' as the obliquity of the ecliptic ; that being very much in excess of
its known quantity in his time.
He says it is " after Ptholemy," which again is disputable on the ground that
Ptolemy's obliquity was 23° 5 1/ 20".
But M. Delambre, in his Astronomie Ancienne (Vol. I., pp. 87-88) shows, in
an elaborate argument, that Ptolemy borrowed his obliquity from Eratosthenes,
who had stated the ratio of the double obliquity to the circumference of the
whole circle to be as 11 to 83 ; which ratio, worked out by Ptolemy literally,
produced his obliquity above named. But, M. Delambre remarks, Eratos
thenes had only intended, by 11 to 83, an approximate ratio to express an
observed double obliquity of forty-seven degrees and two-thirds—sixths of
degrees being the nearest approach his instruments were capable of. Now it
is certainly remarkable that Chaucer's obliquity of 23° 5(V is not Ptolemy's but
is the half of 47° 40'.
In an essay upon the meaning of Chaucer's prime, which will be found at
the end of this volume, I produce another example of the general accuracy of
his astronomical results, and deduce from it a conclusive argument in favour of
an important correction of the text in " The Nonne's Preest's Tale."
Indeed, these researches into the astronomy of Chaucer are of great import
ance to the text of his poetical works.
In the first part of this Treatise (infra page 27) I have altered "eighte
spere," of the copies, into ninthe speere, as applicable to " the firste mevyng
of the firste mevable." Now, my justification for so doing happens to affect
very materially an uncertain reading of a passage in The Frankelein's Tale;
which again reciprocates the benefit by confirming in its context the propriety
INTRODUCTION.
13
of the alteration alluded to : while at the same time it shows very conclusively
what its own reading ought to be. The passage is as follows in Tyrwhitt's edition,
and in all the editions previous to his : —
And by his eighte speres in his werking
He knew ful wel how fer Alnath was shove
Fro the hed of thilke fix Aries above
That in the ninthe spere considered is.
The Frankelein's TdU, 11591.
But the two latest editors, Mr. Wright and Mr. Morris, both print " thre" and
" fourthe," respectively, for eighte and ninthe. No doubt the alteration has the
authority of the MS. selected by these editors as their original ; but there
cannot be a more convincing proof of its error than this diagram of the nine
spheres, which is copied from a Treatise on the Sphere by Sacro Bosco, edited
by Melancthon in 1538, but written by Sacro Bosco about a century and a half
before Chaucer ; and the diagram has every appearance of being a facsimile
from the original MS.
FIGURA OSTENDENS
distributionem & ordinem
Sphosrarum Ccelestium.
14 INTRODUCTION.
Here the Earth is in the centre, and around it are the nine spheres— viz.,
Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Fixed Stars— denoted
by the black ground with stars and the white band above it with the signs of
the zodiac — and, lastly, the Ninth sphere, exterior to all.
The two last are very remarkable in being both distinguished by the signs of
the zodiac, one by symbols and the other by effigies. And it must be observed
that it is to the ninth sphere the effigies are given, a further proof, if any were
necessary, that the animal configurations were attributed to the true ecliptic,
and not to the stars which originally composed them. (See Note A in the
Appendix.) Each of these zodiacs is divided in twelve equal parts ; another
proof that unequal divisions by constellations were not regarded in the middle
ages.
The divisions in the ninth sphere diverge from those in the eighth by about
one fifth of each sign, which very nearly agrees with the amount of precession
fixed by Ptolemy, who made the longitude of the first star in his constellation
Aries six degrees and a half from the equinoctial point.
Now this diagram of the spheres has a direct bearing upon the text of The
Frankeleyn's Tale ; not in the amount of the deviation, but in showing how the
comparison between the two spheres might indicate to the astrologer " how fer
Alnath was shove" Alnath, being a fixed star, was in the eighth sphere, while
" the hed of thilk fixe Aries above " was in the ninth sphere. Surely nothing
could more plainly express this process by comparison of the two spheres than
And by his eighte spere in his werching
He knewe ful wel how fer Alnath was shove
Fro the heed of thilk fixe Aries above
That in the ninthe spere considred is.
That is, he knew, — by the extent of the divergence between the divisions of the
eighth and ninth spheres as shown in this diagram (or in some similar one in
accordance with the precession at the time). For the ninth sphere was that of
the equinoctial points, and as these were carried forward by the effect of pre
cession in the same direction as the diurnal revolution, by so much was the
ninth sphere supposed to exceed in swiftness the eighth and all the rest ; drag
ging them forward, as it were, and causing them, in appearance, to strive back
in a contrary direction : —
" O firste mevyng cruel firmament,
With thy diurnal swough that crowdest ay
And hurlest al fro est to Occident
That naturally wold holde another way."
Man of Lawe's Tale, 4715.
Therefore the readings eighte and ninthe in the Frankelein's Tale are clearly
correct, while thre and fourthe convert the passage into unintelligible nonsense.
INTRODUCTION. 1 5
In another essay subjoined to this volume, wherein I endeavour to shew
that by " the Carrenare " in the Booke of The Dutchesse, Chaucer meant the
gulf of II Carnaro, in the Adriatic sea, there will be found an extract from
Sebastian Munster's Cosmographie, describing the intermittent lake near Zirck-
nitz, in very nearly the same terms as a modern account of the same lake which
appeared in the French periodical, " Cosmos," and was thence translated into
"The Student," of September, 1869. That a phenomenon so singular and so
apparently dependent upon accidental causes should be so little changed after
the lapse of centuries, is extremely interesting.
I have also reprinted in this volume a series of papers, contributed by me to
" Notes and Queries," in 1851, upon Chaucer's astronomy in the Canterbury
Tales ; a subject intimately germane to this Treatise on the Astrolabe. The
few modifications in the views I then expressed which have occurred to me in
a reperusal, I have explained in additional notes to those papers.
A. E. B.
Leeds, December, 1869.
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.
The lines and circles of the Astrolabe being stereographic projections on the
plane of the equator, may either be drawn by construction, as practised and
explained by Stoeffler, or calculated by trigonometrical formulae. The first
method is rude and uncertain, depending upon ruled lines and their points of
intersection, often at very acute angles. The second method is by far the
more correct, being distances and radii calculated to any desired degree of exact
ness, and set off with precision from a scale of equal parts. It is by this
second method that the following diagrams have been prepared.
PLATE I. Kepresents the front face of the outer or principal plate, serving as
a frame to the other parts, and called by Chaucer "the Moder." It is " thick
est at the brynkes, that is, the utmost ryng with degrees; and al the myddel within
the ryng shall be thynner to receyve the plates for diverse clymates, and also the
rethe."
The hollow part thus formed is called by Chaucer " the wombe ;" and the
graduation of the outer circle of degrees, and of the inner hour-circle where
the hours are denoted by the letters of the alphabet, is described in the text.
PLATE II, Represents the back or reverse side of the same plate. All the
circles, scales, and divisions are marked upon it as described by Chaucer, with
the exception of " the names of the holie daies in the Kalender and the letters
A.B.C. on which thei fallen." These I have omitted for two reasons : first,
because their selection and distribution must be purely arbitrary and conjectu
ral, since Chaucer does not specify them. Second, because any such names
and letters, without being of any real use to the illustration of the instrument,
would have very much crowded and encumbered the drawing. Had it been
necessary, however, to realize this part of the description, the most probable
source for these names would be the old mnemonic lines known in medieval
times as the " Cisio Janus"
It was on this reverse side of the plate that the radial index, with sights,
revolved, for taking altitudes, celestial and terrestrial ; and the following is the
manner in which I imagine the index may have been centred so as to be inde
pendent of the movable centre-pin. A fixed solid boss may have been raised
upon the plate, around the central hole, which, when truly turned, both inte
riorly and exteriorly, may have received the centre-pin in its interior and the
index upon its exterior. Such a centring for an index stretching across the
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 17
diameter of a circle, may be seen in the best sort of circular protractors, where
the centre is perforated for the purpose of adjusting it to a point marked idpon
the paper beneath. In this way, and in no other that I can see, the centre-
pin might be wedged against the rim of the boss without interfering with the
free motion of the index.
It is not clear from Chaucer's description of " the label " whether it also re
volved upon a centre, or whether it was detached, and used merely as a straight
edge. I think the latter is the more probable ; and that it was adjusted by the
eye to a true diameter by its fiducial edge, which Chaucer calls its point. It
is in this way I have represented it in Plates V. and VI., by a single straight
line drawn diametrically across the centre. If, however, any person should
prefer to believe that the label, like the index, revolved upon a centre, there
can be no difficulty in imagining a prolongation of the head of the centre-pin,
upon which both the rete and the label might turn. But Chaucer's descrip
tion of the label is (page 31) : — "Then thou hast a label that is shapen like
a rule," (i.e., like an index), " save that it is straight, and hath no plates "
(sights) " on either ende ; but with the small point of the forsaied label shalt
thou," etc.
" Save that it is straight," can only mean that the fiducial edge was in one
continuous straight line uninterrupted by any centring."
THE SCALE, as I have drawn it, requires especial remark. It is represented
by Stoeffler, in depicting his own Astrolabe, and by MSS. 314 and 261 in de
picting Chaucer's, as double ; that is, extending on both sides, east and west of
the vertical line. Now there is nothing in Chaucer's description to warrant
this double extension. His words are (page 25) : —
" Under the crosse line is markyd the scale, in maner of two squires, or els
in manner of two ledders ; that serveth by his XXII pointes, and by his
devisions, of full many a subtil conclusion." In this description the XXII
pointes are clearly the eleven steps or grades on each scale, numbered I to XI,
which constitute its resemblance to a ladder : the Xllth is common to both
scales and is not numbered. Were any further proof needed that the two MSS,
above mentioned are sufficiently modern to have been copied in some
particulars from Stoeffler, their representations of double scales in opposition
to Chaucer's description would furnish it. Because, as I have remarked in a
note to Chaucer's description, (infra page 25), the error of transposing umbra
recta and umbra versa, putting each where the other ought to be, (which is
common to all the printed copies and to MSS. 314 and 23002), also exists in
Stoeffler's corresponding description in his own book : and I may add that in
all probability it originated there, and was thence copied into edition 1532, and
so was transmitted to every succeeding edition. For it is not at all likely
that such an obvious error should originate independently in two different
treatises on the same subject.
Stevins saw this error and avoided it in his own MS. and he also corrected
C
18 EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.
it in the margin of MS. 314, by drawing his pen across versa and writing
recta at the side. Whether the error really existed in MSS. anterior to Stoeffler's
book can only be decided by comparison with some manuscript of unquestion
able antiquity ; in which, if the same error be present, then the only alternative
will be to suppose that Stoeffler copied from some source common to both.
PLATE III. — The Rete. This is sufficiently explained in the text, p. 29.
It is only necessary to add that the ribs which stretch from the margin and
converge to the pole of the ecliptic, thus forming the net work of the rete, are
so drawn as to be circles of longitude for the beginning of each of the twelve
signs of the Zodiac.
PLATE IV. — " The circles under the rete" for the Latitude of Oxford.
These circles are fully explained in the text, pp. 26—29.
PLATES V and VI. — The object of these two plates, which represent the two
observations described by Chaucer in the IVth conclusion, pp. 33 to 35, is to
place them in contrast for the purpose of demonstrating that the star which
Chaucer calls Alhabor, in the second observation, was RIGEL, and not Sirius
as has been hitherto dogmatically assumed.
First it may be seen, in plate V, that the sun is in a very favourable position
for observation — that is, about mid-way between the horizon and the meridian
on the eastern side ; and, in plate VI, that the star Rigel occupies almost
exactly the same position on the western side. This similarity of position
must have been Chaucer's aim. Now Sirius, at the time stated, would be
much nearer to the meridian — so near, indeed, as to closely border upon that
proximity to it which Chaucer expressly condemns in this very conclusion.
But, moreover, Sirius, at the stated time would not be at the required altitude
of 18 degrees : and Stevins, in attempting to reconcile this difficulty, went so
far as to alter the time of the observation from — "passed seven of the clocke the
space of eleven degrees" (i.e. 44 minutes) into "passed eight of the clocke the space
of certaine minutes."
The second proof is derived from Chaucer's description of the star, which is,
— " amonge an hepe of stars it liked me to take the altitude of the faire white
starre that is cleped Alhabor." A glance at the heavens, or at any celestial
map will show at once the justness of this description as applied to Rigel, but
its utter inapplicability to Sirius : there is no constellation more brilliantly
furnished than Orion, nor a more solitary one than Canis Major.
And the third proof is derived from Fretagh's Arabic Lexicon, Vol. ii, p.
127. where may be found the Arabic name "Rijil al Habor. Nomen stellse
magnso et lucidae, J3 in pede Orionis."
After this, no further argument need be urged, I shall merely point out that
in Plate VI, the position of Rigel is marked by the common intersection of its
circles of longitude and latitude with the almicanter of 18 degrees.
In projecting these circles I have assumed for Rigel in the year 1390, a lon
gitude of G89 15', and a latitude of 319 23' South.
€1)0 Conclusions of tf)e
THE PROHEME.
LOWYS my sone, I perceyve wel by certeyn
evydences thyn abylite to lerne sciences toucliinge nom-
bres and proporcions and also wel consydre I thy besye
prayer in special to lerne the tretys of the Astrolabie.
Then forasmoche as a philosopher sayeth he wrappeth hym in his
frende that condiscendeth . to the ryghtful prayers of his frende,
therefore I have gyven thee a sufficient astrolabye for oure
horizont compowned after the latytude of Oxenforde : Upon the
which by medyacion of this lytel tretys I purpose to teche thee
a certayn nombre of conclusions pertayning to this same instru
ment. I saye a certayn nombre of conclusions for three causes.
The firste cause is this : Truste wel that alle the conclusions that
have ben founden, or elles possiblye might be founde in so noble an
instrument as is the astrolabye, ben unknowen perfitly to any mortal
man in this region as I suppose : another cause is this, that sothely
in any tretyse of th'e astrolabye that I have y-sene ther ben some
conclusions that wol not in alle thinges perfourme ther behestes ;
and some of hem ben too harde to thy tender age of ten yere to
conceyve.
is tretyse, devyded in five partes, wil I shewe thee undyr
lighte reules and nakyd wordes in englissh — for latyn ne canste
thou not but smal, my litel sone. But nevertheless suffyseth to
thee these trewe conclusions in englissh as wel as suffyseth to the
noble clerkys grekes these same conclusions in greke ; and to the
arabiens in arabike, and to jewes in hebrew, and to latyn folk in
20 THE PROHEME.
latyn : which latyn folk hadde hem first out of other divers Ian.
gages, and wrote hem in ther own tonge, that is to saien, in latyn.
And God wote that in alle these langages and in many mo have
these conclusions ben sufficiently lerned and taughte and yit by
divers reules, right as dyvers pathes leden dyvers folk the right
weye to Koine.
w wol I pray mekely every discrete person that redeth or
hereth this lytel tretyse to have my rude endyting excused,
and my superfluite of wordes, for two causes : the first cause is, for
that curious endyting and harde sentens is ful hevy at onys for
suche a childe to lerne : and the second cause is this, that sothely
me semeth better to writen unto a child twise a gode sentens than
he forlete it ones. And Lowis if it be so that I shewe thee in my
lyth englysh as trewe conclusions touchinge this matyr, and not
only as trewe but as manye and as subtile conclusions as ben
y shewed in latyn in any comune tretise of the astrolabye conne
me the more thanke and praye God save the Kyng that is lord of
this langage, and alle that him fayth bereth and obeyeth, everich in
his degre the more and the lasse. But consydereth wel that I ne
usurpe not to have founden this werk of my labour or of myn
engyn : I n'am but a lewd compilatour of the labour of olde astro-
logiens, and have it translated in myn englysh only for thy doctryne :
and with this swerd shal I sleen envye.
T~IHE FIRSTE PARTYE of this tretyse shal shewe the figures and
the membres of thyn astrolabye, bicause that thou shalte
have the greter knowinge of thyne owne instrument.
HPHE SECONDE PARTYE shal teche thee to werken the verray prac-
tike of the forsayde conclusions as ferforth and also narrow
as may be shewed in so smale an instrument portatife aboute.
For wel wote every astrologien that smallest fractions ne wol not
be shewed in so smale an instrument as in subtile tables calculed
for a cause.
E THRIDDE PARTYE shal conteyne dyvers tables of longitudes
and latitudes of sterres fyxe in the astrolabye. And tables
of the declinacions of the sonne. And tables of the longitudes
of cities and tounes. And tables as wel for the governaunce of the
clokke as for to finde the altitude meridiane, and many an other
THE PROHEME. 21
notable conclusion after the kalenders of the reverente clerkes
frere John Somme and frere N. Lenne.*
E FOUETHE PARTYE shal be a theorike to declare the meving
of the celestiale bodyes, with the causes ; the whiche fourthe
partye in special shal shewe in a table the verray mevyng of the
mone from one to one, every daye, and every signe after thyn
almanak. Upon the whiche table ther followeth a canon sufficient
to teche as wel in maner of working in the same conclusions as to
knowe in oure orizonte with whiche degre of the Zodiake the Mone
aryseth in eny latitude, and the arysing of eny planete after his
latitude fro the ecliptike lyne.
E FYFTE PARTYE shal ben an introductorie after the statutes of
oure doctours, on which thou maiest lerne a grete parte of the
generalle rules of theorike in astrologye. In which fifte partie thou
shalt finde tables of equacions of houses after the latitude of Oxen-
ford; and tables of dignitees of pianettes and othere notefulle
thinges if God vouchesauf and hys mothir the mayde, mo than I
behote.
* Nicolaus de Lynna,.i.e., of Lynn, in Norfolk, was a noted astrologer in
the reign of Edward III., and was himself a writer of a treatise on the Astro
labe. See Bale — who mentions "Joannes Sombe" as the collaborates of
Nicolaus—" Istos ob eorum eruditionem multiplicem, non vulgaribus in suo
Astrolabio celebrat laudibus Galfridus Chaucer poeta lepidissimua." — BALE
(edit. 1548), p. 152.
Entotfi fte
THE FIRSTE PARTYE
tf)e ^figures anti tf)e
tires of tfjpn
&gng,
JWoticr,
YNE ASTROLABYE hath a EYNG to
putten on thy thombe on thy righte
honde in taking the heyght of thynges.
And take kepe forasmuch as from hence
forward I wol clepe the heyght of every thing that
is take by the reule the altitude withouten mo words.
This ryng renneth in a maner of a toret set fast in
the mothir of thyn Astrolabye in a rume, or a space,
that it distourbeth not the instrument to hangen
after the right centure.
rphe moder of thyn astrolabie* is thickest by the
brinkes, that is, the utmost ryng with degrees;
and all the myddle within the ryng shall be
thynner to receve the plates for divers clymates,
and also for the rethe that is shape in manner of a
net or elles after the webbe of a loppe.
H^his moder is devyded on the bakkhalfe with a
lyne that cometh discendyng fro' the ryng
down to the netherest bordure, the which lyne
fro the forsaied ryng unto the centre of the large
hole amidde, is cleped the South lyne or elles
the lyne merydyonal : and the remenaunt of this
* This description of "the moder" is twice repeated in all the copies ; the
first time as an addition to the preceding description of the ring with which it
has properly no connexion, and from which I have expunged it, retaining only
this separate paragraph.
THE FIGURES AND THE MEMBEES.
23
lyne doune to the bordure is cleped the North
lyne or elles the lyne of mydnyght.
/~\verthwarte this forsated long lyne there cros- '
^ seth hym an other lyne of the same length
fro est to west: of the which lyne from a lytel
crosse in the bordure unto the centre of the large
hole is cleped the est line or elles the line orientale
and the remenaunt of the line fro the foresaied
centre* unto the bordure is y-cleped the west line,
or the line occidentale.
"YTow hast thou heer the foure quarters of thyn
•*• astrolabye devyded after the foure priucipale
plages or quarters of the firmament.
<£ro&$ Efneg.
<&uartcrg
ot tp*
^Firmament.
fcpe JUgpte
j&toi ant)
tpe Sgfte.
le est-side of thyn astrolabie is cleped the
righte side, and the west side is cleped the
lyfte side. Forgete not this, litel Lowys. Put
the ring of thyn astrolabye upon the thombe of
thy righte hande and then wil his right side be
toward thy lyfte side and his lyft side wil be
toward thy righte side : and take this reule
generale as wel on the bakk as on the wombe
syde. Upon the ende of this est line, as I first
saide, is ymarked a litel cros, whereas evermore
generally is consydred the entryng of the est
degre in the which the sonne aryseth.
"C'ro the litel cros up to the ende of the meridio- $T
•*- nal line, undyr the ryng, shalte thou finde the an&
bordure devyded with xc degrees and by that
same proporcion is every quarter of thyn astro
labye devyded : over the whiche degrees ther been
nombres of augrim that devyden thilke same
degrees from five to five, as sheweth by longe
strikes betwene;f [of whiche longe strikes the
space betwene conteyneth a mile-waie : and every
degre of thilke bordure conteyneth foure minutes,
that is to saie, foure minutes of an hour.]
* I have here substituted " centre " for " oriental " of the copies.
t Nombres of augrim, i.e., Arabic figures. Stevens omitted the words in
brackets — I think correctly ; for they properly apply only to the other face of
the instrument.
24
anti
of tj&e
THE FIGURES AND THE MEMBRES.
\)t nameg T Tnder the compase of thilke degrees ben wretyn
t&e j&fgne*. U the names of the twelve signes, as Aries,
Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio,
Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces. And
the nombres of the degrees of these signes ben
wretyn in augrim above, and with longe devysions
from five to five devyded, from the tyme that the
signe entreth, unto the last ende. But understande
wel that these degrees of signes ben everych of
hem consydred of Ix minutes, and every mynute
of Ix secondes, and so forth unto smale fractions
infynite, as sayeth Alcabucius.* And knowe wel
that a degre of the bordure conteineth foure
minutes ; and a degre of a signe conteineth Ix
minutes : and have this in mind.
Vfext this, followeth the cercle of the daies,
.LI figured in maner of the degrees, that con-
tainen in nombre thre hundred threescore and
five : devyded also with longe strikes from five
to five, and the numbres of augrim wretyn under
the cercle.
xt the cercle of daies, followeth the cercle of
the twelve names of the monethes ; that is to
saie, Januarius, Februarius, Marcius, Aprill, Maius,
Junius, Julius, August, September, October, No
vember, December. These monethes taken ther
names, some for properties, and some by statutes
of Emperours, and some by other Lordes of Eome.
Eke of these monethes, as liked to Julius Csesar
and Csesar Augustus, some were compowned of
divers nombres of daies as July and August.
Then hath Januarius xxxi daies, Februarius
xxviii, Marcius xxxi, April xxx, Maie xxxi,
Junius xxx, Julius xxxi, August xxxi, September
xxx, October xxxi, November xxx, December
©ercle
of tf)* fcagfg.
nnmgg
* Et unumquidque istorum signorum dividitur in 30 partes equales quse
gradus vacantur. Et gradus dividitur in 60 mimita; et minntum in 60
secunda ; et secundum in 60 tertia ; similiterque sequuntur quarta ; similiter
et quinta ; ascendendo usque ad infinita." Alchabitii, Difftia Ima.
THE FIGURES AND THE MEMBEES. 25
xxxi.* Nathelesse although that Julius Caesar
toke two daies out of Feverire and put hem
in his moneth of July ; and Augustus Caesar
cleped the moneth of Auguste after hys name,
and ordeined it of one and thirtie daies: yet
truste wel that the Sonne dwelleth therefore
never-the-more ne-the-lesse in one sygne than
in an other.
rphen foloweth the names of the holy-daies in the
•*- Kalender and next hem the letters of the
A.B.C. on which thei fallen.
"VText the forsaid cercle of the A.B.C., undyr the ®&e j&cale.
•^ overthwarte lyne, is markyd the SCALE, in
maner of two squires or elles in manner of two
ledders, that serveth by hys twenty two poinctes,
and hys devisions, of ful many a subtill conclusion.
Of this forsaied scale, fro the crosse lyne unto the
verie angle is cleped UMBRA VERSA and the nethyr
partie UMBRA RECTA, or elles UMBRA EXTENSA.-)-
^hen haste thou a brode reule that hath on every &fje &eule.
• ende a square plate percyd with certayne
holes, some more and some lasse, to receyve the
stremes of the sonne by day, and eke by media-
cion of thyn eye to knowe the altitude of the
sterres by night.
en is ther a large pyn, in maner of an exiltre ®|)e $»iu
that goth thrugh the hole amyd, that halte the
tables of the clymates in the rete in the wombe of
the moder; throw which pyn ther goth a litel
* It is worthy of remark that Stevins here inserts in his MS., by way of
illustrating the text, those well-known lines, " Thirtie dais hath September,"
&c., adding, " Lo, verses of the nomber of the dais in the usuall monetks of
ye kalendar." This is, I think, an earlier date than has hitherto been discovered
for these lines.
t In all the copies, printed and MS., except that of Stevins, these terms are
reversed : except also Sloane MS. 314, in which the same error, which originally
existed in it also, has been corrected in the margin, probably by Stevins. And
it is very remarkable that Stceffler, who perhaps never saw Chaucer's treatise,
should yet, in his description of this part of the Astrolabie, have precisely this
same error of reversal of terms in both his text and his illustrative drawing.
26 THE FIGURES AND THE MEMBEES.
wedge the which is cleped the hors that streyneth
alle these partes togeder. This forsaied gret pyn,
in maner of an exiltre, is imagined to be the
pole artike in thyn Astrolabye.
JFourc rphe wombe side of thyn Astrolabye also is
eg of tf)e -*- devided with a longe cross in foure quarters
fro the est to west, and fro the south to north,
from righte side to lyfte side, as is the bakksyde.
The bordure of whiche wombe side is devided fro
the poynt of the est line unto the poynt of the
south line undyr the ryng in xc degrees ; and by
the same proporcion is every quarter devided as
is the bakkside that amounteth thre hundred
sixtie degrees. And understande wel that the
degrees of this bordure ben answerynge and
consentynge to the degrees of the equinoctial
of t|)e fliat is deeded in the same nombre as every
other cercle in the highe hevene.
®be lift), rphis bordure is devided also with xxxiii letters
•*• and a smale cros aboute the south line that
sheweth the xxiv houres equale of the clokke.
And I have seide five of these degrees maken a
mile-waie, and thre mile-wai maken an hour : and
every degre of this bordure conteyneth foure
minutes, and every minute foure* secondes. Now
have I tolde thee twise for the more declaration.
$late nphe plate under the Eete is descryved with thre
>* tfre J- cercles, of whiche the leest is cleped the cercle
Qf Qancer . bicause that the hed of Cancer tourneth
evermore concentrike uppon the same cercle. In
this hed of Cancer is the gretest declynacion
northward of the sonne, and therefore is he cleped
< . . . ~ .
of jfcomer, Solsticmm of Somer: which declynacyon, after
Ptholemy is xxiii degrees and fyfty minutes, as
wel in Cancer as in Capricorne. This cercle of
Cancer is cleped the tropike of somer, of tropos,
* In editt. 1602, 1687, and in Urry's, this is misprinted "fowertie secondes."
In the earlier printed editt., and also in Stevins' and other MSS. it is " Ix
secondes" See page 4 supra in Introduction.
THE FIGURES AND THE MEMBRES. 27
that is to seyn, ayenward ; for then begynneth the
sonne to passe fro usward.
The myddyl cercle in widenesse of these thre
is cleped the cercle Equinoctiale, uppon which
tourneth evermore the heddes of Aries and Libra.
And understonde wel that evermore thys cercle
equinoctial tourneth justlie fro the verray est to
the verray west, as I have shewed in the speere
solide.
This same cercle is cleped also the Equatour or
wayer of the day ; for whan the sonne is in the
hede of Aries or Libra than ben the dayes and
nightes y-like of length in al the world, and
therefore ben these two signes called equinoctis.
And al that meveth within these heddes of Aries
and Libra ben ycalled northward, and al that
mevith without these heddes his movyng is cleped
southward, as fro the equinoctial. Take kepe of
this latitude north and south and forgete it not.
By this cercle equinoctial ben considered the
xxiv houres of the clokke— for evermore the
arising of xv degrees of the equinoctial maketh an
hour equale of the clokke.
This Equinoctial is cleped the midway of the
firste mevyng or elles of the sonne. Also it is
cleped girdel of the firste mevyng for it departeth
the firste movable in two like partyes even dis-
taunt fro the poles of this world. And note that
the firste mevygn of the firste movable is cleped
mevyng of the [ninthe] speere, which mevying is •
fro est to west and ageyn into est.*
The widest of these thre cercles principale is
cleped the cercle of Capricorn [bicause that the
* I have endeavoured by transposing some of the parts of this paragraph,
and by changing " eighte" (sphere) of the copies into ninthe, to restore the
sense. My reasons for this last alteration are given in the Introduction (supra
p. 14.) The "firste movyng of the first mevable" which sounds so tauto-
l.)-i«-al may 1m explained by the two movings, first and second, into which
I'l.il.-nix .livi.lc.l ill,; Primum Mobile. See the marginal note to The Man of
Lawe's Tale 4715 in the Laus.l.»\vn MS. reprinted by the Percy Society, and
edited by Mr. Wright, Vol. i, page 213.
28
THE FIGURES AND THE MEMBRES.
head of Capricorne]* tourneth evermore concen-
trike uppon the same cercle. In the hede of this
foresaied Capricorne is the gretest declinacion
southward of the sonne and therefore it is cleped
fre j&oteticium Solsticium of winter. This cercle of Capricorne
of 22lint*r. is also cleped the tropike of winter, for thanne
begynneth the sonne to come ageyn to usward.
TTppon this forsaied plate ben compassed cer-
^ teyne cercles that highten Almicanteras : of
whiche some of hem semen perfite cercles and some
semen imperfite. The centure that standeth amydst
the narrowest cercle is cleped the Signet.^ And
the netherest cercle [or the firste cercle, is cleped
©rf^ont. the orizonte, that is the cercle]| that devideth
the two emisperies, the partye of the heven above
the yerthe and the partye beneth. These almican
teras be compouned by two and two, al be it so
that on diveres astrolabyes some almicanteras ben
devided by one, and some by two, and some by
thre, after the quantite of the astrolabye. This
foresaied signet is y-magined to be the verray
poynt over the crowne of thy heed, and also this
signet is* the verray pole of the orizonte in every
T^rom this signet, as it semeth, ther comen croked
-*- strikes, like to the clawes of a loppe, or elles
like to the worke of a woman's calle, inkerving
overthwart the almicanteras; and these same
&$imut*g. strikes or devisions ben cleped Azimutes:§ and
they deviden the orizonte on thyne astrolabye in
xxrv devisions. And these azimutes serve to
knowe the costes of the firmament ; and to other
* These words are not in the copies. 1 have taken them from the corre
sponding description of Cancer, just before ; which Stevins also adopted.
t Stevins invariably but very improperly, altered signet to Zenith See notes
to conclusions XVI and XXXII.)
J The words in brackets are not in the printed copies : they are supplied
from th.e MSS.
§ Fcjr these azimuths, see Note to Conclusion XXXIII. page 52.
THE FIGURES AND THE MEMBKES. 29
conclusions — as for to knowe the signet* of the
sonne and of every sterre.
"Mext these azimutes, rnidyr the cercle of Can-
cer, ben the twelve devisions embolite, moche
like to the shape of the azimutes, that shewen the
spaces of the houres of the Planets,
rphe Rete of thyn astrolabye, which is thy Zo-
•*• diake, shapen in maner of a net, or of a lop
webbe, after the olde descripcion, which thou
maiest tourne up and doune as thiself liketh,
conteynth certayn nombre of sterres fixe, with
ther longitudes and latitudes determinate, if it
so be that the maker have not erred. The
namys of the sterres ben wretyn in the margin
of thy rete, there as they sitte ; of the whiche
sterres, the smale poynt is cleped the centure.
And understonde that alle the sterres sittynge
within the Zodiake of thyn astrolabie ben cleped
sterres of the north, for they arisen by the north-
est lyne : and al the remenaunt fixed out of the
Zodiake ben i -cleped sterres of the south, — but
I saie not that they arisen alle by the south-est
lyne, witnesse of Aldebaron and also Algomisa.
Generally understoude this reule, that thilke
sterres that ben cleped sterres of the north
arysen rather then the degre of ther longitude,
and all the sterres of the south arysen aftyr
the degre of ther longitude, that is to saien,
sterres in thyn astrolabie.
^l^he mesure of longitude of sterres is y-taken in
' the lyne ecliptike of heven ; undyr the whiche
lyne when the sonne and the mone ben lyne right,
elles in the superficie of this lyne, thanne is the
eclips of the sonne or of the mone : as I shall
declare and eek the cause why. But sothelie the
ecliptike lyne of the zodiake is the utterest bor-
dure of the Zodiacke there thy degrees ben markyd.
The zodiake of thyn astrolabie is shapen as a
* Here " Signet" means the azimuthal point, or bearing.
30 THE FIGUEES AND THE MEMBRES.
compace which that conteyneth a large brede as
after the quantite of thyn astrolabye, in ensample
that the zodiake of hevene is ymagined to be a
superficies conteyning the latitude of twelve de
grees whereas al the remenaunt of cercles in
heven ben ymagined verray lines withouten any
latitude.
®cli$tikt A myddes the celestial zodiake is imagined a
gn*. -£*- lyne which that is cleped the ecliptike lyne,
under the whiche lyne is evermore the way of the
sonne. Thus ben there sixe degrees of the zodiake
on that one side of the lyne, and six degrees on
that other *
Q/&e Sottafe*. rphe zodiake is devyded in twelve principale
devisions that departen the twelve signes :
and, for the streightnes of thyn astrolabye, thanne
is every smale devision in a signe y-parted by two
degrees and two, I mene degrees conteyning Ix
minutes. And this hevenish zodiake is cleped
the cercle of the signes or the cercle of bestes ;
for zodiake in language of greeke souneth bestys
in latyne tonge. And in the zodiake ben the twelf
signes that have names of bestes: bicause whan
the sonne entreth in eny of the signes he taketh
the propertie of soche bestes: or elles f<ta that
the sterres that there ben fixe ben disposed in
signe of bestes, or in shape like bestes,*^ or elles
when planetes ben under the signes thei transmue
us by ther influence, operacions, and effectes like
to operacions of bestys. And understonde also
that when an hote planet cometh into an hote
signe thanne encreaseth his hete, and if a planet
be colde thanne amenuseth his coldnes bicause of
the hote signe : and by this conclusion maiste
thou taken ensample in alle signes be thei moiste
* There is some confusion here between the celestial zodiac and the instru
mental zodiac of the astrolabe ; six degrees on each side of the ecliptic cannot
apply to the latter, for Chaucer had, a few lines before, described the ecliptic
line of the instrument as " the utterest bordure of the zodiake."
t See Note B, in appendix, page 84.
THE FIGURES AND THE MEMBRES.
or drie, movable or fixe, rekening the qualite of
the planetes as I first saied.
nnhanne haste thou a LABEL that is shapen like a
-*- reule save that it is streight and hath no
plates on eythere ende : but with the smale poynt
of the foresaied label shalte thou calcule the
equacions in the bordure of thyn astrolabye as by
thyn almurie.
rphyn ALMURIE is cleped the denticle of Capri-
•*- corn or elles the Calculere. This same almurie
is set fixe in the hed of Capricorn, and it serveth
of many a necessarie conclusion in equation of
thynges, as shal be shewed.
31
Xafcet.
Almurie or
Denticle of
tfie Jptrsie $artge.
THE SECONDS PARTYE.
Cecijetf) tf)e $rattfee anti tf)e Concha
stons of
I. To finde the degre in the which the sonne is daie by daie
aftyr his course about.
iCKON" and knowe which is the daie of the moneth and
laie thy rewle upon the same daie, and then will the
verrey poynt* of thy rewle sitten in the bordure upon
the degre of the sonne. Ensample as thus : the yere
of oure Lord a thousand thre hundred ninetie and one, the
xii daie of March, at middaie, I would knowe the degre of the
sonne.
I sought in the bakke halfe of myne astrolabie and founde the
cercle of the daies the which I knewe by the namys of the moneths
wrytten undyr the same cercle. Tho laied I my rewle over the
foresaied daie and founde the point of my rewle in the bordure
upon the first degre of Aries, a littel within the degre : and thus
knewe I this conclusion. An other daie I would knowe the degre
of my sonne, and this was at middaie in the xiii daie of December,
I founde the daie of the moneth in maner as I saied : tho laied I
my rewle upon the foresaied xiii daie and founde the poinet of my
rewle upon the first degre of Capricorne a littel within the degre :
and then hadde I of this conclusion the full experience.
* Here and elsewhere, by the point, or small point, of the Rule, Chaucer
evidently means its fiducial edge : and the same remark applies to the
Label.
THE CONCLUSIONS. 33
II. To knowe the altitude of the sonne, eyther of celestiale bodies.
Oette the ryng of thyne astrolabie upon thy ryghte thombe and
tourne thy lyfte syde again the light of the sonne and remeve thy
rewle up and downe till the streme of the sonne shyne through
bothe holes of the rewle : loke then how many degrees this rewle is
areised fro the littel crosse upon the Est lyne and take there the
altitude of thy sonne. And in this same wise maiest thou knowe
by nighte the altitude of the mone or of the brighte sterres.
This chapiter is so general ever in one that there nedeth no more
declaracion ; but forget it not.
III. To knowe [by] the degre of the sonne, and of thy zodiake
the daies in the backsyde of thyne Astrolabie.*
rphen if thou wilte wete the reckenyng to knowe whiche is the daie,
-*- in thy kalender, of the moneth that thou art in, laie [the rule
of] thyne astrolabye, that is to saien the alidatha, upon the degre of
sonne and he shall shewthee the daie of the monethe in thy kalender.
IV. To knowe every tyme of the daie, by light of the sonne, and
every tyme of the night by the sterres fixe ; and eke to knowe
by night or by daie the degre of the signe that ascendeth on
th* est orizonte which is cleped comenly the ascendent.
ke the altitude of the sonne when thou liste, as I have said,
and sette the degre of the sonne, in case that it be before the mid-
del of the daie, among thyn almicanteras on the est syde of thyne
astrolabie : and if it be after the middel of the daie sette the
degre of the sonne upon the west syde. Take this maner of settyng
for a generall reule, ones for ever.
And when thou haste isette the degre of the sonne upon as
many almicanteras of height, as was the sonne taken by thy reule,
* This third conclusion was evidently meant to be converse to the first con
clusion. The object of the first was to find the place of the sun in the ecliptic
for any given day and month— so the object of this should be to find, con
versely, the month and day for any given place of the sun. This intention is
plain from the first two lines which remain unchanged. But in all the copies
printed and MS. that I have examined, this sense is reversed by a stupid and
incongruous confusion of terms, by which the proposition is made to appear a
repetition of the first conclusion instead of its converse. I have endeavoured
to restore the original intention by altering in the title the place of the word in
brackets and by retransposing the terms at the end as indicated by italics.
us omits this conclusion altogether. D
34 THE CONCLUSIONS.
laie over thy label upon the degre of the sonne and then woll the
point of the label sitten in the bordure upon the very tide of the
daie. Ensample as thus : The yere of oure Lorde a thousand thre
hundred ninetie and one, the twelveth daie of March, I would knowe
the tide of the daie. I toke the altitude of my sonne and founde that
it was xxv degrees and xxx minutes of height of the bordure in the
bakksyde : tho tourned I myne astrolabie, and bicause it was before
middaie I tourned my rete and sette the degre of the sonne, that is
to saie the firste degre of Aries, in the righte side in myne astrolabie,
upon the xxv degre and xxx minutys of height emong my almi-
canteras. Tho laied I my label upon the degre of my sonne and
founde the point of my label in the bordure on the capital letter
that is cleped an X : tho reckened I all the capitale letters fro the
lyne of midnight unto the foresaied letter X, and founde it was nine
of the clocke of the daie. Tho loked I over my Est orizont and
found there the twentieth degre of Geminus* ascending, which that
I toke for myne ascendente. And in this wise hadde I the experi
ence for evermore in which maner I should knowe the tide of the
daie, and eke myne ascendent.
Tho would I wete, that same night following, the hour of the
night, and wrought in this wise : Among an hepe of sterres fixe
it liked me to take the altitude of the faire white sterre that is
cleped ALHABOR, and founde her sytting on the west side of the
lyne of middaie, eightene degrees of heyth taken by my reule on
the bakksyde.
Then sette I the centure of this Alhabor upon eightene degrees
emong my almicanteras, upon the west side, bicause that she was
found upon the west side. Tho laied I my label over the degre of
the sonne, that was discended under the west orizont, and rekened
alle the letters capitales fro the lyne of middaye unto the poynt
of my label in the bordure and founde that it was after none,
passed seven of the clokke the space of eleven degrees.f Then
* "Twelveth degree of Geminus" in all the printed copies ; but, in the MSS.,
" the twentieth degree ;" which last is correct. See the diagram of the position
of the astrolabe in this observation, in Plate V.
+ " Eleven degrees" ; that is, forty-four minutes in time. Stevins, in his MS.,
very unwarrantably altered this time to— "past eight of the clocke certaine
minutes "—his reason for doing so being obviously to reconcile the observation
with the position of the star Sirius, then and since erroneously assumed to be
Chaucer's star Alhabor. But I have asserted and proved that Chaucer's Alha
bor, in this conclusion, was no other than the star Rijel (ft Orionis). See Plate
VI., and its explanation, supra page 18.
THE CONCLUSIONS. 35
loked I doune uppon my est orizont and founde there twenty*
degrees of Libra ascending whom I toke for myn ascendant : and
thus lernede I ones for ever to knowe in which maner I should come
to the hour of the night and to myne ascendent as nerely as maie
be taken by so smal an instrument.
But natheles this reule in general wil I warne thee of for ever, —
ne make thou never non ascendent at none of the daye : [ne canste
thcru nat] take a juste ascendent of thyne astrolabie and have sette
justlie a clokk when any celestial body, by which thou wenest
governe thilke thynges, ben neigh the southe lyne : for truste wel
when the sonne is nere the meridionale lyne the degre of the sonne
renyth so long concentrike upon thyne almicanteras that sothly
thou shalte erre fro the juste ascendent. The same conclusion
saie I by my centure of my sterre fixe by the nighte : and moreover
by experience I wote wel that for oure orizont fro eleven of the
clokke unto one, in taking the juste ascendent in a portatife
astrolabye, it is to harde to knowe. I mene fro eleven of the
clokke before none til one of the clokke next following, f
[All the printed editions, of which there were no less than eight, from
1532 to 1721, insert a conclusion in this place which is a plain interpola
tion, or rather a repetition almost word for word of a preceding conclusion
(No. III). I have not found it in any MS., and its re-appearance in
edition after edition of the printed copies is a curious exposure of the
want of care and discrimination with which these editions were blindly
copied one from another, notwithstanding the boast in some of them of
having been " compared with many valuable MSS."]
V. Special declaracion of the Ascendent.
rphe ascendent, sothelie, as well in all nativities, as in questions,
• and as in eleccions of tymes, is a thyng which that these
astrologiens gretlie observen. Wherefore me semeth convenient,
sens I speke of the ascendent, to make of it a special declaracion.
The ascendent, sothelie, to take it at the largest, is thilke degre that
ascendeth at any of these foresaied tymes on the Est orizont : and
therefore if that any planet ascende at thilk same time, in the fore-
said same degre of his longitude, men saie that thilk planet is in
horoscopo. But sothelie the hous %of the ascendent, that is to saie
* Eighteen degrees of Libra would be more correct, and probably what
Chaucer wrote.
t In the case of a star or planet, Chaucer of course means within fifteen
degrees on either side of the meridian.
36 THE CONCLUSIONS.
the firste hous, or the Est angle, is a thyng more brode and large :
for, after the statutes of the Astrologyens, what celestial body that
is v degrees above thilk degre that ascendeth on the orizont, or
within that nombre, that is to saien, nere the degre that ascendeth,
yet reckyn thei thilk planet in the ascendent : and what planet
that is undyr thilk degre that ascendeth the space of xxv degrees
yet saien thei that planet is like to hym that is the hour [lord ?]
of the ascendent.*
But sothelie if he passe the boundes of the foresaide spaces
above or beneth, thei saien that thilke pianette is fallyng fro the
ascendent : yet saien these Astrologiens that the ascendent, and
eke the lord of the ascendent, maie be schapen for to be fortunate
or infortunate, as thus : a fortunate ascendent clepen thei when
that no wicked planet of Saturne or Mars, or els the Taile of the
Dragon is in the hous of the ascendent, ne that no wicked planet
have no aspecte of enmitie uppon the ascendent. But thei will
caste that thei have fortunate planet in ther ascendent, and yet in
his felicitie, and then saie thei that it is wel. Furthermore thei
saine that fortune of an ascendent is the contrarie of these foresaide
thinges. The lord of the ascendent saine thei that he is fortunate
when he is in gode place for the ascendent; and eke the lord of the
ascendent is in an angle, or or in a succedent, where he is in his
dignitie and comforted with frendly aspectes receved ; and eke that
he maie seen the ascendent not retrograde ne combost, ne joined
with no shrew in the same signe, ne that he be not in his discen-
cion, ne reigned with no planet in his discencions, ne have uppon
hym none aspect infortunate ; and then thei saien that he is wel.
Nathelesse these ben observaunces of judicial matter and rites
of Painims, in whiche my spirit hath no faith, ne knowyng of ther
horoscopum : for thei saien that every signe is departed in thre
evene partes by x degrees, and the ilke porcion thei clepen a Face :
and although a planet have a latitude fro the Ecliptike yet saien
* Here Chaucer digresses into technical astrology : but since he expressly
disclaims any knowledge of it, it is not necessary to discuss his meaning. The
number of the degrees, however, of the ascendant above and beneath the
horizon, being obviously taken from the Tetrabiblos of Ptolemy, the following
numbers in the Latin translation will serve to justify the numbers in the text.
" Quinque gradibus qui super horizontem ante ipsum ascenderunt usque ad
viginti quinque qui ad ascendendum remanserint." Lib. iii. De Loco Prorogatore.
All the printed copies and MSS. have xv instead of xxv for the last number :
Stevins has 15 in both places.
THE CONCLUSIONS. 37
some folk so that the planet arise in that same signe with any
degre of the foresaied face in which his longitude is reckened, yet
is that planet in horoscopo, be it in nativities or in eleccion.
VI. To knowe the verie equacion of the degrees of the sonne, if it
so be that it falle betwixt two almicanteras.
T^or as moche as the almicanteras of thyn astrolabie ben com-
-^ pouned by two and two, whereas some almicanteras in sondrie
astrolabies ben compouned by one, or elles by two, it is necessarie
to thy lernyng to teche thee first to knowe and werke with thyn
own instrument. Wherefore when that the degre of the sonne
falleth betwene two almicanteras, or elles if thyne almicanteras
ben graven with overgrete a poynt of a compace (for bothe these
thinges maie cause errour as wel in knowing the tide of the daye
as of the verray ascendent) thou must werken in this wyse : sette
the degre of the sonne uppon the heigher almicantera of bothe and
waite wel where the almurie toucheth the bordure and sette ther a
prick of ynke ; sette adoun agayn the degre of the sonne uppon
the nethyr almicantera of bothe and sette there another pryck :
remeve than thy almurie in the bordure even amiddes bothe
pryckes and this wol leden justlie the degre of the sonne to sitte
betwene bothe the almicanteras in his ryghte place.
Laye thanne thy label on the degre of the sonne and finde in
the bordure the verraj tyde of the daye or of the nyghte. And
also verraily shalt thou finde upon thyn este orizont thyn ascen
dent.
VII. To knowe the spring of the dawning and the ende of the
evenyng ; the whiche ben cleped the two crepusculis.
Oette the nadyr of thy sonne upon eyghtene degrees of height
amonge thyn almicanteras on the west side, and laye thy
labell on the degre of the sonne ; and then shall the point of thy
labell shewe the spring of the daie : also sette the nadyr of the
sonne upon the eyghtene degrees of heyght among thine almican
teras on the est side, and laye over thy labell upon the degre of
the sonne, and with the point of thy label finde in the bordure
the ende of thy evenyng, that is, verie night. The nadyr of the
sonne is thilke degre that is opposyte to the degre of the sonne in
the Vllth signe*, as thus: everye degre of Aries by order is nadyr
* For the extraordinary errors of the printed editions in this place, see the
Introduction, page 7.
38 THE CONCLUSIONS.
to everye degre of Libra by order ; and Taurus to Scorpion ; Ge
mini to Sagittarius ; Cancer to Capricorn ; Leo to Aquary ; Virgo
to Pisces. And if any degre in thy Zodiake be dark, hys nadyr
shall declare hym.
VIII. To knowe the arche of the daye that some folk callen the
daye artificially fro the sonne arysing tyl it goo downe.
Sette the degre of the sonne upon thyn est orizonte and laie thy
label on the degree of the sonne and at the point of thy label in
the bordure sette a pryck : turne than thy rete about tyl the degre
of the sonne sytte upon the west orizonte and laie thy label upon
the same degre of the sonne, and at the poinct of thy label sette
another pryck. Eeken than the quantyte of tyme in the bordure
betwixe bothe pryckes and take there thyn arche of the daie. The
remnaunt of the bordure undyr the orizonte is the arche of the
nyghte. Thus maiest thou reken bothe arches of everye porcion
where that thou likest: and by this maner of werkyng maiest
thou se how longe that any starre fyxe dwelleth above the erthe
fro the tyme that he riseth tyl he goo to reste. But the daie na-
turelle, that is to saien 24 houres, is the revolucion of the equinoc
tial with as moche partye of the zodiake as the sonne of hys pro
per mevynge passeth in the menewhile.
IX. To turn the houres inequalles into houres equalles.
nowe the nombre of the degrees in the houres inequalles and
departe hem by fiftene and take there thyne houres equalles.*
X. To knowe the quantyte of the daye vulgare, that is to say, fro
the spryng of the daye unto the very nyght.
nowe the- quantyte of thyne crepusculis as I have it taught thee
in the chapiter before, and adde hem to the arche of the daye
K1
K1
* This conclusion is very suspicious, and is probably an interpolation. If
Chaucer himself had written it, he would not afterwards condemn it as
superfluous : " The quantytes of houres equalles ben departed alredy in the
bordure of thyn astrolabye — what nedeth any more declaration." — See
Xllth Conclusion. It is, moreover, out of place, since the reader knows
nothing, as yet, of houres inequalles. Stevins shows that he saw this last objec
tion by his having removed this conclusion, and placed it after those in which
houres inequalles are explained. Another suspicious feature in this conclusion
is its awkward intrusion in this place between the VHIth and Xth, which
ought to be consecutive, as required by Chaucer's words in the Xth : — " as I
have taught thee in the chapiter before," meaning the Vllth, which should be
changed so as to immediately precede the Xth.
THE CONCLUSIONS. 39
artificiall, and take there the space of al the whole day vulgare un
to the very nyght. In the same maner mayst thou werke to
knowe the vulgare nyght [by abating the same crepusculis from
the arche of the nyghte].*
XI. To knowe the houres inequalles by daye.
TTnderstonde wel that these houres inequales ben cleped houres of
^ the pianettes : and understoude wel that sometyme ben they
longer by daye than they be by nyght, and sometyme the contrarye.
But understande thou wel that evermore generally the hour ine
quale of the daye with the hour inequale of the nyght conteineth
30 degrees of the bordure ; the which bordure is evermore answer-
inge to the degrees of the equinoctial! Wherefore departe the
arche of the daye artificiall in 12 and take there the quantyte of
the houre inequale by daye ; and if thou abate the quantyte of the
houre inequale out of 30f degrees then shall the remenaunt per-
forme the houre inequale of the nyght.
XII. To knowe the quantyte of houres equalles.
quantytes of houres equalles, that is to saien the houres of
the clokke, ben departed by fyftene degrees alredy in the bor
dure of thyn astrolabye as wel by nighte as by daye generally for
evermore. — what needeth any more declaracion. Wherefore whan
thou liste to knowe how many houres of the clokke ben passed, or
[how many]J of these houres ben to comen fro soche a tyme to
soche a tyme by daye or by nighte, knowe the degre of thy sonne
and laye thy label on it [and bring it to the este orizont and take
there the tyme of the sonne arysing by thy label in the bordure], ||
* Stevins saw the want which I have here supplied in brackets ; but he
remedied it by the addition of an entirely new conclusion as follows. "To know
the quantity of the vulgar night. Take away both crepuscles from the arche
of the night, and the vulgar night onlye remayneth." Now this interpolation
of Stevins shows the probability of the IXth being also the work of some pre
vious interpolator.
t 360 degrees in the printed copies. So also Stevins, only that he puts
" houres " in the plural, which apparently lessens the error.
£ Substituted for " any parte of any " of the printed copies.
|| I have inserted this clause (in brackets) as necessary not only to the sense,
but because there is no other conclusion that teaches the time of sun-rise : an
omission the more remarkable because the point of the sun's arising is referred
to in the very next sentence, and again in the following conclusions.
40 THE CONCLUSIONS.
thanne turne thy rete aboute joyntlie with thy label and with the
point of it recken in the bordure fro the sonne arysyng unto the
same place there thou desirest by daye as by nyghte. This conclu
sion woll I declare in the fowerthe partye of the laste chapiter of
this tretyse so openly that there, shal lacke no word that nedeth
declaracion.
XIII. Speciall declaracion of the houres of the pianettes.
Understonde wel that evermore fro the arysying of the sonne tyl it
go to rest, the nadyr of the sonne shall shewe the houre of the
planet; and fro that tyme forward al the nyght tyl the sonne
aryse ; then shall the very degre of the sonne shewe the howre of
the planet, Ensample as thus : the 13 daye of March fel upon a
Satyrday peraventure, and at the arysyng of the sonne I founde
the seconde degre of Aries syttynge upon myn Est orizonte al be
it was but lytel. Then founde I the seconde degre of Libra na-
dyre of my sonne, discendynge on my West orizonte, upon which
West orizont every daye generally at the sonne arysyng entreth
the hour of any planet undyr the foresaied West orizonte, after the
which e planete the daye bereth his name, and endeth in the nexte
strike of the planete undyr the foresaied Weste orizonte : and ever
as the sonne clyinbeth upper and upper, so goth hys nadyre downer
and downer, and echinge* fro such strikes the houres of the pia
nettes by order, as they sytten in heven. The fyrst hour inequale
of every satyrday is to Saturne, and the second to Jupiter, the
thyrd to Mars, the fourth to the Sonne, the fyfth to Venus, the
syxt to Mercurius, the seventh to the Mone, and then ayen the
eyghth to Saturne, the nyneth to Jupiter, the tenth to Mars, the
eleventh to the Sonne, the twelfth to Venus. And nowe is my
sonne gon to reste as for that satyrdaye ; Than sheweth the very
degre of the sonne the hour of Mercury entryng under my west
orizont at even : And nexte hym succedeth the Mone, and so forth
by order, planete after planete, in hour after hour al the riyght
longe tyl the sonne aryse. Nowe riseth the sonne the Sunday by
the morowe, and the nadyr of the sonne upon the west orizont shew
eth me the entryng of the hour of the foresaied sonne. And in this
inaner succedeth planete undyr planete fro Saturn unto the Mone,
* Stevins, not understanding this word echinge, changed it in his MS. to
teachinge : but it has every appearance of being a genuine word, and the verb
" to eche " is found in such a comparatively modern authority as Bailey's Dic
tionary Here it seems to mean adding one by one, or dealing out.
41
and fro the Mone up ageyn to Saturn, hour aftyr hour generally,
and thus knew I this conclusion.
XIV. To knowe with which degre of the Zodiake any sterre fyxe,
in thyn astrolabye, aryseth upon the Est orizonte, although
the orizonte be in anothyr sygne.
ette the centure of the sterre upon the Est orizonte and loke what
degre of any signe that sytteth upon the same orizonte at the
same tyme : and understonde wel that with the same degre ariseth
the same sterre.
And this mervaylous arysing with a straunge degre in another
sygne is bycause the latitude of the sterre fyxe is eyther north or
south fro the Ecliptike.* For sothely the latitudes of planetes ben
comenly rekenyd fro the ecliptike bycause that none of hem de-
clineth but fewe degrees fro the brede of the Zodiake. And take
gode kepe of thys chapiter of arysing of celestiall bodyes, for
trusteth wel that neyther Mone, neyther sterre, in cure embolyfe
orizonte that aryseth with the same degre of his longitude save in
one case, and that is when thei have no latitude fro the eclyptike
lyne. But nevertheles somtyme is everiche of these planetes uiidyr
the same lyne.
XV. To knowe the declinacyon of any degre in the Zodiake fro
the equinoccial cercle.
Oette the degre of any signe upon the lyne meridional and reken
his altytude in the almicanteras fro the Est orizonte up to the
same degre sette in the forsaied lyne, and sette there a prycke : turne
up thy rete and sette the hed of Aries or Libra in that same
merydyonal lyne and sette there another prycke ; and when
this is done consyder the altitudes of hem bothe : for sothely
the difference of thilke altytude is the declynacyon of thilke degre
fro the equinoctial. And if it so be that thilke degree be northward
fro the equinoctiall than is hys declynacyon north, and if it be south
ward than it is south.
XVI. To knowe for what latytude in any region the almicanteras
in thy tables ben compowned.
* In all MSS. and printed copies that I have examined this word is " Equi
noctial," and the next word " But." These I have altered into Ecliptike and. For,
respectively : not so much because ol the expression " latitude," which Chau
cer often uses in the sense of declination ; but because the problem necessarily
requires the star's divergence from the ecliptic, while with the equinoctial it
iiii^ht coincide, and still be within the conditions of the problem.
42 THE CONCLUSIONS.
Reken how many degrees of almicanteras, in the meridionall
line, he from the circle equinoctiale unto the signet ;* or els
from the pole artike unto the north orizont : and for so grete a
a latitude, or so smale a latitude^is the table compouned.
XVII. To knowe the altytude of the sonne]in the myddes of the
daye, that is cleped the altytude meridian.
Oette the degre of thy sonne upon the lyne meridionale and reken
^ how many degrees of almicanteras ben betwixe thyn Est ori-
zonte and the degre of thy sonne and take there thin altitude
meridian ; that is to sain, the highest degre of the sonne as for
that daye. So mayest thou knowe in the same lyne the highest
degref' that any sterre fyxe clymbeth by nyght : this is to saine that
when any sterre fyxe is passed the lyne meridionall, than begyn-
neth it to discende ; and so doth the sonne.
XVIII. To knowe the degre of the sonne by the rete for a maner
curyosyte.
Oeke busely with thy rule the highest of the sonne in myddes of
' the daye ; tourne than thyn astrolabie, and with a prycke of
ynk marke the nombre of the same altitude in the lyne meridio
nale. Tourne than thy rete about tyl thou finde a degre of thy
zodiake accordyng with the prycke ; that is to sain, syttyng on the
prycke — and in sothe thou shalt finde but two degrees in al the
zodiake of that condycyon, and yet thilke two degrees ben in divers
sygnes. Than mayst thou lightly by the seson of the yere knowe
the signe in whiche is the sonne.
XIX. To knowe which day is like to other in lengthe throughout
the yere.
T oke whiche degrees ben lyke [far] from the hedes of Cancer and
Capricorn ; and loke when the sonne is in any of thilke de
grees ; than ben the dayes lyke of length ; that is to sain— that as
long is that day in that moneth as was soche a daye in soche a
moneth, there varieth but lyttel. Also if thou take two dayes natu-
relles in the yere ylike farre from eyther point of the equinoctial
in the opposite partyes ; than as long is the day artificial on that
one day, as on that other ; and eke the contrarie.
* Signet, i.e., Zenith ; pronounced with the French silent g, and sometimes
written synet or sinet by Chaucer (See page 45).
t In all the copies this word is " lyne." It ought manifestly to be " degre,"
THE CONCLUSIONS. * 3
XX. This chapter is a maner declaracion to conclusions that
followeth.
TTnderstande wel that thy zodiake is departed in two* halfe
^ circles, from the hed of Capricorn unto the hed of Cancer, and
ayenwarde from the hed of Cancer unto the hed of Capricorn. The
hed of Capricorn is the lowest poinct where as the sonne goth
in winter, and the hed of Cancer is the highest poinct in which the
sonne goth in sommer. And therefore understande wel that any
two degrees that ben ylike far from any of these two hedes truste
wel that thilke two degrees ben of lyke declinacion, be it southward
or northward, and the dayes of hem ben lyke of length, and the
nyghtes also ; and shadowes ylyke, and the altitudes ylyke at myd-
day for ever.
XXI. To knowe the verrey degre of any maner sterre strange,
after his altitude.-)- Though he be indeterminate in thyn astro-
labye sothely to the trouth thus he shal be knowe.
rpake the altitude of thy sterre when he is on the Est syde of the
•*• lyne meridional as nygh as thou mayest gesse, and take that
ascendant anone right by some maner sterre fyxe which thou know-
* Sic in MSS. The printed copies have " into halfe circles."
t This word is latitude in all the copies — an obvious error, since the chief
object of the problem is longitude. But as the transposition of the first two
letters is the commonest of all errors, and as altitude makes very good sense as
one of the principal elements of the problem, I have substituted it as the most
probable original. This is one of the Conclusions that Stevins " cleane put out
for utterly false and untrew," possibly because he could not understand it, or
because it was one of those denounced by Stoeffler. It is true that it is
not strictly correct in theory — because a mean of two ascendants is not neces
sarily the ascendant of the mean of their relative culminating points. But
the method is sufficiently correct for practical purposes with an instrument so
imperfect in itself as the Astrolabe : provided that the interval between the
equal altitudes be short, a condition which Chaucer seems to have had in view
when he directs the first altitude to be taken on the east side of the meridian
" as nygh as thou may'st gesse." If the interval were not more than an hour
the greatest error in the result could not exceed a degree of longitude — much
less than might arise from the other sources of error to which such an observation
would be exposed. It must be observed that the longitude of which Chaucer
speaks was not, as at present, referred to the Pole of the ecliptic ; but was that
degree of the ecliptic that came to the meridian with the star. This was
" Longitudo secundum cceli mediationem" and was still in use' long after Chau
cer's time. Also it must be observed that Chaucer makes no distinction be
tween latitude and declination but treats both these terms as synonymous.
44
THE CONCLUSIONS.
est • and forget not the altitude of the firste sterre ne thyn ascen-
dente. And when that thys is done aspye dilygently when this
first sterre passeth anythyng to the south westward and cacche
him anone ryght in the same nombre of the altitude on the west
syde of thys lyne meridional as he was caught on the est syde, and
take newe ascendente anone right by some maner sterre fyxe the
which that thou knowest, and forgete not this second ascendant.
And when this is done, reken thou howe many degrees ben bitwixe
the first ascendent and the second ascendent, and reken wel the
myddel degre betwix bothe ascendentes ; and sette thilke mycldel
degre upon thyn Est orizonte : and then loke what degre sitte upon
the lyne meridional and take there the very degre of the eclip-
tike in whiche the sterre standeth for the tyme. For in the
ecliptike is the longitude of a celestiale body, rekoned even fro
the hed of Aries unto the ende of Pisces ; and his latitude is
rekened after the quantyte of his declinacion north or south
toward the poles of this worlde. As thus : if it be of the sonne,
or any fyxe sterre, reken his latitude or his declynacion fro the
equinoctial circle; and if it be of a planete reken than the
quantite of his latitude from the ecliptike lyne. Albeit so that
from the equinoctial maye the declinacion or the latitude of any
body celestiale be rekened after the sight,* north or south, and
after the quantite of his declinacion ; and yet so maye the lati
tude or declynacion of any body celestiall, save only of the sonne,
after his sight, and after the quantite of his declinacion, be
rekened from the ecliptike lyne, fro which lyne all planetes some-
tyme decline north or south save only the forsaied sonne.
XXII. To knowe the degrees of longitude of fyxe sterres after that
thei be determinate in thin astrolabye if it so be that they
ben trewly sette.
* It is difficult to interpret " after the sight." It is just possible it may
mean according to visual observation : or it may be that sight is a copy-error
for height = culmen = meridian altitude. The passage in which it occurs, unless
some part of it has been lost, merely declares that latitude or declination may
be reckoned from either the equinoctial or the ecliptic ; except in the case of the
sun, when it must be from the equinoctial only. Then, reading " declinacion "
in that place as simply deviation, the sense might be : — The latitude of any
celestial body may be reckoned from the equinoctial, north or south, after its
height, and after the quantity of its deviation, &c.
THE CONCLUSIONS. 45
Oette the centre of thy sterre upon the lyne merydional and take
^ kepe of thy Zodiake and loke what degre of any signe sytte
upon the same lyne meridional at the same tyme, and take there
the degre in which the sterre standeth. And with the same
degre cometh the same sterre into the same lyne fro the orizonte.*
XXIII. To knowe in special the altitude of our centre, I mene
after the latitude of Oxenforde and the hight of our Pole.
TTnderstande wel that as farre is the hed of Aries or Libra in the
^ equinoctial from our orizonte as is the synet from the pole
artike ; and as hie is the pole artike from the orizonte as the
equinoctial is ferre fro the synet. I preve it thus by the latitude
of Oxenforde : understande wel that the height of our pole artike
from our north orizonte is 51 degrees and 50 minutes ; than is the
synet from the pole artike 38 degrees and 10 minutes : than is the
equinoctial from our sinet 51 degrees and 50 minutes: than is our
south orizonte from our equinoctial 38 degrees and 10 minutes.
Understande wel this rekening, also forget not that the sinet is
90 degrees of height from the orizont, and our equinoctial is 90
degrees from our pole artike. Also this shorte rule is sothe, that
the latitude of any place*)- in a region is the distaunce from the
sinet unto the equinoctial.
XXIV. To prove evidentlye the latytude of any place in a region
by the preffe of the hyght of the pole artike in that same
place.
Tn some wynters nyght, when the firmament is clere and thick
sterred, wayte a time tyl that any ster fixe sitte line right
perpendiculer over the pole artike and clepe that ster A ; and
wayte another ster that sytte line right under A and under the
pole and clepe that ster F : and understande wel that F is not
considred but onely to declare that A sytteth over the pole. Take
than anone right the altitude of A from the orizonte and forget it
* Stevins, according to his Preface, intended to reject this conclusion also
(supra, pp. 23, 24; ; nevertheless it is certainly included in his MS. With the
longitude used by Chaucer, as explained in a preceding note, there is nothing
in this conclusion to be objected to. The last clause is a necessary consequence
of that kind of longitude ; since both star and degree lie upon the same circle
of declination, which, in the astrolabe, is projected in a straight line from the
horizon to the pole.
t Sic in Stevins. All other copies have "planet"
46 THE CONCLUSIONS.
not. Let A and F go farewel tyl agaynst the dawning a gret while ;
and come then agayne and abyde tyll that A is even under the pole
and under F ; for sothely then wol F sytte over the pole. Take
than eftsones the altitude of A from the orizonte and note as wel
the second altitude as the first altitude. And when that thys is
done reken how manye degrees that the first altitude of A. exceeded
his second altitude and take halfe the like porcion that is exceeded
and adde it to his second altitude and take there the elevacion of
the pole and eke the latitude of thy region. For these two ben of
one nombre, that is to sain, as many degrees as thy pole is elevat
so moche is the latitude of thy region. Ensample as thus:
Peraventure the altitude of A in the evening is 82 degrees of
height, than will the second altitude in the dawning be 21 ; that is
to saine, lesse by 61 than was his first altitude at even. Take than
the halfe of 61 and adde to it 21 that was his second altytude, and
than hast thou the height of the pole and the latitude of thy
region.* But understonde wel, to preve this conclusion, and many
another fair conclusion, thou mayst have a plomet hanging on a
lyne higher than thy hed, on a perche, and that lyne mote hange
even perpendiculer betwixe the pole and thyne eye: and than
shalte thou se yf A sytte even over the pole and over F at even,
and also if F sytte even over the pole and over A at daye.
XXV. Another conclusion to preve the hyght of the pole artike
from the orizont.
* The two stars a and /?, Ursso Majoris, still called the pointers, were, in
Chaucer's time, much more nearly in a direct line with the north pole than at
present j and nothing would prevent their being the stars intended by Chaucer,
but that they are both at the same side of the pole. One of them, however,
might be, and no doubt was, his star A ; and F, the star under the pole, was
as certainly Polaris, at that time nearly four degrees from the pole, and almost
exactly in a direct line passing through it to the stars first named. Now the
discrepancies in the various copies are confined to the upper altitude : some
making it 92 and others 62 degrees ; but they all agree in the lower altitude,
21 degrees, and as that is just consistent with f3 Ursae Majoris, in the lat. of
51° 30', it may be safely assumed that the upper altitude ought to be 82 degrees,
which I have consequently placed in the text. The respective right-ascensions
of these two stars at either side of the pole were 157 and 338 degrees — that is,
within less than a degree of being diametrically opposite — and when it is con
sidered that these places have been carried back by tabular corrections through
. nearly five centuries, and that Chaucer's observation of verticality was by
plumb-line and naked eye, the approximation is remarkable and quite sufficient
to warrant the correction in the text.
THE CONCLUSIONS. 47
HPake any sterre fyxe that never descendeth under the orizont in
-^ thilke region, and consyder his hyghest altitude and his lowest
altitude from the orizont, and make a nombre of these altitudes ;
take than and abate halfe that nombre [from his hyghest altitude]
and take there the elevacion of the pole artike in that same region.
XXVI. Another conclusion to preve the latitude of a region that
ye ben in.
TTnderstande wel that the latytude of any place in a region is
verely the space betwyxe the signet of hem that dwellen there
and the equinoctiall circle, north, or south, taking the mesure in
the merydyonall line as sheweth in the almicanteras of thin
astrolaby ; and thilke space is as moche as the pole artyke is hie
in the same place fro the orizont. And than is the depressyon of
the pole antartyke beneth the orizonte the same quantite of space,
neither more ne lesse : than, if thou desire to know this latitude
of the region, take the altitude of the sonne in the myddle of the
daye, when the sonne is in the hed of Aries or of Libra, for than
movethe the sonne in the lyne equinoctial, and abate the nombre
of that same sonne's altitude out of 90 degrees and than is the
remnaunt of the nombre that leveth the altitude of the region : as
thus — I suppose that the sonne is thilke daye at noon 38 degrees
of heyght, abate, than, 38 degrees out of 90 so leveth ther 52, than
is 52 degrees the latitude. I saye not this but for ensample, for
wel I wote the latitude of Oxenforde is certain minutes lesse
Nowe if it so be that thu thinketh too long a tarying to abyde til
that the sonne be in the hed of Aries or Libra, than waite when
that the sonne is in any other degre of the zodiake and consider if
the degre of his declinacion be northward from the equinoctial ;
abate than from the sonne's altytude at none the nombre of his
declinacion, and than hast thou the height of the hedes of Aries
and Libra : as thus : — my sonne, peraventure, is in the 10 degre
of Leo, almost 56 degrees of height at none, and his declinacion is
almost 18 degrees northward from the equinoctial ; abate than
thilke 18 degrees of declinacion out of the altitude at none, than
leveth 38 degrees — lo there the height of the hed of Aries or Libra
and thyn equinoctial in that region. Also if it so be that the
sonne's declinacion be southward from the equinoctial, adde than
thilke declinacion to the altitude of the sonne at none and take
there the hedes of Aries and Libi a and thyn equinoctiall. Abate
than the height of the equinoctial out of 90 degrees and than leveth
48 THE CONCLUSIONS.
there 52 degrees ; that is the distaunce of the region from the equi
noctial. [Or take the highest altitude]* of any sterre fyxe that thou
knowest and take [or add his declinacion]* from the same equinoc
tial lyne, and werke after the maner aforesaid.
XXVII. Declaracion of the ascencions of signes as well in the
circle directe as in oblique.
e excellence of the sphere solid, amonges other noble conclu-
sions, sheweth manifest the divers ascencions of signes in
divers places, as wel in right circles as in embolyfe circles. [A
right circle or horizon have those poeple that dwell under the
equinoctial linej'f and evermo the arche of the daye and the arche
of the night is there ylike longe ; and the sonne twise every yere
passeth through the signet over hed ; and 2 sommers and 2 wynters
in a yere have these forsayd peple ; and the almycanteras in their
astrolabie ben straight as a line. And note that this right orizont —
that is cleped orizont rectum — devideth the equinoctial into right
angles : and the embolife orizont, wheras the pole is enhaunced
upon the orizonte, overcometh the equinoctial in embolife angles.
The utilitie to knowe the ascencions of signes in the right circle
is this : truste wel that by mediacyons of thilke ascencions, these
astrologiens by their table and ther instrumentes knowen verely
the ascencion of every degre and minute in al the zodiake in the
embolife circle, as shal be shewed. These auctours writen that
thilke signe is cleped of right ascencion with which the more part
of the circle equinoctiall and the lesse part of the zodiake ascendeth ;
and thilke signe ascendeth embolyfe with which the lesse of the
equinoctial and the more part of the zodiake ascendeth.
XXVIII. This is the conclusion to knowe the ascensions of signes
in the right circle, that is, circulus directus.
Oette the hed of what signe thu lyste to knowe the ascendyng on
the right circle, upon the lyne meridionall and wayte where
thine almurie toucheth the bordure, and set there a prycke : tourne
* The words in the first brackets are added as a necessary connection with
the preceding matter ; and those in the second brackets as substitutes for these
unintelligible words which occupy their place in the MSS. arid printed copies —
" the nether elongation lengthening."
t I have added these words, in brackets, to supply the evident hiatus : and
I have altered the relative places of several of the passages in order to render
them more congruous and consecutive.
THE CONCLUSIONS. 49
than thy rete westward til the ende of the forsaide signe sitte upon
the meridional lyne; and eftsones wayte where thine almurie
toucheth the bordure and sette there another prycke. Eeken than
the nombre of degrees in the bordure betwixe bothe pryckes, and
take than the ascencion of the signe in the right circle ; and thus
maist thou werk with every porcion of the zodiake.
XXIX. To knowe the ascencions of signes in the embolife circle
in every region : I mene in circulo obliquo.
Oette the hed of the signe, which as thu liste to knowe his
^ ascencion, upon the est orizonte, and wayte where thine
almury toucheth the bordure, and sette there a prycke ; tourne than
thy rete upwarde til the ende of the same sygne sitte upon the
est orizonte and waite eftsones whereas thine almury toucheth the
bordure, and sette there another prycke : reken than the nombre
of the degrees in the bordure betwixe bothe piyckes and take there
the ascension of the signe in the embolyfe circle. And understande
wel that alle the signes in the zodiake from the hed of Aries unto
the ende of Virgo ben cleped signes of the north from the
equinoctial ; and these signes arisen betwixe the verray Est and
the verray North in cure orizont generally for ever. And alle the
signes from the heed of Libra unto the ende of Pisces ben cleped
signes of the South fro the equinoctial, — and these signes arisen
evermore betwixe the verray Est and the verray South in oure
orizont. Also every signe betwixe the hed of Capricorn unto the
ende of Gemini ariseth in oure orizonte in lesse than two houres
equalles ; and these same signes from the hed of Capricorn unto
the end of Gemini ben called tortuous signes, or croked signes, for
thei arysen embolife in oure orizonte : And these croked signes ben
obedient to the signes that ben of the righte ascension. These
signes of righte ascension ben fro the heed of Cancer unto the ende*
of Sagittary ; and these signes arisen more upright than dothe the
othere, and therefore they ben called soveraine signes, — and every
of hem ariseth in more space than in two houres : of whiche
signes Gemini obeyeth to Cancer, and Taurus to Leo, and Aries to
Virgo, Pisces to Libra, Aquarius to Scorpio, and Capricorn to
Sagittary. And thus evermore two signes that ben like farre from
the hed of Capricorn obeyeth every of hem to other.
" Heel" in printed copies.
50 THE CONCLUSIONS.
XXX. To knowe justly the foure quarters of the world, as Est,
West, South, and North.
rpake the altitude of thy sonne when thou liste, and note well
-"• the quarter of the world in which the sonne is from [for] the
tyme by the asymutes : tourne then thine astrolaby and sette the
degre of the sonue in the almicanteras of his altitude on thilke
syde that the sonne standeth, as is in maner of taking of houres ;
and laye thy labell on the degre of the sonne, and reken ho we
many degrees of the lordwre* ben bytwene the lyne meridional!
and the point of thy label, and note wel the nombres. Tourne
than agayne thyne astrolabie and set the point of thy grete rule,
there thou takest thin altitudes, upon as many degrees in hys
bordure from his meridional as was the pointe of thy labell from
the lyne meridional on the wombe syde. Take then thyne astro-
labye with bothe handes sadly and slyly and let the sonne shine
through bothe holes of thy rule and slyly in thilke shyning laye
thine astrolabye couche adoune even upon a playne ground ; and
than wyl the meridionall lyne of thin astrolabye be even south,
and the est lyne will lye even est, and the west lyne west, and
the north lyne north, so that thou worke softely and avisely in the
couchynge. And thou hast thus the foure quarters of the
firmamente.
XXXI. To knowe the altitudef of Pianettes from the way of the
sonne, whether they ben north or south fro the way afore-
saide.
T oke, when a planet is on the lyne meridional, yf that her altitude
be of the same height that is the degre of the sonne for that
daye and than is the planet in the very way of the sonne and hath
no latitude. And yf the altitude of the pianette be hyer than the
degre of the sonne, than is the planet north from the way of the
sonne a quantite of latitude as sheweth by thine almycanteras :
and yf the altitude be lesse than the degree of the sonne, than is
* Here I have not hesitated to substitute " degrees of the bordure" for " de
grees of the sonne" because it is probably a mistake of the copyist ; but I do
not attempt to alter the fundamental error, which appears to be Chaucer's own,
of taking the sun's hour angle to be equal to his azimuth from the south.
t Stevens reads latitude, but the word in the text may stand ; for, although
the alteration is probably right, yet the whole proposition is so erroneous that
THE CONCLUSIONS. 51
the pianette south from the waye of the sonne soche a quantite of
latitude as sheweth by thine almicanteras. This is to saine, from
the waye of the sonne in everye place of the zodiake, for on the
morowe the sonne wyll be in another degre.
XXXII. To knowe the signet* for the arising of the sonne ; that is
to saine, the partie of the orizoute in which the sonne ariseth.
Thou rnuste first consider that the sonne ariseth not [alwayes] in
the verie Est, but sometyme in the North-Est, and sometyme in
the South-Est : sothely the sonne ariseth nevermore in the verie
this single correction would be of no importance. It is difficult to believe that
Chaucer could have entertained such an extraordinary misconception as is
implied in this conclusion ; and yet since it is the same in all the copies, and
since, moreover, the error seems so consistent throughout that no supposition
of misprint or miscopying can account for it, I do not attempt to amend it. Its
falseness will be apparent when it is considered that at the summer solstice the
meridian altitude of the sun is at its highest, but that at midnight of the same
day a planet on the meridian, if in the ecliptic, or way of the sun, so far from
being " of the same heiyhte that is the degre of the sonne for that daye," would be
47 degrees lower, or the whole breadth of the tropics, "What Chaucer really
intended was, no doubt, to compare the altitude of the planet with that of the
culminating point of the ecliptic at the time of observation.
It is curious that Stevins should have seen that there was an error, and yet,
in an attempt to amend it, should have committed a still greater blunder
himself : his note to " way of the sonne " is as follows — " The way of the
sonne is taken heere for the circuit that the sonne maketh every day by force
of the first movable from east to west ; and not for the ecliptike, as in other
places it is used." That is, he would have the way of the sun in this proposi
tion to mean a parallel to the equinoctial ; which, in the example already men
tioned, would be the circle called the tropic of Cancer. But to imagine a
planet at midnight in that circle, with the sun in the summer solstice, would
be to assign to the planet a latitude from the ecliptic of 47 degrees, a worse
blunder than the other. The only way in which it seems possible to render the
conclusion correct is by the following addition, in brackets, which, after all, is
not very extensive : — " Look, when a planet is in the line meridional, if that
her altitude be of the same height that is the sun for that day [when he is in
the same sign and degree that is the planet], then is the planet in the very way
of the sun and hath no latitude."
But, of course, the other parts of the Conclusion should be altered in con
formity.
* Wherever signet occurs in this or the following conclusions, Stevins alters
it to zenith; but very improperly (see note to conclusion xvi.). It is worthy
of note that zenith, in the time of Stevins and Stoeffler, was used with the same
double application as the signet of Chaucer — not only to the vertex, but also to
any point in the horizon or equinoctial.
52 THE CONCLUSIONS.
Est in our orizont but if he be in the hed of Aries or Libra. Now
is thine orizont departed into xxiiii parties, or minutes, by thine
asyinutes ; in significacion of xxiiii partes of the worlde : though it
be so that shipmen reken all the parties in xxxii.
Then is there no more but waite in the whiche minute that the
sonne entreth at his arising and take there the signet of the rising
of the sonne.
XXXIII. The maner of devision [of the horizont] of thine astro-
labie is thus enjoyned : as in this case.*
First, it is devided in fowre plages principallie, with the line that
cometh fro Est to West and then with another line that goeth
from South to North : then is it devided in smale parties, or minutes,
as Est, and Est by South where that is the first minute above the
Este line ; and so forth fro partie to partie till that thou come again
to the Est line. Thus thou might understande the signet of every
sterre — in whiche partie he ariseth.
XXXIV. To knowe in which partie of the firmament is the con
junction.
/Consider the tyme of the conjunction, by the Kalender ; as thus,
^ how many houres that the conjunction is fro midday e of the
daye before, as sheweth the canon of the kalender. Rekene then
that nombre in the bordure of thine astrolabie, as thou were wont
to doe in knowyng of the houres of the day or of the night,
and lay thy label! over the degre of the sonne : then will the poinct
* Stevins makes this conclusion a part of the preceding ; to which, indeed,
it seems supplementary : but not more so than to the original description of
the azimuths at page 28. Chaucer's xxiv azimuths were :—
1. East.
7. South.
13. West.
19. North.
2. E. by S.
3. S.E. by E.
4. S.E.
8. S. by W.
9. S.W. by S.
10. S.W.
14. W. by N.
15. N.W. by W.
16. N.W.
20. N.by E.
21. N.E. by N.
22. N.E.
5. S.E. by S.
6. S. by E.
11. S.W. by W.
12. W. by S.
17. N.W. by N.
18. N. by W.
23. N.E. by E.
24. E. by N.
These azimuths, or minutes, were each of 15 degrees, and their names are
indicated by Chaucer himself by calling " East by South — the first minute above
the Est line — and so forth fro partie to partie till that thou come again to the
Est line."
The concluding words in the title of this 33rd conclusion — " as in this case"
should probably be, as in these cases,— referring to the several propositions re
specting azimuths which precede and follow it. In Stevins, minute is altered
everywhere to azimuth, but quite unnecessarily.
THE CONCLUSIONS. 53
of the labell sitte upon the houre of the conjunction. Loke then
on which minute the degre of the sonne sitteth, and in that partie
of the firmament is the conjunction.
XXXV. To knowe the signet of the altitude of the sonne.
rFhis is no more to saie but any time of the daie take the altitude
of the sonne and by the minute in which he standeth thou
might se in which partie of the firmament lie is : and in the same
wise might thou se by night any sterre whether he sitte est, west,
or south, or any part betwixe, after the name of the minute in
which the sterre standeth.
XXXVI. To know sothlie the longitude of the Mone, or any pia
nette, that hath no latitude, for the tyme, fro the ecliptike
line.*
'T'ake the altitude of the Mone and rekene thyne altitude up
among thyne almicanteras on which side that the Mone stand
eth, and sette there a pryck. Take then anone, right uppon the
Mone's side, the altitude of any sterre fyxe that thou knowest and
sette his centre upon his altitude among thyne almicanteras there
the sterre is founden ; wayte than of which degre the zodiake is, to
which the pryck of the altitude of the Mone [applies]f and take
there the degre in which the Mone standeth. This conclusion is
verray sothe if the sterres in thine astrolabye standeth after the
trouth. Some tretises of the astrolabie maketh none exception
whether the Mone have latitude or none, nor whether side of the
Mone the altitude of the sterre be found. And note, if the Mone
she we herself by daye than inaist thou werche the same conclusion
by the sonne as wel as by the sterre fixe.
XXXVII. This is the werching of the conclusion to knowe whe
ther any planet be directe or retrograde.
HHake the altitude of any sterre that is cleped a planete and note
• it wel : anone right take the altitude of some stene fixe that
thou knowest and note it wel also : and come ageyn the thirde or
fourthe night next following, for then thou shalte perceve wel the
nievyng of the Planet whether he meve forward or bakkward : and
waite wel then whan the starre fixe is in the same altitude that
* Slightly altered from the copies, which havo "fro the tyme of the ecliptike
line."
t Or, which degree of the zodiac is cut by the almicanter of the Moon's
altitude.
54 THE CONCLUSIONS.
she was when thou toke the firste altitude of the foresaid planet
and note it wel. For truste wel if so it be that the Planet be in
the rights side* of the meridional line so that his second altitude be
less than the firste altitude was, thanne is the planet direct : and
if he be in the west side in that condicion, thanne is he retrograde.
And if so be that this Planet be in the est side when his altitude
is take so that the seconde altitude be more than his firste altitude
thanne is he retrograde : and if he be in the west side of the line
meridionale than is he direct. But the contrary moving of these
parties is the cours of the Mone, for, sothelie, the Mone moveth the
contrary fro other pianettes in her ecliptick line but in none other
maner.
[This is another of the conclusions denounced by Stoeffler and omitted
by Stevins. The fatal objection to it, apparently overlooked by Chaucer,
is that a change of the planet's declination might affect its altitude and
vitiate the result. In other respects the method is very ingenious. But it
is not easy to account for the concluding paragraph, which states that " the
Mone moveth the contrary fro other planets in her ecliptick line." The
moon's motion in the ecliptic is direct, like that of the sun ; and as it is
impossible to suppose Chaucer unmindful of that very obvious fact, the pas
sage must be either hopelessly corrupt or else altogether interpolated.]
XXXVIII. The conclusion of equacions of bowses after the astro-
labie.
Qette the beginning of the degre that ascendeth upon the ende of
the viii houre inequale, than will the line of the seconde
howse sitte upon the line of Midnight. Eemeve then the degre
that ascendeth and sette hym upon the ende of the x houre inequale,
then will the beginnyng of the thirde howse sitte upon the Midnight
line. Bring up again the same degre that ascendeth first, and set
hym upon the Est orizonte and then will the beginning of the
fowerth howse sitte upon the Midnight line. Take then the nadyr
of the degre that ascendeth first and sette hym upon the ende of
the ii houre. inequale, and then will the beginnyng of the fifte
howse sitte upon the Midnight line. Take then the nadire of the
ascendent and sette hym upon the ende of the iiii houre inequale
and then will the beginnyng of the sixte howse sitte upon the
Midnight line. The beginnyng of the seventh howse is nadire of
the ascendent ; and the beginnyng of the eyghth howse is nadire
of the second ; and the beginnyng of the nineth howse is nadire of
the third ; and the beginnyng of the tenth howse is nadire of the
* That is, the east side of the meridian. Vide supra, page 23.
THE CONCLUSIONS. 55
iiii ; and the beginnyng of the 'leventh howse is nadire? of the
fyfte ; and the beginnyng of the xii howse is nadire of .the vi
howse.
XXXIX. An other maner of equacions of Howses by the
astrolabye.
ke tliyne ascendente, and then thou haste the foure angles ;
for wel thou woste that the opposite of thine ascendente, that
is to saie the beginnyng of the seventh howse, sitte upon the west
orizonte : and the beginnyng of the tenthe howse sitte upon the
line meridionall, and his opposite upon the line of midnight.
Then laie thy labell upon the degre that ascendeth and rekene then
fro the poinct of thy labell all the degrees in the bordure til that
thou come to the meridional line, and departe all thilke degrees
into thre evene partes and take there the evene porcions of thre
other howses. Laie thy labell over every of these thre parties, and
then thou might see by the labell in the zodiake the beginning of
these thre howses fro the ascendente, that is to saie, the twelveth
next above the ascendente, and then the eleventh howse, and the
X howse upon the meridional line as I first saied. The^same wise
werch fro the ascendent doune to the line of midnight ; and thus
thou haste thre howses, that is to saie, the beginning of the second,
the third, and the fowerth howse : than is the nadire of these thre
howses the beginnyng of these thre that foloweth [the seventh :
and the nadire of the eleventh, and the twelveth, is the beginnyng
of the two that followeth the fourth].*
XL. To finde the line meridionale to dwell fixe in any certain
place.
ke a round plate of metall, for warpyng the borderf the better,
and make thereupon a juste compace a little within the bor
dure ; and laie this rounde plate upon an evene ground or some
evene stone or on an even stock fixe in the ground, and laie it even
* I have added this passage, in brackets, because after the mention of the
2nd, the 3rd, and the 4th, " the thre howses that foloweth " would be the
5th, 6th, and 7th ; but that would be very different from Chaucer's meaning as
fully explained in the preceding conclusion.
t Border =broder (broader) i.e., on account of warping, the broader (or
thicker) the better. There is an example of broad, applied to thickness of
rim, in broad wheeled wayon. Stevins also has broder.
56 THE CONCLUSIONS.
by a rule. In the centre of the compace sticke an even pinne or
a wire upright, the smaller the better, and sette thy pinne or thy
wire by a plumme-rule's ende upright even : and let this pinne ~be
no lenger than three-quarters* of thy diameter of the compace : and
wayte bysyly aboute tenne or eleven of the clocke when the sonne
sheweth, when the shadow of the pynne entreth any thing within
the circle of the compace one here brede,f and make there a pryck
with ynke. Abide then, still waityng on the sonne, after one of
the clocke til that the schadowe of the pinne or of the wire passe
any thyng out of the circle or compace be it never so little, and
sette there a pryck. Take then a compace and mesure even the
middle betwixe both pryckes and sette there a pryck. Take then
a rule and drawe a strike even fro the pinne unto the middle pryck,
and take there the line meridionale for evermore as in the same
place : and if thou drawe a crosse [line] over thwarte the compace
justlie over the line meridionall, then haste thou Est and West,
and per consequens the oppositife, that is, South and North.
XLI. Discripcion of the Meridionale line, and of the longitudes
and latitudes of cities and tounes as well as of Climates.
rnhis line meridionale is but a maner discripcion of a line yma-
* gined that passeth upon the Poles of the world, and by the
signet over hede : and it is cleped the signet, for in what place that
any man is at any time of the yere whan the sonne by mevyng of
the firmament cometh to his meridianale place, thanne is it the
verray middaie that we clepe None, and therefore is it cleped
the line of Middaie. Than take hede that evermore of two
citees, or of two tounes, of whiche 'the one approcheth neerer
the Est than doth the other toune, truste wel that thilke two
tounes have diveres meridians. Take kepe also that the arche
of the Equinoctial that is conteyned and bounded betwene the
* I have here substituted three-quarters for "a quarter," and omitted "fro
the pinne," in the words " thy diameter of the compace fro the pinne," which
would mean the radius. Now a quarter of the radius would be an eighth of
the diameter, a preposterous proportion. But with 9 to 6 as the ratio of the
gnomon to the shadow, as I have made it, the altitude of the sun is 56° 18'
about the summer solstice at an hour and a half, or an hour and three-quarters,
before noon ; which very well agrees with Chaucer's ten or eleven of the clock,
and was, beyond all reasonable doubt, what he intended. [Stevins omits alto
gether the words in italics, and so avoids the difficulty.]
t One hair's breadth.
THE CONCLUSIONS. 57
two meridians is cleped the longitude of the Toune. And if it
so be that two tounes have meridian y-like, or one meridian,
thanne is the distaunce of hem hothe like ferre.* And in this
maner thei channge not the meridian, but sothlie thei chaunge
ther alimancanteras, for the haunsing of the Pole and the dis
taunce of the sonne.
The longitude of a clymat maye be cleped the space of the yerth
fro the beginnyng of the firste clyrnat unto the laste ende • of the
same climat even direct against the pole artike ; thus saie some
aucthours.f
And some clerkes saie that if men clepe the latitude of a control
the arche meridian that is conteined or intercepte betwixe the
signet and the Equinoccial, then, thei saie, that the distaunce fro
the Equinoccial unto the ende of the clymate even ayenst the pole
artike is the longitude of the clymate fro south.
[Here I think the astronomical conclusions to be attributed to Chaucer
himself ought properly to end. As to the one other that remains, the
XLIInd, I am convinced it was not written by him, and I have fully
explained my reasons for that opinion in the Introduction (p. 11). I there
fore make no attempt to amend it. But I shall print it verbatim from
Urry's edition : giving it, however, the benefit, such as it is, of Stevins'
alterations and additions by noting them at foot of each page.]
(XLII.) To knowe with what degree of the Zodiake that any
Planet ascendeth on the orizonte where his latitude be
North or South.
TT^nowe by thyne Almanacke the degre of the Ecliptike of any
signe in which that the pianette is rekened for to be, and that
is cleped the degre of his longitude. And knowe also the degre of
his latitude fro th' ecliptike North or South, and by these ensamples
folowing in especialle thou maieste wirche with every signe of the
Zodiake. The longitude peraventure of Venus, or of an other
* An important part of the text appears to be wanting here, which if not
recovered from other MSS., will be much to be regretted — as depriving us of a
knowledge of what Chaucer considered to be the first meridian — whether the
Gaditanse or the Fortunate Isles.
t Stevins very improperly changed " longitude " into latitude at the begin
ning of this sentence, for in the next paragraph Chaucer fully explains in what
sense longitude is to be understood.
$ This word is center in the printed copies.
58 THE CONCLUSIONS.
planet was l of Capricorne, and the latitude of 'lieni Northward
2 degrees fro the Ecliptike line, then toke I subtil compas and
cleped the one poinct of my compace A, and that other F, then toke
I the poinct of A and set in the ecliptike line 3 and my Zodiake
in the degre of the Longitude of heddes 4 that is to saie in the
ende6of Capricorne, and then set I the poinct of F upward in
the same signe bicause that the altitude6 was North upon the
latitude of Venus, that is to saie in the r degre fro the hed of
Capricorne, and thus have I the8 degrees betwixe my two
prickes 9, then laied I downe softlie my compace and set the
degre of the longitude upon the10 Orizont, then toke I and
waxed my labell in maner of a paire of tables to receve distinctly
the pricke of my compace, then toke I this foresaid labell and laid
it fixe over the degre of my longitude, then toke I up my compace
and n the poinct of A in the waxe of my labell as I coud gesse
over th' ecliptike line in th' ende 12 of the longitude. I set the
poinct13 over endlonge on the labell upon the space of the
latitude inwarde, and on the Zodiake, that is to say Northward fro
the ecliptike : (then laide I doune my compace and loked well in
the waie upon th' ecliptike of A and F) u then tourned I my
rete till that the pricke of F sate upon the orizont, then sawe I
well that the bodye of Venus in her15 latitude of degrees
septentrionale ascendeth (in the ende of degre) 16 fro the hed of
Capricorne. And note that in this, maner thou mightest werch
with any latitude septentrionall in al signes : but sothly the
latitude Meridionall of a planet in Capricorn maie not be take
bicause of the little space betwixe the ecliptike and the bordure
of the Astrolabie, and sikerly in al other signes it maie be take.
Also the degre peraventure of Jupiter, or of any other pianette was
in the first degre of Pisces in longitude and his latitude was17
degrees Meridionall. Then toke I the poinct of A and set it in the
first degree of Pisces in th' ecliptike, then set I the poinct downward
of F in the same signe 18 bicause that the latitude was south 19
1 Here Stevins inserts " in the hedd." 2 Inserts " 2." 3 for « ana)» sub
stitutes "of." 4 demit "of heddes." 5 for "ende," substitutes " hedd."
6 corrects by erasure to " latitude" 7 in serts " Seconded 8 for " the " substitutes
"two." 9 substitutes " pointes." 10 inserts "east.' n inserts " sette."
12 for " ende " substitutes " degree." 13 inserts " of F," and demit " over.''
14 demit all within parenthesis, is for "her" substitutes " this." w demit all
within parenthesis, and substitutes " with the ende of Sagittarre a certaine of
degrees." n inserts "3." is for "same" substitutes "nexte." 19 inserts
CONCLUSIONS. 59
degrees, that is to saie fro the hed of Pisces, and thus have 1 20
degrees betwixe both prickes. 21 Then set I the degre of the
longitude upon the orizont, then toke I niy labell and laied him
fixe upon the degre of longitude, then set I the poinct of A on rny
labell even over the ecliptike line on the ende of the 23 degre of
the longitude and I sette the poinct of F endelong on my labell
the space of 2S degrees of the latitude outwarde fro the Zodiake,
that is to saie southwarde fro the Ecliptike towarde the bordure,
and then tourned I my rete, til the poincte of F sate upon the
orizont, then sawe I well that the bodie of Jupiter in his latitude
of 2* degrees meridionall, ascendeth with the 25 degre of Pisces
in horoscope, And in this maner thou maiest werche with any
Latitude, as I saied first, save in Capricorne.
And thou wilte plie this crafte with the arysing of the Mone,
loke thou reken well the 26 course of 27 houre by houre, for
she dwelleth in a degre of her Longitude but a little while, as thou
woste well : but neverthelesse if thou legen well her verie mevyng
by the tables, or after her course, houre by houre, thou shalte doe
well inough.
[THE PRATIKE OF UMBRA ^ECTA AND UMBRA VERSA:
To knowe the heyght of toures and other thynges by the SCALE on
the bakk-syde of thyne astrolabye.]*
1. UMBRA RECTA. If thou might come to the base of the towre
in this maner shalt thou werke. Take the altitude of the towre
with both holes, so that the rule lie even on a poinct. Ensample
as thus : thou seest hym through the poinct of fower : then mete I
the space betwixe thee and the towre, and I find it twentie fote :
then beholde I how fower is to twelve and I find it is the thirde
parte of twelve : right so, the space betwixe thee and the towre is
"3." 20 inserts "3." 21 substitutes " pointes." 22 demit "ende of the"
23 inserts "3." 24 inserts "3." 25 inserts "6th." 26 for "the" substitutes
"her." 27 demit " <>/."
* I have no authority for these few lines of introductory title, but they eecm
absolutely necessary to break the abruptness of the change from the astrono
mical portion ; and there can be no doubt that some such introductory matter
must have formed part of the original.
60 THE CONCLUSIONS.
the thirde part of the altitude of the towre : then thrise twentie
fote is the highest of the towre, with the addicion of thine owne
bodie fro thyne eye. If the rule fall on five then [as five is to twelve
so is the space betwixe to]* the heyght of the towre.
II. UMBEA VEESA. If thou maiest not come to the base of the
towre and thou fixe hym through the nombre of one ; sette there
a pryck at thy fote : then go nere the towre and se hym through
the poinct of two, and sette there an other pryck : and then beholde
howe one hath hym to twelve, and thou shalte finde that he hath
hym twelve sithes : then behold how two have hym to twelve and
thou shalte finde it sixe sithes, [the difference is sixe] and
therefore the space betwixe the two pry ekes is sixe times thyne
altitude. And note that at the first altitude of one, thou settest a
pryck ; and afterward when thou seest hym through at two, there
thou settest a pryck ; then thou findest betwene Ix fote : then thou
shalte finde that tenne is the sixth part of sixty : then is tenne fote
the altitude, of the towre. But if it fall upon an other poinct, as
thus : it falleth on sixe at the seconde takyng, when [at the first]
it falleth on three : then shalt thou finde that sixe is the second
part of twelve, and three is the fowrthe parte of twelve : [the
difference is two] that is to saie the space betwixe the two pryckes
is twise the heyght of the towre. And if the difference were three,
then would it be three times the hey the. Et sic de singulis.^
III. UMBEA EECTA. An other rftaner of werching by umbra recta.
If thou maiest not come by the base of the towre, wirche in this
wise : sette thy rule upon one, tyll thou se the altitude, and set
at thy fote a prycke ; and then set thy rule upon two, and so doe
in the same maner : then loke what is the difference betwixe one
and two, and thou shalte finde that it is one : then mesure the
space betwixe the two pryckes, and that is the twelveth part of
the altitude of the towre — and so of all other.
IV. UMBEA EECTA. If thy rule fall upon the eighte poinct, on
* These words in brackets I have substituted for "is five times twelve" of the
printed copies, which are obviously erroneous. Stevins gets over the difficulty
by omitting the last part altogether.
t The numbers and measurements in the foregoing problem are sadly
mangled in the various copies. I have inserted such numbers and made
such alterations (denoted by brackets) as seem nearest to the requirement of
the context and yet are consistent with correctness.
THE CONCLUSIONS. 61
the right shadowe, then make the figure of 8: then loke howe
moche space of the fete is betwixe thee and the towre, and
multiplie that by twelve : and when thou hast multiplied it by
that same nombre, than devide it by the nombre of eighte and
kepe the residue, and adde thy heyght unto thyne eye to the
residue and that shall be the verie heighte of the towre. And
thus maiest thou worche on the same side from one to twelve.
V. UMBRA RECTA. Another maner of werkyng upon the same
side. Loke upon what poinct thy rule falleth when thou seest
the toppe of the towre through the two holes, and then mete the
space from thy fote to the base of the towre : and right as the
nombre of the poinct hath himself to twelve, right so the mesure
betwixt thee and the towre hath hymself to the height of the
same towre. Ensample as thus : I sette the case thy rule fall upon
eight, then is eight two thirde partes of twelve, so is the space
two thirde partes of the towre.
VI. UMBRA VEKSA. To kuowe the heyght by the poinct of
Umbra Versa. If the rule fall upon iii when thou seest the toppe
of the towre, sette a pryck there thy fote standeth, and go nere
tyl thou maiest se the same toppe at the poinct of iiii, and sette
there an other pryck ; then mete how many fote is betwixe the
two pryckes, and the height up to thine eye, and that shall be the
the height of the towre. And note that iii is the fowerth part of
xii, and iiii is the thirde parte of xii. No we passeth iiii the
nombre of iii by distaunce of i, therefore the same space, with
thy height to thy eye, is the height of the towre. And if it were
so that there were two or three distaunces in the nombres, so
should the mesure betwixe the pryckes be twise or thrise the
height of the towre.
VII. UMBRA RECTA. To knowe the height if thou maiest not
come to the base of the thynge. Set thy rule upon what poinct
thou wilte, so that thou maist se the toppe of the thinge through
the two holes, and make a mark there thy fote standeth,
and go nere or ferther tyl thou maieste se it through an other
poinct, and make there an other marke : and loke what difference
is betwixe the two poinctes in the scale : and right as that differ
ence hath hym to xii. right so the spaces betwixe the two markes
hath hym to the height of the thing. Ensample : I sette the
case that thou seest it through the poinct of iiii, and after at the
62 THE CONCLUSIONS.
poinct of iii. Nowe passeth the nombre of iiii the nombre of iii
the distance of i : and right as this difference of one hath hymself
to xii, right so the mesure betwixe bothe the markes hath hym to
the height of the same thing, puttyng thereto the height of thyself
to thine eye. And thus maiest thou werke from i to xii.
VIII. UMBRA VERSA. Furthermore, if thou wilte knowe in
umbra versa by the crafte of umbra recta, I suppose thou takest
thine altitude at the poinct of iiii and makest a mark, and then
thou goest nere* tyl thou haste it at the poincte of iii and makest
there an other mark ; then must thou devide 144 by 4 ; the nombre
that cometh thereof shall be 36 ; and after, divide 144 by 3, and
the nombre that cometh thereof is 48 : then loke what difference is
betwixte 36 and 48, and that shalte thou finde is 12 : and right as
12 hath hym to 12 so the space betwixte the two pryckes hath
hym to the altitude of the thynge.f
* Stevins, not understanding this problem, changed "nere " into "further."
t In this last problem, what Chaucer means by "the crafte " of umbra recta,
is what we should call the stating, or the order in which the terms of the pro
portion are presented. In umbra recta the first term is the difference between
the observed points of the scale, the second is the distance between the stations,
the third is the length of the scale, and the fourth is the altitude of the object re
quired ; but in Umbra Versa the two first of these terms are transposed. Therefore,
in order to take the altitude by the points of umbra versa, and yet perform
the computation by the proportion of umbra recta, it is necessary to convert
the points of the one into equivalent points of the other : and this is done
reciprocally in both scales by dividing the points of each into the square of its
whole scale : or, as Chaucer has it, into 144, the square of 12.
ENDE OP SECONDS PARTYE.
(Cccterce Desunt.)
REPRINTS OF PAPERS ON THE
ASTRONOMY OF CHAUCER
IN " THE CANTERBURY TALES."
WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES.
ON THE MEANING OF CHAUCER'S PRIME,
ON THE CARRENARE,
ON SHIPPES OPPOSTERES.
I.
THE PILGRIMAGE TO CANTERBURY.
' Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote
The drought of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in such licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour : —
When Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge Sonne
Hath in the Earn his halfe cours y-ronne :
* * * * *
Thanne longen folk to gon on pilgrimages
Bifel that in that seson on a day."
PROLOGUE.
I quote these lines because I wish to show that Tyrwhitt, in
taking them as indicative of the very day on which the journey to
Canterbury was performed, committed a great mistake.
The whole of the opening of the prologue, down to the line last
quoted, is descriptive, not of any particular day, but of the usual
season of pilgrimages ; and Chaucer himself plainly declares, by
the words " in that season, on a day " — that the day is as yet in
definite.
But because Tyrwhitt, who, although an excellent literary critic,
was by no means an acute reader of his author's meaning, was
incapable of appreciating the admirable combination of physical
facts by which Chaucer has not only identified the real day of the
pilgrimage, but has placed it, as it were, beyond the danger of
alteration by any possible corruption in the text, he set aside
these physical facts altogether, and took in lieu of them the seventh
and eighth lines of the prologue quoted above, which I contend,
Chaucer did not intend to bear any reference to the day of the
journey itself, but only to the general season in which it was un
dertaken.
But Tyrwhitt, having seized upon a favourite idea, seems to have
been determined to carry it through at any cost, even at that of
F
66 APPENDIX.
altering the text from " the Ram " into " the Bull :" and I fear that
he can scarcely be acquitted of unfair and intentional misquotation
of Chaucer's words, by transposing " his halfe cours " into " half
his course." which is by no means an equivalent expression. Here
are his own words :
" When he (Chaucer) tells us that ' the shoures of April had perced to the rote
the drought of March' (ver. 1, 2), we must suppose, in order to allow due time
for such an operation, that April was far advanced ; while, on the other hand,
the place of the sun, 'having just run half his course in the Earn1 (ver. 7, 8),
restrains us to some day in the very latter end of March. This difficulty may,
and, I think, should, be removed by reading in ver. 8, the BULL, instead of the
KAM. All the parts of the description will then be consistent with themselves,
and with another passage (ver. 4425), where, in the best MSS., the eighte and
twenty day of April is named as the day of the journey to Canterbury." — Intro
ductory Discourse.
Accordingly, Mr. Tyrwhitt did not hesitate to adopt in his text the
twenty-eighth of April as the true date, without stopping to exa
mine whether that day would, or would not, be inconsistent with
the subsequent phenomena related by Chaucer.
Notwithstanding Tyrwhitt's assertion of a difficulty only remov
able by changing the Earn into the Bull, there are no less than
two ways of understanding the seventh and eighth lines of the
prologue so as to be perfectly in accordance with the rest of the
description. One of these would be to suppose the sign Aries divided
into two portions (not necessarily equal in the phraseology of the
time), one of which would appertain to March, and the other to
April — and that Chaucer, by " in the Earn his halfe cours," meant
the last, or the April half of the sign Aries. But I think a more
probable supposition still would be to imagine the month of April,
of which Chaucer was speaking, to be divided into two " halfe cours,"
in one of which the sun would be in Aries, and in the other in
Taurus ; and that when Chaucer says that " the yonge Sonne had
in the Earn his halfe cours yronne," he meant that the Aries half of
the month of April had been run through, thereby indicating in
general terms some time approaching to the middle of April.
Both methods of explaining the phrase lead eventually to the
same result, which is also identical with the interpretation of
Chaucer's own contemporaries, as appears in its imitation by Lyd-
gate in the opening of his " Story of Thebes :" —
" Whan bright Phebus passed was the Earn,
Midde of Aprill, and into the Bull came."
APPENDIX. G7
And it is by no means the least remarkable instance of want of
perception in Tyrwhitt, that he actually cites these two lines of
Lydgate's as corroborative of his own interpretation, which places the
sun in the middle of Taurus.
I enter into this explanation, not that I think it necessary to
examine too curiously into the consistency of an expression which
evidently was intended only in a general sense, but that the ground
lessness of Tyrwhitt's alleged necessity for the alteration of " the
Earn " into " the Bull " might more clearly appear.*
T have said that Tyrwhitt was not a competent critic of Chau
cer's practical science, and I may perhaps be expected to point out
some other instance of his failure in that respect than is afforded
by the subject itself. This I may do by reference to a passage in
" The Marchante's Tale," which evinces a remarkable want of per
ception not only in Tyrwhitt, but in all the editors of Chaucer that
I have had an opportunity of consulting.
The morning of the garden scene is said in the text to be " er
that days eight were passed of the month of Juil " — but a little
further on, the same day is thus described : —
" Bright was the day and blew the firmament,
Phebus of gold his stremes doim hath sent
To gladden every flour with his warmnesse ;
He was that time in Qeminis, I gesse,
But litel fro his declination
In Cancer."
How is it possible that any person could read these lines and not
be struck at once with the fact that they refer to the 8th of June
and not to the 8th of July ? The sun would leave Gemini and
and enter Cancer on the 12th of June ; Chaucer was describing
the 8th, and with his usual accuracy he places the sun " but litel
fro " the summer solstice !
Since " Juil " is an error common perhaps to all previous editions,
Tyrwhitt might have been excused for repeating it, if he had been
satisfied with only that : but lie must signalise his edition by insert
ing in the Glossary attached to it — " JUIL, the month of July" refer
ring, as the sole authority for the word, to this very line in question
of " The Marchante's Tale !.". •
Nor does the proof, against him in particular, end even there ;
he further shows that his attention must have been especially
drawn to this garden scene by his assertion that Pluto and Proser-
* SeeJtfote A At tliu c-n«l.
68 APPENDIX.
pine were the prototypes of Oberon and Titania ; and yet he failed
to notice a circumstance that would have added some degree of
plausibility to the comparison, namely, that Chaucer's, as well as
Shakspeare's, was a Midsummer Dream.
It is, perhaps, only justice to Urry to state that Tie appears
to have been aware of the error that would arise from attributing
the sun's presence in the sign Gemini to the month of July. The
manner in which the lines are printed in his edition is this : —
" ere the dayis eight
Were passid, er' the month July befill."
It is just possible to twist the meaning of this into the eighth of the
Kalends of July, by which the blunder would be in some degree
lessened ; but, inasmuch as the sun, in Chaucer's time, would leave
Gemini on the 12th of June, and the eighth of the Kalends of
July was not till the 24th of June, such a reading would be as
foreign to Chaucer's astronomy as the lines themselves are to his
poetry.
[Pub. April 26, 1851.]
II.
THE ARKE OF ARTIFICIAL DA.Y.
Before proceeding to point out the indelible marks by which
Chaucer has, as it were1, stereotyped the true date of the journey
to Canterbury, I shall clear away another stumbling-block, still
more insurmountable to Tyrwhitt than his first difficulty of the
"halfe cours" in Aries, viz., the seeming inconsistency in statements
(1.) and (2.) in the following lines of the prologue to the Man of
Lawe's tale : —
( " Oure hoste saw wel that the bright sonne,
(1.) •< The arke of his artificial day, had ironne
V. The fourthe part and halfe an houre and more,
*****
7 And saw wel that the shadow of every tree
Was as in length of the same quantitie,
That was the body erecte that caused it,
And therefore by the shadow he toke his wit
(2.)
That Phebus, which that shone so clere and bright,
Degrees was five and fourty clombe on hight,
And for that day, as in that latitude
It was ten of the clok, he gan conclude."
APPENDIX. 69
The difficulty will be best explained in Tyrwhitt's own words : —
u Unfortunately, however, this description, though seemingly intended to
be so accurate, will neither enable us to conclude with the MSS. that it was
* ten of the clock,' nor to fix upon any other hour ; as the two circumstances
just mentioned are not found to coincide in any part of the 28th, or of any
other day of April, in this climate."— Introductory Discourse, § xiv.
In a foot-note, Tyrwhitt further enters into a calculation to show
that, on the 28th of April, the fourth part of the day and half an
hour and more (even with the liberal allowance of a quarter of an
hour to the indefinite phrase " and more ") would have been com
pleted by nine o'clock A.M. at the latest, and therefore at least an
hour too soon for coincidence with (2.).
Now, one would think that Tyrwhitt, when he found his author
relating facts, " seemingly intended to be so accurate" would have
endeavoured to discover whether there might not be some hidden
meaning in them, the explaining of which might make that con
sistent, which, at first sight, was apparently the reverse.
Had he investigated with such a spirit, he must have discovered
that the expression " arke of the artificial day " could not, in this
instance, receive its obvious and usual meaning of the horary dura
tion from sunrise to sunset —
And for this simple reason : That such a meaning would pre
suppose a knowledge of the hour — of the very thing in request — and
which was about to be discovered by " our hoste," who " toke his
wit " from the sun's altitude for the purpose ! But if he knew
already that the fourth part of the day IN TIME had elapsed, he must
necessarily have also known what that time was, without the neces
sity of calculating it !
Now Chaucer, whose choice of expression on scientific subjects
is often singularly exact, says, " Our hoste saw that the sonne," &c. ;
he must therefore have been referring to some visible situation :
because, afterwards, when the time of day has been obtained from
calculation, the phrase changes to " gan conclude" that it was ten
of the clock.
It seems, therefore, certain that, even setting aside the question
of consistency between (1.) and (2.), we must, upon other grounds,
assume that Chaucer had some meaning in the expression " arke of
the artificial day," different from what must be admitted to be
its obvious and received signification.
To what other ark, then, could he have been alluding, if not to
the horary diurnal ark ?
70 APPENDIX.
I think, to the AZIMUTHAL ARCH OF THE HORIZON included
between the point of sunrise and that of sunset !
The situation of any point in that arch is called its bearing ; it
is estimated by reference to the points of the compass ; it is there
fore visually ascertainable : and it requires no previous knowledge
of the hour in order to determine when the sun has completed the
fourth, or any other, portion of it.
Here, then, is primd facie probability established in favour of
this interpretation. And if upon examination, we find that it also
clears away the discrepancy between (1.) and (2.), probability
becomes certainty.
Assuming upon evidence which I shall hereafter explain, that
the sun's declination, on the day of the journey, was 13° 26' North,
or thirteen degrees and a half, — the sun's bearing at rising, in the
neighbourhood of London, would be E.KE., at setting W.N.W. ;
the whole included arch, 224° ; and the time at which the sun would
complete one-fourth, or have the bearing S.E. by E., would be about
20 minutes past nine A.M., — thus leaving 40 minutes to represent
Chaucer's " half an hour and more ! "
A very remarkable approximation — which converts a statement
apparently contradictory, into a strong confirmation of the deduc
tion to be obtained from the other physical facts grouped together
by Chaucer with such extraordinary skill !
On the other hand, it is impossible to deny that the " hoste's "
subsequent admonition to the pilgrims to make the best use of their
time, warning them that " the fourthe partie of this day is gon,"
seems again to favour the idea that it is the day's actual horary
duration that is alluded to.
[Pub May 3, 1851.]
POSTCRIPT IN 1869.
The necessary study of Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe,
which I have gone through in editing it, has enabled me to suggest
an explanation of this seeming anomaly. In observing " the arche
of the day that some folk callen the day artificiale." — Conclusion
VIII, page 31. Chaucer would see at the same time the sun's
azimuth at rising and setting. And he would take the fourth of the
included arch in azimuth as the fourth of the day in time, because
APPENDIX. 71
it appears by Conclusion XXX, page 51, that he was under the
mistaken idea that the azimuth is equal to the hour-angle.
III.
ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCE.
Unless Chaucer had intended to mark with particular exact
ness the day of the journey to Canterbury, he would not have
taken such unusual precautions to protect his text from ignorant or
careless transcribers. We find him not only recording the altitudes
of the sun, at different hours, in words ; but also corroborating those
words by associating them with physical facts incapable of being
perverted or misunderstood.
Had Chaucer done this in one instance only, we might imagine
that it was but another of those occasions, so frequently seized upon
by him, for the display of a little scientific knowledge ; but when
he repeats the very same precautionary expedient again, in the
afternoon of the same day, we begin to perceive that he must have
had some fixed purpose ; because, as I shall presently show, it is
the repetition alone that renders the record imperishable.
But whether Chaucer really devised this method for the express
purpose of preserving his text, or not, it has at least had that effect
— for while there are scarcely two MSS. extant which agree in the
verbal record of the day and hours, the physical circumstances
remain, and afford at all times independent data for the recovery or
correction of the true reading.
The day of the month may be deduced from the declination of
the sun ; and, to obtain the latter, all the data required are,
1. The latitude of the place.
2. Two altitudes of the sun at different sides of noon.
It is not absolutely necessary to have any previous knowledge of
the hours at which these altitudes were respectively obtained,
because these may be discovered by the trial method of seeking
two such hours as shall most nearly agree in requiring a declina
tion common to both at the known altitudes. Of course it will
greatly simplify the process if we furthermore know that the obser
vations must have been obtained at some determinate intervals of
time, such, for example, as complete hours.
72 APPENDIX.
Now, in the Prologue to the " Canterbury Tales," we know that
that the observations could not have been recorded accept at com
plete hours, because the construction of the metre will not admit
the supposition of any parts of hours having been expressed.
We are also satisfied that there can be no mistake in the alti
tudes, because nothing can alter the facts, that an equality between
the length of the shadow and the height of the substance can only
subsist at an altitude of 45 degrees ; or that an altitude of 29 de
grees (more or less) is the nearest that will give the ratio of 11 to 6
between the shadow and its gnomon.
With these data we proceed to the following comparison :
Forenoon altitude 45°. Afternoon altitude 29°
Hour. Declin. Hour. Declin.
XI A.M. 8° 9'N. II P.M. 3° 57' S.
X „ 13<> 27' „ III „ 3° 16' N.
IX „ 22° 34' „ IV „ 13° 26' „
VIII „ Impossible. V „ Impossible.
Here we immediately select " X A.M." and " IV P.M." as the only
two items at all approaching to similarity ; while, in these, the
approach is so near that they differ by only a single minute of a
degree !
More conclusive evidence therefore could scarecely exist that
these were the hours intended to be recorded by Chaucer, and that
the sun's declination, designed by him, was somewhere about thirteen
degrees and a half North.
Strictly speaking, this decimation would more properly apply to
the 17th of April, in Chaucer's time, than to the 18th ; but since
he does not profess to critical exactness, and since it is always
better to adhere to written authority, when it is not grossly and
obviously corrupt, such MSS. as name the 18th of April ought to
be respected ; but Tyrwhitt's " 28th," which he states not only as
the result of his own conjecture but as authorised by " the best
MSS.," ought to be scouted at once.
In the latest edition of the " Canterbury Tales " (a literal reprint
from one of the Harl. MSS., for the Percy Society, under the super
vision of Mr. Wright), the opening of the Prologue to " The Man
of Lawes Tale " does not materially differ from Tyrwhitt's text,
excepting in properly assigning the day" of the journey to " the
eightetene day of April;" and the confirmation of the forenoon
altitude is as follows : —
APPENDIX. 73
" And sawe wel that the schade of every tree
Was in the lengthe the same quantite,
That was the body erecte that caused it."
But the afternoon observation is thus related : —
" By that the Manciple had his tale endid,
The sonne fro the southe line is descendid
So lowe that it nas nought to my sight,
Degrees nyne and twenty as in hight.
Ten on the clokke, it was as I gesse,
For eleven foote, or litil more or lesse,
My schadow was at thilk time of the yere,
Of which feet as my lengthe parted wer3,
In sixe feet equal of proporcioun."
In a note to the line "Ten on the clokke" Mr. Wright ob
serves,
" Ten. I have not ventured to change the reading of the Harl. MS., which
is partly supported by that of the Lands. MS., than"
If the sole object were to present an exact counterpart of the
MS., of course even its errors were to be respected : but upon no
other grounds can I understand why a reading should be preserved
by which broad sunshine is attributed to ten o'clock at night ! Nor
can I believe that the copyist of the MS., with whom the error must
have originated, would have set down anything so glaringly absurd,
unless he had in his own mind some means of reconciling it with
probability. It may, I believe, be explained in the circumstance
that " ten " and " four," in horary reckoning, were convertible terms.
The old Roman method of naming the hours, wherein noon, was
the sixth, was long preserved, especially in conventual establish
ments : and I have no doubt that the English idiomatic phrase
" o'clock " originated in the necessity for some distinguishing mark
between hours of the clock reckoned from midnight, and hours of
the day reckoned from sunrise, or more frequently from six A.M.
With such an understanding, it is clear that ten might be called
four, and four ten, and yet the same identical hour be referred to ; nor
is it in the least difficult to imagine some monkish transcriber,
ignorant perhaps of the meaning of " o'clock," might fancy he was
correcting, rather than corrupting, Chaucer's text, by changing
" foure " into " ten."
I have, I trust, now shown that all these circumstances related
by Chaucer, so far from being hopelessly incongruous, are, on the
contrary, harmoniously consistent ;- - that they all tend to prove
that the day of the journey to Canterbury could not have been
74 APPENDIX.
later than the 18th of April ; — that the times. of observation were
certainly 10 A.M. and 4 P.M. ; — that the " arke of his artificial day''
is to be understood as the horizontal or azimuthal arch ; — and that
the " halfe cours in the Earn " alludes to the completion of the last
twelve degrees of that sign, about the end of the second week in
April.
There yet remains to be examined the signification of those three
very obscure lines which immediately follow the description, already
quoted, of the afternoon observation :
" Therewith the Mones exaltacioun
In mena Libra, alway gan ascende
As we were entryng at a townes end."
It is the more unfortunate that we should not be certain what it
was that Chaucer really did write, inasmuch as he probably in
tended to present, in these lines, some means of identifying the
year, similar to those he had previously given with respect to the
day.
When Tyrwhitt, therefore, remarks, " In what year this hap
pened Chaucer does not inform us " — he was not astronomer enough
to know that if Chaucer had meant to leave, in these lines, a record
of the moon's place on the day of the journey, he could not have
chosen a more certain method of informing us in what year it
occurred.
[Pub. May 17, 1851.]
IV.
THE STAK MIN AL AUWA.
" Adam Scrivener, if ever it thee befall
Boece, or Troilus, for to write new,
Under thy long locks mayst thou have the scall
But, after-my making, thou write more trew ; .
So oft a day I mote thy worke renew,
It to correct, and eke to rubbe and scrape,
And all thorow thy negligence and rape."
Chaucer to his own Scrivener.
If, during his own lifetime, and under his own eye, poor Chaucer
was so sinned against as to provoke this humorous malediction
upon the head of the delinquent, it cannot be a matter of surprise
that, in the various hands his text has since passed through, many
expressions should have been perverted, and certain passages
APPENDIX. 75
wholly misunderstood. And when we find men, of excellent
judgment in other respects, proposing, as Tyrwhitt did, to alter
Chaucer's words to suit their own imperfect comprehension of his
meaning, it is only reasonable to suspect that similar mistakes
may have induced early transcribers to alter the text wherever, to
their wisdom, it may have seemed expedient.
Now I know of no passage more likely to have been tampered
with in this way than those lines of the prologue to the Persone's
Tale, alluded to at the close of my last communication. Because,
supposing (which I shall afterwards endeavour to prove) that
Chaucer really meant to write something to this effect : " There
upon, as we were entering a town, the moon's rising, with Min al
auwa in Libra, began to ascend (or to become visible)," — and
supposing that his mode of expressing this had been,
" Therewith the mone's exaltacioun,
In libra men alawai gan ascende,
As we were entrying at a towne's end :"
— in such a case, what can be more probable tfcan that some
ignorant transcriber, never perhaps dreaming of such a thing as
the Arabic name of a star, would endeavour to make sense of these,
to him, obscure words, by converting them into English. The
process of transition would be easy ; " min " or " men " requires
little violence to become " mene " (the modern " mean " with its
many significations), and " al auwa " (or " alwai," as Chaucer would
probably write it) is equally identical with " alway." The mis
placement of " Libra " might then follow as a seeming necessity ;
and thus the line would assume its present form, leaving the
reader to understand it, either with Urry, as, " I mene Libra," that
is, I refer to Libra ; — or with Tyrwhitt : " In mene Libra," that is,
in tJie middle of Libra.
Now, to Uriy's reading, it may be objected that it makes the
thing ascending to be Libra, and does not of necessity imply the
moon's appearance above the horizon. But since the rising of the
moon is a visible phenomenon, while that of Libra is theoretical, it
must have been to the former Chaucer was alluding, as to something
witnessed by the whole party as they
" Were entrying at a towne's end ;"
or otherwise this latter observation would have no meaning.
The objection to Tyrwhitt's reading is of a more technical nature
— the moon, if in the middle of Libra, could not be above the horizon,
76 APPENDIX.
in the neighbourhood of Canterbury, at four o'clock P.M., in the
month of April. Tyrwhitt, it is true, would probably smooth away
the difficulty by charging it as another inconsistency against his
author; but I — and I hope by this time such readers of these
notes as are interested in the subject — have seen too many proofs
of Chaucer's competency in matters of science, and of his commen
tator's incompetency, to feel disposed to concede to the latter such
a convenient method of interpretation.
But there is a third objection common to both readings — that
they do not satisfactorily account for the word " alway ;" for
although Tyrwhitt endeavours to explain it by continually, " was
continually ascending," such a phrase is by no means intelligible
when applied to a single observation.
For myself, I can say that this word " alway " was, from the
first, the great difficulty with me— and the more I became con
vinced of the studied meaning with which Chaucer chose his other
expressions, the less satisfied I was with this ; and the more con
vinced I felt that the whole line had been corrupted.
In advocating the restoration of the reading which I have already
suggested as the original meaning of Chaucer, I shall begin by
establishing the probability of his having intended to mark the
moon's place by associating her rising with that of a known fixed
star — a method of noting phenomena frequently resorted to in
ancient astronomy. For that purpose I shall point out another
instance wherein Chaucer evidently intended an application of the
same method for the purpose of indicating a particular position
of the heavens ; but first it must be noted, that in alluding to the
Zodiac, he always refers to the signs, never to the constellations —
in fact, he does not appear to recognise the latter at all !* Thus,
in that palpable allusion to the precession of the equinoxes, in
the Frankeleine's Tale—
" He knew ful wel how fer Alnatli was shove
From the bed of thilke fixe Aries above."
— by the lied of Aries, Chaucer did not mean the os frontis of the
Earn, whereon Alnath still shines conspicuously, but the equinoc
tial point, from which Alnath was sho've by the extent of a whole
See Note B at the end.
APPENDIX. 77
This being premised, I return to the indication of a point in the
ecliptic by the coincident rising of a star ; and I contend that such
was plainly Chaucer's intention in those lines of the Squire's Tale
wherein King Cambuscan is described as rising from the feast : —
" Phebus hath left the angle meridional,
And yet ascending was the heste real,
The gentle Leon, with his Aldryan"
Which means that the sign Leo was then in the horizon — the pre
cise degree being marked by the coincident rising of the star
Aldryan.
Speght's explanation of " Aldryan," in which he has been copied
by Urry and Tyrwhitt, is — " a star in the neck of the Lion." What
particular star he may have meant by this, does not appear : nor
am I at present within reach of probable sources wherein his autho
rity, if he had any, might be searched for and examined ; but I
have learned to feel such confidence in Chaucer's significance of
description, that I have no hesitation in assuming, until authority
for a contrary inference shall be produced, that by the star "Al
dryan " he meant REGULUS, not the neck, but the heart of the lion —
1st. Because it is the most remarkable star in the sign Leo.
2nd. Because it was, in Chaucer's time, as it now is, nearly upon
the line of the ecliptic.
3rd. Because its situation in longitude, about two-thirds in the
sign Leo, just tallies with Chaucer's expression ''yet ascending," —
that is, "one-third of the sign was still below the horizon.
Let us examine how this interpretation consists with the other
circumstances of the description. The feste-day of this Cambus
can was "The last idus of March" — that is, the 15th of March —
" after the yere " — that is, after the equinoctial year, which had
ended three or four days previously. Hence the sun was in three
degrees of Aries — confirmed in Canace's expedition on the follow
ing morning, when he was " in the Ram foure degrees yronne," and
his corresponding right ascension was twelve minutes. Now, by
" the angle meridional " was meant the two hours inequall imme
diately succeeding noon (or while the " 1st House " of the sun was
passing the meridian), and these two hours may, so near the equi
nox, be taken as ordinary hours. Therefore, when " Phcebus hath
left the angle meridionall," it was two o'clock P.M., or eight hours
after sunrise, which, added to twelve minutes, produces eight
hours twelve minutes, as the ascending point of the equinoctial.
The ascending point <>t the ecli^/ic would consequently be twenty
78 APPENDIX.
degrees ^in Leo, or within less than a degree of the actual place
of the star Begulus, which in point of fact did rise on the
15th of March, in Chaucer's time, almost exactly at two in the
afternoon.*
Such coincidences as these could not result from mere accident ;
and, whatever may have been Speght's authority for the location of
Aldryan, Ijshall never believe that Chaucer would refer to an infe
rior star when the great " Stella Begia " itself was in so remarkable
a position for his purpose ; assuming always, as a matter of course,
that he referred his phenomena, not to the country or age wherein
he laid the action of his tale, but to his own.
This, then, is the precedent by which I support the similar, and
rather startling interpretation I propose of these obscure words
" In mena Libra alway."
There are two twin stars, of the same magnitude, and not far
apart, each of which bears the Arabic title of Min al auwa ; one
(P Yirginis) in the sign Virgo — the other (S Virginis) in that of
Libra.
The latter, in the south of England, in Chaucer's time, would
rise a few minutes before the autumnal equinoctial point, and
might be called Libra Min al auwa either from that circumstance,
or to distinguish it from its namesake in Virgo.
Now on the 18th of April this Libra Min al auwa would rise in
the neighbourhood of Canterbury at about half-past three in the
afternoon, so that by four o'clock it would attain an altitude of
about five degrees — not more than sufficient to render the moon,
supposing it to have risen with the star, visible (by daylight) to
the pilgrims " entrying at a towne's end."
It is very remarkable that the only year, perhaps in the whole
of Chaucer's lifetime, in which the moon could have arisen with
this star on the 18th of April, should be the identical year to which
Tyrwhitt, reasoning from historical evidence alone, would fain attri
bute the writing of the Canterbury Tales. (Vide Introductory Dis
course, note 3.)
On the 18th of April, 1388, Libra Min al auwa, and the moon,
rose together about half-past three P.M. in the neighbourhood of
Canterbury ; and Tyrwhitt, alluding to the writing of the Canter
bury Tales, " could hardly suppose it VMS much advanced before
1389 !"
* See note C, at the end.
APPENDIX. 79
Such a coincidence is more than remarkable — it is convincing :
especially when we add to it that 1388 is the very date that, hy
a slight and probable injury to the last figure, might become the
traditional one of 13>83 !
Should my view, therefore, of the true reading of this passage in
Chaucer be correct, it becomes of infinitely greater interest and impor
tance than a mere literal emendation, because it supplies that which
has always been supposed wanting to the Canterbury <Tafes, viz.,
some means of identifying the year to which their action cught to be
attributed. Hitherto, so unlikely has it appeared that Chaucer,
who so amply furnishes materials for the minor branches of the
date, should leave the year unnoted, that it has been accounted for
in the supposition that he reserved it for the unfinished portion of
his performance. But if we consider the ingenious though some
what tortuous methods resorted to by him to convey some of the
other data, it is by no means improbable that he might really have
devised this circumstance of the moon's rising as a means of at
least corroborating a date that he might intend to record afterwards
in more direct terms.
I acknowledge that, from the first, if I could have discovered a
a probable interpretation of " mene " as an independent word, I
should have preferred it rather than that of making it a part of the
Arabic name, because I think that the star is sufficiently identified
by the latter portion of its name, " Al auwa," and because the pre
servation of " mene " in its proper place in the line would afford a
reading much less forced than that I was obliged to have recourse to.
Perhaps some Arabic scholar will explain the name " Min al
auwa," and shew in what way the absence of the prefix " Min "
would affect it.*
[Pub. May 31, 1851.]
V.
TESTS OF POSITIONS.
As a conclusion to my investigation of this subject, I wish to
place upon record the astronomical results on which I have relied
in the course of my observations, in order that their correctness
* See Note D, at the end.
80 APPENDIX.
may be open to challenge, and that each reader may compare the
actual phenomena rigidly ascertained, with the several approxima
tions arrived at by Chaucer.
And when it is recollected that some at least of the facts
recorded by him must have been theoretical — incapable at the
time of actual observation— it must be admitted that his near
approach to truth is remarkable ; not the less so that his ideas on
some points were certainly erroneous ; as, for example, his adoption,
in the Treatise on the Astrolabe, of Ptolemy's obliquity of the
ecliptic in preference to the more correct value assigned to it by
the Arabians of the middle ages.
Assuming that the true date intended by Chaucer was Saturday,
the 18tk of April, 1388, the following particulars of that day are
those which have reference to his description : —
H. M.
p.,, ( Of the Sun at noon ..................... 2 17'2
lagnt J of the Moon at 4 p.in ................ 12 57
Ascension
Qf ^ gtar (g y^ .......... . _ 12 25
AT -Pfi, C Of the Sun at noon ..................... 13 47'5
jNorcn J ofthe Mbon ttfc 4 p.m ............. :. 4 49-8
Declination ( Of the Star (S Virginis ............... 6 43'3
( Of the Sun at 10 a.m ............... .... 45 15
A Iff A J Of the Sun at 4 p.m ................... 29 15
} Of the Moon at 4 p.m ................ 4 53
' Of the Star at 4 p.m ................... 4 20
Azimuth Of the Sun at rising .................. 112 30
H. M.
iOf the Sun at half Azimuth ......... 9 17 a.m.
Of the Sun at Altitude of 45° ...... 9 58 a.m.
Of the Sun at Altitude of 29° ...... 4 2p.m.
Of Moon's entrance to Libra ......... 3 45 p.m.
[Pub. June 28, 1851.]
THE "HALFE COURS " IN THE RAM. 81
NOTE A.
, " and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Earn his halfe cours y-ronne."—- Page 67.
I am in a manner compelled to invite a comparison between this
reprint of what was written and published by me so far back as
1851, and a claim advanced on the part of the Eev. W. W. Skeat,
of Cambridge — that he, in 1868, was the first to protest against
Tyrwhitt's proposal to read " the Bull instead of the Earn " in the
above lines : for notwithstanding that Mr. Skeat did, at one time,
publicly acknowledge that this claim of his had been groundless
(Notes and Queries, 24th Oct., 1868), yet he afterwards permitted
it to be reasserted, and apparently acquiesced in attempts to confer
upon it great literary notoriety in connection with his name. It
was made a prominent theme of congratulation for the members of
the Early English Text Society in its Annual Report for 1869 : and
it was proclaimed, with a rather exuberant prefatory flourish, in
the " Temporary Preface " sent out in May, 1869, with the first
issue of publications by the Chaucer Society. But although I am
thus driven to assert once more my long prior right to this
correction of Tyrwhitt, it is not from any overweening pride in it,
for I was. not, I confess, at all impressed with its value, until
enlightened by the high importance I now find attributed to it as
the discovery of another person : —
" The greatest gain of late times as to the Prologue is clearly Mr. Skeat's
showing that Chaucer's Ram of line 8 is not the blunder for Bull that Tyrwhitt
and his followers supposed it to be ; but is quite right."
" A vote of thanks to Mr. Skeat from all Chaucerians is hereby recorded."
("Temporary Preface," page 89.)
This is followed by a reprint in full of Mr. Skeat's letter to Notes
and Queries of 19th September, 1868 ; but his disclaimer, which
appeared in the same periodical a few weeks later, is not noticed.
I fear Mr. Skeat himself cannot be wholly acquitted of having
supervised this partial republishing of his letters : and I say so on the
evidence of a superadded foot-note, not in the original, which
nevertheless appears with the signature W. W. S. on page 104 of
this " Temporary Preface ;" and that foot-note clearly refers to an
incidental remark1 in the remonstrance from me (N. and Q., 10th
Oct., 1868), which had elicited his disclaimer on the 24th of the
same month.
a
82 THE "HALFE COUES " IN THE RAM.
Now, while Mr. Skeat's protest against Tyrwhitt is identical
with mine, the manner in which he would explain the existing
text is essentially different ; and it is necessary, in defence of my
own interpretation, that I should show the errors of his. He
would inflict upon Chaucer a more injurious imputation than even
Tyrwhitt's — namely, an unintelligible jumbling together of the
signs, of the Zodiac, with the constellations of the same names.
He states that by the sun's halfe cours in the Earn Chaucer did
not mean the sign so called but the constellation ; and that since
the middle of the constellation, in Chaucer's time, preceded the
middle of the sign by twenty degrees, that number added to 15 of
Aries would produce the 5th degree of Taurus, the sun's place on
the 17th April. But, if that were Chaucer's meaning, what are we
to think when we come to The Squire's Tale, and find there an
almost exact repetition of the same phrase — " the yonge sonne
that in the Earn was foure degrees y-ronne ?" By parity, these
four degrees should be advanced to twenty-four. But twenty-four
degrees in Aries would be the sun's place for the sixth of April,
whereas Chaucer declares it is the sixteenth of March (that is, the
day succeeding "the last idus of March"). Therefore Mr. Skeat's
interpretation would impute to Chaucer that by the same form of
words he means a constellation in one place and a sign in the
other, with a difference between the two meanings of twenty
degrees of longitude !
Mr. Skeat makes no attempt to show by any authority other
than " a glance at a modern celestial globe" what would have been
Chaucer's estimate of the constellation Aries ? — where he would
place its beginning, where its middle, — or where its termination ?
The only allusion, I believe, in Chaucer's works to precessional
separation, is the passage in the Frankelein's Tale quoted by me
in 1851 :—
" He knewe ful wel how ferre Alnath was shove
Fro the bed of thilke fixe Aries above."
and if any conclusion can be drawn from this, it is that he consi
dered the star « Arietis to be the beginning of the constellation :
therein differing from Ptolemy who almost excluded Alnath by
ranking it with the outsiders. It is needless to say that Alnath
is not the star with which the constellation begins upon "a
modern celestial globe?
The overlap of half a sign into each month, and reciprocally of
half a month into each sign, which Was my interpretation of the
THE "HALFE COTJRS " IN THE RAM. 83
term "halfe cours," had no doubt become, in Chaucer's time, a
conventional association arising from the still surviving habit of
regarding the beginning of each sign as coincident with the middle
of each month. It is so placed in the Treatise on the Chilindre
translated and published by Mr. Brock ; and it is so placed by
Sacro Bosco, an English astronomer of the 13th Century, who wrote
a small treatise " De Anni Ratione" in the year 1244 : —
" Si in quo gradu cujuslibet signi sit Sol scire volueris, numero dierum men-
sis prseteritorum adde 15, et si resultent 30, yel minor numerus, in tali gradu
signi ad mensem pertinentis est Sol," &c.
Now even this expression " ad mensem pertinentis" throws some
light upon Chaucer's choosing to refer the sun's place in April to
his completed passage through Aries rather than to his absolute
presence in Taurus. Each sign was supposed to belong to that
month in which it ended. Or as Sacro Bosco expresses it —
" Nam signum detur mensi quern fine meretur."
I confess I cannot imagine a plainer or more completely satisfying
explanation of the " halfe cours" in the Ram, than the overlap
into April of the half sign Aries ; through which it is said — (a few
days after the middle of that month) — the sun hath yronne.
So obviously true does that interpretation appear to me, that I
think it superfluous at present to support it by the further
argument that Chaucer did not recognize the zodiacal constellations
at all as apart from the signs. I shall, however, in another note,
recur to that position ; which, of itself, would be sufficient to refute
Mr. Skeat's interpretation.
And although I have assumed, for the sake of argument, that
Chaucer would consider Alnath to be the initial star of the constel
lation Aries, yet I am convinced that he was not alluding to the
constellation, in the passage quoted from the Frankelein's Tale, but
only to the individual star, as indicating by its removal from the
equinoctial point the extent of precession. (On this subject see
Introduction p. 3 4.)
It may be seen above, that in the same communication wherein
I originally exposed the error of Tyrwhitt's " Bull," I pointed out.
another error, the misreading, in the standing text of the Canterbury
Tales (10007), of Juil for Juin — on the ground that the sun could not
be "in Geminis" on the 8th of July in Chaucer's time. By a singular
coincidence Mr. Skeat also supplemented his communication on the
same subject by a similar reference to the same line in The Mar-
chaunt's Tale. He, however, would defend the error by asserting
that the sun, though not in the sign, "would be in the constellation
84 THE ZODIACAL SIGNS.
Gemini — as so expressly stated by our poet." In this Mr. Skeat is
unfortunately not correct. For the sun now leaves the constellation
Gemini, as shown by " a modern celestial globe," on the 17th of
July ; which, when decreased by 14 (according to Mr. Skeat's own
method of reduction to Chaucer's time), would result in the 3rd of
July ; several days before the day named in the present text of
The Marchaunt's Tale.
NOTE B.
" In alluding to the zodiac he always refers to
the signs, never to the constellations." — [p. 76.]
I intimated in the preceding note that I should recur to this
assertion with the truth of which I am still, in 1869, perfectly
satisfied. In fact the ignoring of the old misplaced and unequal
constellations, in order that the names, fables, and attributes which
had been associated with them in relation to the zodiac might be
transferred to the equal divisions of the ecliptic called signs, seems
to have become the practice long before Chaucer. And a much
wiser and more sensible practice it was than the confusing double
identities of signs and constellations which were reverted to in
later times — solely, perhaps, to take advantage of the convenience
presented by Ptolemy's constellations in classifying and cataloguing
the fixed stars and comparing their positions with those assigned
to them by him. Sacro Bosco describes the zodiac almost in the
same words afterwards used by Chaucer (supra p. 30).
" Zodiacus a £0017, quod est vita, quia secundum motum planetarum sub illo
est omnis vita in rebus inferioribus : vel dicitur a £wSioi>, quod est animal,
quia cum dividatur in duodecim partes eequales quselibet pars appellatur
signum, et nomen habet speciale a nomine alicujus animalis, propter proprie-
tatem aliquam convenientem tain ipsi quam animali : vel propter disposi-
tionem stellarum fixarum in illis partibus adinodumhujusmodi animalium." —
This description clearly ignores any groups of zodiacal stars
other than those in the signs.
The fictions of animal configuration were originally typical of
the seasons ; and when in course of time, the seasons had moved
away amongst the stars, it would doubtless appear only reasonable
that those animal identities should move away with them and
become associated with new stars. What else could Sacro Bosco
mean by explaining the animal nomenclature of the signs by
" propter dispositionem stdlarum in illis partibus" — i.e., in the duo
decim partes ccquales he had just described, and of which he says—
THE ZODIACAL SIGNS. 85
" qucdibet pars appellatur signum ?" And what else could Chaucer
mean when, in like manner explaining why the signs should have
names of lestes, he repeats the same description almost verbatim—
" or else for that the stars that there ben face ben disposed in figure
of bestes or schape like bestes" ? This assigning of groups of stars
to the signs is wholly incompatible with any idea of other groups
of stars as constellations.
In the Teseide of Boccaccio, from which Chaucer took so much
of his Knight's Tale, the following stanzas very aptly exemplify
the entire transfer of the animal identity from the constellation to
the sign : —
Febo salendo cogli suoi cavalli,
Dal ciel teneva 1'umile animale
Che Europa porto* sanza intervalli
La dove il nome suo dimora avale ;
E con lui insieme graziosi stalli
Venus facea de' passi con che sale
Perch6 luceva il cielo tutto quanto :
E Ammon con Pesce dimora va intanto.
Da questa lieta vista delle stelle
Prendie la terra graziosi effetti, —
Libro terzo 5. 6.
Here the sign Taurus is not only an animal, but the very "umile
animale" that bore off the daughter of Agenor, she : —
" That made great Jove to humble him to her hand
When with his knees he kist the Cretan strand ."
[ It is worthy of note that Shakespeare and Boccaccio should both use the
same expression humble : But surely Shakespeare must have written
Tyrian and not Cretan strand. When Jove landed in Crete he was no
longer humble.]
Boccaccio's description is astrological. The Sun and Venus in
conjunction in Taurus, and Jupiter sextile in Pisces : constituting
the lieta vista, or happy aspect of the stars. This proves that it is
the sign is referred to and not the constellation, since Astrology
deals only with the signs. And if further proof were needful it
would be found in the allusion to the graziosi stalli, or fair halls of
Venus, her mansion being the sign Taurus.
Chaucer has a somewhat similar allusion to the signTaurus as the
Cretan Bull, in the Prologue to his " Legende of Goode Women ;"
where, on the " firste morwe of May " he speaks of the sun —
" That in the brest was of the beste that day
That Agenores doghtre ladde away."— 113-14.
86 THE ZODIACAL SIGNS.
By the breast of Taurus he could not mean the star so called by
Ptolemy, which would be four or five degrees in advance of the
sun's place on the 1st of May. He probably meant it as a general
term for the Pleiades, the cosmical rising of which was of old
the harbinger of summer — since the advent of summer is his
theme : —
" Welcome seiner oure governour and lorde." — 170.
Again, in Chaucer's poem, "The Complaynt of Mars and Venus,"
he allegorically describes a conjunction of the Sun with Venus and
Mars, in Taurus. Venus had made an assignation with Mars in
her "nexte paleys " — i.e., the sign Taurus, as mentioned above.
Her chamber " depeynted was with white boles grete," — emble
matic of Taurus — in which, as in the old fable, the Sun surprises her
with Mars, by entering into Taurus — " tJiys twelve dayes of Avrille "
— a date that of itself is sufficient to prove that it is the sign Taurus
is alluded to. The adjoining sign to Taurus is Gemini, and Gemini
is a mansion of Mercury just as Taurus is of Venus. It is needless
to say that Mercury is Cyllenius, and when Phoebus so rudely
bursts into Venus' chamber she escapes into Mercury's :
" Now fleeth Venus into Cyllenius tour
With voide cours, for fere of Phebus lyght."
Or, as Boccaccio hath it, " Perch & lucevail cielo tuttoquanto." It
was by the unravelling of this little astronomical allegory that I
was enabled to declare, in 1851, that Cyllenius is the proper and
obvious reading of " Ciclinius," an unintelligible name with which
the above two lines are always printed — although I am not aware
that the correction has been as yet adopted by any editor of Chau
cer's poetical works.
NOTE C.
" Phebus hath left the angle meridional
And yet ascending was the beste real
The gentle Lion."— Page 77.
If it could be known with any certainty what Chaucer meant by
the angle meridional in this place, there would be no difficulty in
determining at what time the sun would leave it on any given day
and what the ascendant would be at that moment.
In technical astrology the angle meridional is the tenth house, the
ANGLE MERIDIONAL. 87
beginning of which is that point of the ecliptic then on the meridian,
as Chaucer himself teaches in his XXXIXth problem (ante, page
55). If this were the meaning of the expression in the present
instance the sun would have left the angle meridional the moment
he had passed the meridian or point of noon : and the coincident
ascending point of the ecliptic (on the 15th March, in Chaucer's
time, and with his latitude and obliquity) would be almost exactly
in the beginning of the sign Leo.
But this interpretation is open to two objections : —
First, the words "yet ascending was the beste reale," would
imply that the sign Leo had been already ascending for some inde
finite time : and if " yet ascending " is a true reading, it is not easy
to see how any other meaning than previous continuance can be
given to it.
Second, twelve o'clock at noon seems too early in the day for a
royal birth-day banquet to be concluded ; especially one so elabo
rately prepared as King Cambuscan's —
Of which if I shal tellen al the array
Than wold it occupye a soiners day.
A feast of many courses — unusually prolonged by the interlude of
the knight on the brazen horse — who had his speech to recite, his
offerings to present, and his toilette to make ere he could join the
banquet, which was not finally concluded 'till the king " rose from
the bord."
All this seems inconsistent with noon. For assuming that the
ordinary dinner time was at prime, which I shall elsewhere show
to be nine o'clock A.M., set-feasts of even minor ceremony were
generally later. As,rfor example, that family entertainment to
which Creseide was entrapped by Pandarus, which, without any
assigned reason
" the faire Queen Heleine
Shope her to ben an hour after the pryme." — T. 0. ii., 1557.
It was the consideration of these two objections that induced
me, in 1851, to adopt two o'clock P.M., when Regulus was on the
horizon, as the break up of King Cambuscan's feast. And I should
still hold to that opinion if it were in my power to justify by any
technical reference the explanation I then gave of Angle Meri
dional.
But, as I cannot do that, I am free to acknowledge that the twelve
o'clock hypothesis, based upon the absolute astrological meaning of
88 ANGLE MERIDIONAL.
angle meridional, now appears to me to be the unavoidable inter
pretation. And I am the more inclined to believe it to be the true
one from finding a star in the ascendant quite as favourably
situated for twelve o'clock as Eegulus was for two.
That star is the southern Asellus (8 Cancri) which, like Eegulus,
was and is almost on the line of the ecliptic, and it would rise with
the first degree of the sign Leo at two or three minutes past
noon on the day in question, the 15th of March about the year
1390.
The only way at present in which I can reconcile this star with
the name Aldryan, which purports to be the name given by Chau
cer as that of the coincident ascendant, is by supposing that
Aldryan may possibly be a substitution for Hamaran, which is the
Arabic name of 8 Cancri, and which would rhyme equally well with
Cainbuscan.
NOTE D.
" Perhaps some Arabic scholar," &c. — Page 79.
I am not aware that this invitation was ever responded to : but I
have myself examined " Hyde's commentary on Ulugh Beigh," and
therein I found the star 8 Virginis with the Arabic name " min al
away " attached to it, and translated by Dr. Hyde, " De latratore
seu vociferatore," min being represented by the preposition de,
which is no doubt its obvious and literal meaning. Nevertheless,
being still convinced that some more significant explanation might
be discovered, and observing that the same prefix min was also
applied to four or five other stars, all of which are mansions of
the moon, and to no others ; I suspected that min must in some
way have been a form or abbreviation of the Arabic Menzil,
mansio Lunce. And this opinion was strengthened by finding in
Fretagh's Arabic Lexicon, iv. 214, " Mina, ex licentia poetica pro
Manazil, mansiones"
No doubt this is a plural where we want a singular, — but I
think it gives sufficient authority to assume that there might
also have been an abbreviation of the singular menzil. At all
events, there is another word Mina, the signification of which is
a port or harbour for ships, a meaning not altogether remote from
" a station or stage in a journey." And when the changes of
signification that occur in course of time in all living languages
THE STAR MIN-AL-AUWA. 89
are taken into account, the absence in modern lexicons of the
precise definition of mina required for this reading is no very
conclusive reason against it.
If such an explanation be admitted for " min al away" the
passage in Chaucer might be read in this way : —
" then with the mone's exaltation
In min al auway Libra gan ascend ;"
that is, coincident with the moon's rising in her mansion al away,
Libra gan ascend : being virtually the same position as that laid
down by me in 1.851, although explained on different, and, I think,
on better ground.
Sir William Jones (Works, voL i., 346) has the following : —
" Menzil, or the place of alighting, properly signifies a station or stage, and
hence is used for an ordinary day's journey ; and that idea seems better applied
than mansion to so incessant a traveller as the Moon ; the menazilu'l kamar,
or lunar stages of the Arabs, have twenty-eight names in the following order,
the particle al being understood before every word."
It is unnecessary to follow Sir William Jones through the whole
list of twenty-eight mansions ; it is sufficient to observe that
amongst them are : —
2nd Butain, « Arietis, called Min Butain
llth Zubrah, 6 Leonis, „ Min al Zubra
13th Awwa, 8 Virginis „ Min al Auwa
20th Naiim, y Sagittarii „ Min al Naiim
22nd Dhabili, (3 Capricornis, „ Min al Dabih
Now the frequent recurrence of this same prefix Min to so many
of the manazil is surely a presumptive proof that it was a name
special to that designation. If it simply signified the preposition
of, it would have been applied to other stars or constellations in
the firmament as well as to these.
And that Chaucer was well acquainted with these mansions
sufficiently appears in The Frankelein's Tale, where the Astrologer's
book
" spoke moche of operacions
Touching the eight and twentie mansions
That longen to the Mone."
90
ON THE MEANING OF CHAUCEE'S PEIME.
The various allusions in Chaucer's works to prime as a certain
time in the day are apparently so contradictory, that it seems
impossible to assign any single hour that shall satisfy them all
I am inclined to believe that in the common phraseology of the
time there were at least two different periods of the day called
prime — one in the forenoon, and another in the afternoon — and
that both were considerably later in the day than the time usually
attributed to prime in supposed conformity with canonical regula
tion. I do not pretend to assert that an earlier prime may not
have been intended by Chaucer in any of the passages wherein it
is mentioned : what I wish to say is, that I have met with none
that may not equally well be reconciled with one or other of the
primes I am about to assume.
What are called " canonical hours " are in themselves extremely
vague and uncertain, often varying with the rules of the different
religious orders. Some authorities declare that prime was at
absolute sunrise ; others at conventional sunrise, which was six
o'clock all the year round ; and others, again, at seven o'clock
a.m., when the first hour was noted ; for it seems a reasonable
deduction that where noon was sexta, five hours before noon should
be prima.
John de Belethus, who wrote on ritual observance about the
end of the twelfth century, in his chapter, " Cur septies in die
laudemus Dominum," likens the seven canonical hours of the day
to the seven ages of human life : and it is to the second age
(Shakespeare's school-boy) that he assigns prime :
" Per matutinas laudes representatur infantia : per primam pueritia : per
tertiam adolocentia : per sextam juventus : per nonam setas virilis : per
vesperas senectus : per completorium setas decrepita ac finis hmnanse vitee."
But the same writer in his next chapter apportions the twelve
ordinary hours as follows : —
" Sub prima horas dims complectimur ipsam videlicet primam et secundam ;
sub tertia tres, ipsam tertiam et quartam et quintain : sub sexta itidem tres
ipsam sextam septimam et octavam : vesperse representant undecimam : com
pletorium duodecimam."
Here are all the twelve hours accounted for, but only six out of
the seven canonical divisions before enumerated. In appearance,
ON THE MEANING OF CHAUCER'S PRIME. 91
nothing can be more distinct and specific, but in reality nothing
can be more ambiguous. Where is infantia ? did it precede sun
rise, the birth of the day, or did decrepitude not begin until after
dissolution at sunset ? At which end of the day was the overlap ?
Were the several points of time, tertia, sexta, nona, &c., initial or
terminal to the hour spaces of the same names ? Did the three-hour
division, comprising sexta, septima, and octava, begin at noon or
at some time previous to noon ? These are some of the difficulties
that beset the subject of canonical hours, and render them so
indeterminate. Much of the uncertainty is caused by the use of
Latin ordinal numbers in a cardinal sense, which must always tend
to ambiguity when the arbitrary meanings conventionally attaching
to them have become lost or forgotten. It is the fate of the horary
reckoning of the Romans themselves, leaving the true interpretation
of Martial's distribution of hours and employments ever open to
dispute.
It is fortunate that the meaning of Chaucer's prime may be
determined without reference to the uncertain prime of the canoni
cal hours. But before entering into its discussion it is necessary to
eliminate the very erroneous notion recently introduced (see notes
to the Preface of Mr. Brock's translated " Treatise on the Chilindre"
and to page 19 of Mr. Furnivall's " Temporary Preface") that
planetary, or unequal, hours were employed by Chaucer in his
estimation of prime.
That he thoroughly understood such hours in theory is most
certain, — as is shown in the way he introduces them into his story
of Palamon and Arcite, as well as in the explanation he gives of
them in the Xlth and Xlllth Conclusions of his Astrolabe, —
but it is equally certain that he neither practised them in ordinary
life himself, nor attributed their practice to any time coeval with
his own.
If ever he would do so it would most assuredly be in the
Nun's Priest's Tale in the natural announcement of hours by
Chanticleer, who knew the time " by kinde and by none other
lore." But, so far from doing so, he indicates the contrary, not only
by direct assertion, but by throwing in, with his usual love of
collateral corroboration, a little scientific fact which places his
intention beyond all possibility of cavil : —
" Wei sikerer was his crowyng in his logge
Than is a clok, or an abbay orologge,
92 ON THE MEANING OF CHAUCER'S PEIME,
By nature knew he ech ascencioun
Of equinoxial in thilke toun ;
For whan degrees fyftene were ascendid
Thenne crewe he, it might not be amendid."
It is not so much the mention of clock or orologe in these
lines, although that is significant enough, as the assigning to each
hour fifteen degrees of the equinoctial that is so absolutely
decisive of equal hours.
It is doubtful whether Chaucer would have so well understood
even the theory of unequal hours if he had not made them an
object of special study for the purpose of his Knight's Tale, into
which the introduction of these hours was all his own, there
being no allusion to them in Boccaccio's Teseide : for so com
pletely were those hours forgotten long before his time that John
Holywood (J. de Sacro Bosco), who was a regular professor of the
sciences of which Chaucer was but an amateur, gives this grossly
absurd mis-description of them in his libellus " De Anni Eatione"
written in 1244 : —
" Hora est vigesima-quarta pars diei naturalis. Horarum vero alia naturalis
alia sequinoctialis. Naturalis est spacium temporis quo medietas signi perori-
tur. jEquinoctialis vero est 15 graduum circuli sequinoctialis supra horizontem
ascensio."
That is to say, a natural or unequal hour is the ascension above the
horizon of 15 degrees of the ecliptic; and an equal hour is the
ascension of 15 degrees of the equinoctial : a very pretty antithesis
but monstrously untrue. How untrue, is best seen in the fact that
in April, when " houres ineguall" ought to be long, half the sign
Taurus would ascend in little more than half an ordinary hour —
while in October, when those hours ought to be short, half the
sign Scorpio would be nearly three times as long in ascending.
Such an extraordinary misdescription shows that in the thirteenth
century " houres inequall" had become so obsolete in common
life that their nature was forgotten and misunderstood.
It may be said that Sacro Bosco in so describing the duration of
what he called hora naturalis did not mean the hour that Chaucer
calls " houre inequall." Be it so : in that case his silence
respecting such hours is quite as significant and proves equally
well their desuetude in his time.
Tyrwhitt, with all his blunders of astronomical interpretation,*
* One of these has not, I think, been noticed. In the Merchant's Tale, line
ON THE MEANING OF CHAUCER'S PRIME. 93
did not attribute unequal hours to Chaucer's time ; although he
understood these hours well and fully explained them in two of the
best notes in his whole series. Why they should be imputed now
is not very apparent, — unless, perhaps, it is because Mr. Brock's
ckilindre is constructed for a twelve-hour division of the day. But
that instrument has nothing in common with Chaucer except its
name, and even that is mentioned by him only in metaphorical
allusion, as I shall shew hereafter.
The several MS. descriptions of the chelindrus, one of which has
been so well printed and translated by Mr. Brock, were probably
copies, with slight variations, furnished from one convent to ano
ther, for the purpose of teaching the construction of an instrument
to regulate their religious services.
The twelve-hour division of the day was long held in religious
veneration on account of its supposed inculcation in St. John xi. 9,
with reference to which Venerable Bede writes :
" XII horse diem complent, Domine attestante, qui ait, nonne duode-
cim horse, etc. Ubi quamvis allegoric^ Be diem, discipulos horas, appellave-
ritr
The " Abbey Orologe " would announce equal hours to the external
world, but for religious matters some special guide to unequal
hours would be all the more necessary from their total disuse in
ordinary life.
I have now, I trust, cleared away the encumbrance of unequal
hours from the discussion of Chaucer's prime, — and indeed it is a
matter of surprise to me how any one could have associated them
in the face of the plain declaration in The Nun's Priest's Tale, that
prime occurred at one of Chanticleer's equinoctial hours ; — in the
month of May, too, when the lengthening of unequal hours would
occasion a sensible difference in the reckoning. But of this an
nouncement of prime by Chanticleer I shall have occasion to
speak hereafter.
Of the two primes, mentioned by me at the commencement, I
assume that the first was at nine o'clock, A.M., and that it was iden
tical in time with what the Italians called terza. Of this identity
0761, Tyrwhitt altered "two of taure" into "ten of taure," and so printed it;
explaining in a note to that line that he did so because the motion assigned to
the moon in four complete days exceeded the mean motion in that time ! As
if Chaucer was necessarily confined to the mean motion : or, as if a true motion
to the same extent, in the same time, as that stated by him, were not to be
seen in every almanac.
94 ON THE MEANING OF CHAUCER'S PRIME.
the definition of that word in Florio's Italian Dictionary — " Terza,
the third in order : also the hour that Priests call Prime." — is one
presumption. Another arises from Boccaccio, in his Decameron,
frequently referring to Terza the same incidents that Chaucer refers
to Prime : thus terza is the dinner-time appointed for the person
ages of the Decameron just as prime is associated with dinner by
Chaucer. Another point of resemblance is that the true time of
terza seems to be as much a matter of uncertainty with the Italians
as prime is with us. In their great national dictionary, Delia
Crusca, it is presented with the same unsatisfactory explanation —
" Una dell' ore canoniche" —word for word the explanation of prime
by our own dictionaries. But in the old French translation of the
Decameron by Antoine Le Mason, which went through so many
editions in the sixteenth century, terza is invariably rendered
' neuf heures"
Mne o'clock in the morning may appear to us now a strange
hour for dinner ; but it is the name deceives us, for although cal
led dinner, the meal was in truth breakfast — breakfast of that sub
stantial kind "a la fourchette" In the Promptorium " Dynner" is
defined as jeutaculum as well as prandium ; and Du Cange tells us
(in v. dejejunare) that " disner " is but an abbreviation of " des-
jeuner."
Another feature of identity between Boccaccio's terza and Chau
cer's prime, is the frequent use by the former of the phrase mezza
terza, which appears to be an exact counterpart of Chaucer's " half
way prime." And here again we are met by the same uncertainty
of meaning. The Delia Crusca entirely ignores the phrase ; and
Le Mason, so invariable in his rendering of terza, is all abroad in
respect of mezza terza. Under the same circumstances he gives it
several different interpretations — " Sur les sept ou huict heures " —
" Entre six et sept heures " — " Entre sept et huict heures," — &c.
One point, however, of absolute certainty may be gathered from
Boccaccio's context — that mezza terza was antecedent to terza in
time.
Tyrwhitt, in his note upon " half-way prime," suggests that it
was half-past seven o'clock, in which he was probably right ; but
then he supposed prime to be at six o'clock A.M., and consequently
the earlier. He cites a passage from the " Modus tenendi Parlia-
mentum," in which it is stated that Parliament was to assemble on
ordinary days at " hora mediae primse " but on festivals at " hora
prima," on account of divine service, Hence Tyrwhitt would un-
ON THE MEANING OF CHAUCEK'S PRIME. 95
derstand that Parliament was to assemble earlier on festival days,
whereas, in my opinion, the obvious meaning of the rule is that
the sitting was to be postponed on festivals until after divine ser
vice : which it would be if prime be understood as nine o'clock, in
complete analogy with the Italian phrases.
I have now to consider Dan Johan's prime in " The Shipman's
Tale," where one thing at least is certain, that he associates it with
" dinner," that is, nine o'clock, A.M. But then he says that it is
prime by his chilindre, which some people understand as the result
of absolute instrumental observation of the time then present. But
that it could not be ; because the time then present was consider
ably earlier than dinner-time, to permit of its preparation, and of
the intervening celebration of mass. It is therefore infinitely easier
to understand the mention of the chilindre as purely metaphorical.
It is just like one of Chaucer's humorous touches to imagine the
monk alluding to his own cylindrical casing, and calling it his
chilindre :
" let us dine as sone as ever you maye
For by my chilindre it is pryme of daye."
There is a counterpart, though a very poor one, of the same joke in
Middleton's play of " The Changeling:"—
" What hour is it, Lollio V
" Towards belly-hour, Sir."
" Dinner-time, thou meanst, twelve o'clock."
That the metaphorical interpretation was that which was for
merly put upon Dan Johan's chilindre is obvious from the substi
tution of " stomach " quoted by Mr. Morris as " the reading of one
MS."
The chilindre, or cylinder, seems to have been a very common
instrument for several centuries before and after Chaucer's time.
There is an engraving of one almost identical with the figure prefixed
to Mr. Brock's translation (except that it represents an instru
ment some six centuries later in time and for the latitude of
Paris) in the French " Encyclopedie Methodique," where it is entitled
" Cylindre monte et pieces qui le composent :" and in the de
scription of the same instrument by Dom Bedos it is called
" Le Cylindre Portatif."
It is evident, therefore, that the name " chelindius " was not
particularly special to this instrument, but merely a variation in
spelling. In the words quoted by Mr. Brock from Skeffler —
" velut est umbra stili in pariete aut chilindro " — chilindrus is not
96 ON THE MEANING OF CHAUCER'S PKIME.
more special than paries — the distinction is merely between the
cylindrical surface of a pillar, on which a dial was often drawn,
and a flat wall. There is even " chelindrus vide cylindrus " in Francis
Holyoke's Dictionary, with no other speciality than a garden
roller.
Great praise is undoubtedly due to Mr. Brock for having by
his reprint and translation of the Treatise on the Chilindre
brought into notice such a capital gloss of Dan Johan's expres
sion; but in no other sense can the instrument it describes be
considered as specially associated with Chaucer. Its construc
tion is for a time at least two centuries earlier than his — when
the beginning of each sign was coincident with the middle of
each month. And yet in the following note to page 47 of Mr.
Brock's translation, that very peculiarity, indicative as it is of
the age of the instrument's construction, seems to be imputed to
its rudeness and imperfection ; —
" In Chaucer's time Aries rose on the twelfth of March, not on the fifteenth,
and similarly for other signs. Hence arises an inaccuracy in the use of the
cylinder."
The last conclusion is not very clearly expressed, but it probably
means that an inaccuracy would arise if the instrument were used
in Chaucer's time. Of course there would — the same sort of inac
curacy that would arise from the use, this year, of last year's alma
nac. But, since the instrument was not constructed for Chaucer's
time it seems scarcely a matter for remark that it does not agree
with it. In another note on the last page an erroneous latitude and
obliquity of ecliptic are attributed to the instrument, and that, too,
in a conjectural sort of a way, as if any doubt ought to exist as to
these elements when they are so very plainly indicated in the
description. The solstitial altitudes, upper and lower, being given,
half their sum is the co-latitude and half their difference is the
obliquity. These altitudes are 61 ° 34' and 14° 26' respectively,
so that the latitude is 52 degrees, and the obliquity 23° -34' And if
this were not a sufficient indication, the equinoctial altitude is stated
in another place to be 38 degrees, equal, of course, to the co-la
titude.
But return to the subject of prime. Enough has been probably
said respecting the forenoon prime at nine o'clock A.M. : and as to that
in the afternoon, I assume that it was at one P.M. And I rest this
assumption, —
Firstly, upon the probability that, when the initial of horary
ON THE MEANING OF CHAUCER'S PRIME. 97
notation was transferred from sunrise to noon, the term prime would
from analogy be transferred with it ; or, in other words, that where
hour one was reckoned prima would be considered applicable.
Secondly, upon the excellent interpretation which the supposi
tion of prime at one P.M. confers upon two passages of Chaucer's
text that cannot otherwise be so well explained. The first is that
passage in Troilus and Creseide. Book v., 472 : —
" The letters eek which she in olde time
Had him y-sent, he would alone rede
An hundred sithe atwixe noon and prime."
The inconsolable Troilus —
" When he was ther as no man might him here,"
is bemoaning in secret the loss of his mistress : but he is visiting
amongst strangers in Sarpedon's house : what better time, then,
could he choose to read over her old letters alone, than the hour of
noon- tide siesta between twelve and one ?
The second is that passage in The Squiere's Tale where the
narrator exclaims — at a time which must have been in the after
noon —
" I wol not tarien you for it is prime."
I am aware that this line has been otherwise explained by the
assumption that the journey to Canterbury could not have been
performed by the pilgrims in a single day, and that The Squiere's
Tale might be related at an early hour of some other day. But to
that hypothesis I cannot subscribe. Not only I disbelieve that such
important incidents as haltings at nights, and assemblings in the
mornings, could have been intended by the author, and yet not the
slightest allusion be made to them ; but I should esteem any
attempt to test, by serious investigation on the mere score of
distance, the practical possibility of performing the pilgrimage to
Canterbury in one day, or in two, or in three, to be about as wise
as a similar inquiry would be into the stages made by Imogen in
her ride to Milford Haven— and about as likely to lead to a
satisfactoiy determination.
I have said that I am not aware of any mention of prime by
Chaucer that may not be referred to one or other of those I have
assumed. There is, however, one mention of it in The Nun's
Priest's Tale to which I have before alluded, and which it is
more especially necessary to discuss, because, although at first sight
it seems to require an earlier hour than nine o'clock A.M., it turns
K
98 ON THE MEANING OF CHAUCER'S PRIME.
out, when properly investigated, to be the strongest possible cor
roborative of that hour — and because it tends to settle an un
certain text by showing the incorrectness of a reading first intro
duced by TJrry, continued by Tyrwhitt, and repeated by every
modern editor of the Canterbury Tales in preference to one which,
though rejected by Twyrwhitt himself, was declared by him to be
" the reading of the greatest part of the MSS." The month and
day on which Chanticleer's catastrophe befell is of no further im
portance at present than as corroborating the longitude of the sun
in Taurus; which is, say, 21J degrees, equivalent to 18 J degrees of
North Declination. And with that declination, what we are con
cerned with is the altitude of the sun, as indicating the hour of
.prime, assuming the latitude to be that of Chaucer's Astrolabe.
This altitude, as printed in the editions of Urry, Tyrwhitt,
Wright, and Morris, is : —
" Twenty degrees and oon and more i-wis,"
and to this line Tyrwhitt appends the following note —
" The reading of the greatest part of the MSS., is fourty degrees. But this
is evidently wrong ; for Chaucer is speaking of the altitude of the sun at, or
about, prime— i.e. six. o'clock A.M. See ver. 15203. When the sun is in 22°
of Taurus, he is 21° high about three-quarters after six A.M."
Here one scarcely knows which to admire most — that Tyrwhitt
should consider three-quarters of an hour a sufficiently near ap
proach for Chaucer to make to an intended astronomical position —
or that he (Tyrwhitt) should assume " six o'clock A.M." for prime
when seven would have been so much nearer to the result of his
own calculation !
But neither six o'clock, nor seven — neither three-quarters, nor
one quarter of an hour — will satisfy those who will follow and are
capable of understanding the precision with which Chaucer has
determined similar problems in the IVth Conclusion of his Treatise
on the Astrolabe.
In the present case the latitude and obliquity of Chaucer's instru
ment being known, the sun's place in the ecliptic, together with
his altitude, are given to find the hour of prime : the sun's place
being further confirmed by the mention of the month and day.
There can be no doubt that Chaucer intended, by all these pre
cise elements, to make a little display of his astronomical know
ledge ; and, therefore, when there is a choice of reading, it is clearly
due to his text that preference should be given to that reading
ON THE MEANING OF CHAUCER'S PRIME. 99
from which the nearest approximation may be obtained to the same
degree of correctness he has shown elsewhere. It was this consi
deration that induced me to examine the result of a calculation at
the higher altitude of the alternate reading —
" Fourty degrees and oon, and more i-wis,"
and I had the satisfaction to find a resulting hour for prime of
nine o'clock A.M. almost to the minute.
After this, there surely can be no reasonable doubt that " fourty,"
and not " twenty," is, on its own merits, the true reading of the first
word in this line ; even if it were not corroborated by Tyrwhitt's
acknowledgment that it is " the reading of the greatest part of the
MSS. :" and even if it had not been the reading of all the printed
editions anterior to Urry's.
The false reading in altitude was probably introduced by echo
from the line above ; or by the officious alteration of some early
scribe who, like Tyrwhitt, might fancy that, at prime, the snn must
necessarily be at a low altitude, as if the line —
" Cast up his eyes to the brighte sonne,"
did not, of itself, bespeak a high altitude.
I had already 'written these remarks before I became aware that
the reading I am contending for had been strenuously advocated
by Mr. Thomas Thynne, son of the first editor ef the collected
works of Chaucer in 1532, and him self the possessor of many MSS.
His " Animadversions upon Chaucer's Works " have been edited by
Dr. Kingsley, and printed by the Early English Text Society, in
1865.
Francis Thynne was apparently unconscious of the powerful
support his reading would receive from the astronomical position of
the sun in connexion with prime. But it must be observed that the
object of his correction was not to increase the altitude but to decrease
the number of degrees in Taurus which then stood at fourth-one in
all editions (his father's included) anterior to his "Animadversions,"
written in 1599 : for it is a singular fact that, whereas in modern
editions both quantities are printed twenty-one, in Thynne's time
both quantities were printed fourty-one. And it is also singular that
whereas I have attributed the modern repetition to " echo from the
quantity above," Mr. Thynne should have attributed the repetition
in his time to a somewhat similar cause : —
" But although there be no niisnaminge of the signe, yet yt is true the
100 ON THE MEANING OF CHAUCER'S PKIME.
degrees of the signe are misreckoned ; the error whereof grewe because the de
gree of the signe is made equall with the degree of the sonne ascended above
the Horizon."
He then proceeds : —
" But to remedye all this, and to correct .yt accordinge as Chaucer sett yt
downe in myne and other written copies ; and that yt may stande with all
mathematicall proportione, whiche Chaucer knewe and observed there, the
print must be corrected after those written copies (whiche I yet holde for sounde
'till I maye disprove them) having these wordes :
" when that the month in whiche the worlde beganne,
that hight Marche, when god first made manne,
was complete, and passed were also
since marche begonne thirty dayes and two
befell that Chanteclere in all his pride
his seven wives walkinge him beside
cast vp his eyen to the bright sonne
that in the signe of Taurus had yronne
Twentye degrees and one and somewhat moore
And knewe by kynde and by noone other loore
That yt was pryme, and crewe with blisful steven
The sonne, quoth he, is clomben vp on heaven
Fortye degrees and one, and moore, y wis," &c.
This extract is precisely copied as it appears in the reprint ;
and I quote it because it just comprises the passage which I
might have cited (with somewhat different spelling and arrange
ment) to illustrate my own argument. It ought to be noted that
in the fourth line " begonne "is used by Thynne in the sense
of passed ly, as a conjectural emendation of " beganne." Had he
suggested had gone instead of begone the emendation would, I
think, be better and more probable. His argument — that any
further time added to a month complete, with the word " also,"
must necessarily be applied at the end of the complete month
and not at its beginning — is excellent, and, I think, unanswer
able. Suppose, for example, the time to be added is two days,
expressed in this way : — When the month called March was
complete, and also two days since March began, — it would be
stark nonsense. And, if that be true for two days, it is not less
true for thirty-two or sixty- two. The point from which also
must start, is that previously arrived at, — that is, March com
plete. Having declared March to be complete we cannot undo it
again and go back to its commencement. Such is the substance
of Francis Thynne's argument.
THE MEANING OF CHAUCER'S PRIME. 101
Tyrwliitt saw this when he framed the line : —
lt Sithen March ended, thritty dayes and two."
But Francis Thynne's suggestion (slightly varied) is nearer to the
original and retains " since :" —
" Since Marche had gone thirty dayes and two."
Mr. Morris adopts : —
" Since March beganne twa monthes and dayes two."
which, though it amounts to the same thing, is nothing but a com
promise to retain " beganne" at the expense of direct contradiction
to "also"
But I have not as yet exhausted all the evidence in support
of Chaunteclere's prime being Nine o'clock A.M. The " Cole-
fox ful of sleigh iniquitee."
" The same nighte thurgh the hegge brast
Into the yard, ther Chaunteclere the faire
Was wont, and eek his wives, to repaire,
And in a bed of wortes stille he lay
Til it was passed undern of the day —
Waiting his time on Chaunteclere to falle."
Now the acknowledged gloss of undern is nine o'clock A.M., and
just before the catastrophe Chanticleer had announced prime.
Therefore, either the story is not consistent, or prime and undern
were synchronical. But if prime was nine o'clock A.M. then must
the sun's altitude at prime on the 2nd May in Chaucer's
time be
Fourty degrees and oon and more y-wis.
THE CARRENARE.
I have lately seen a very extraordinary interpretation of a
passage in Chaucer's " Booke of the Duchesse" which more parti
cularly attracted my notice because I have long had a notion of
my own respecting the same passage.
It is that in which the well known crux occurs — " Go hoodless
into the drie see and come home by the Carrenare," and it occurs
in a sort of monody spoken by a disconsolate knight upon his lost
102 THE CARRENARE.
mistress, who would not, he says, practise the heartless wiles
resorted to by others of her sex to attract admirers and display
the power of their charms : —
" Hyr lust to holde no wight in honde
Ne, be thou siker, she wolde not fonde
To holde no wight in balaunce
By halfe word ne by countenaunce ;
Ne sende men into Walekye
To Praise ne into Tartarye
To Alisaundre ne into Turkye
And bid him faste : anone that he
Go hoodless into the drye see
And come home by the Carrenare."
1018—1028.
Upon this, the author of a book, published last year, called
" Chaucer's England" comments as follows : —
" The last three lines are banter : q. d. ' nor send him to fetch her a pound
of green cheese from the moon."
the lines so described being spoken by a knight whose grief for
the loss of his mistress is so overwhelming that —
" It was great wonder that nature
Might suffre any creature
To have such sorwe and be not ded."
But the comment continues : —
tl It may perhaps be for want of vision, but I confess that I see no obscurity
here. Of course the ' dry sea' is an absurdity, it was meant to be so. As for the
word carrenare, it is a stumbling-block, but not a worse stumbling-block than
some other adapted, modified, or mangled words in Chaucer. 1 take it to be bad
Italian for carrier or caravan. If we suppose the word to have been written
carrattare, it is scarcely very bad Italian. The proper word would be
carrettiere a carter ; but carretta means cart, and carrettare, formed from that
for the sake of the rhyme, is not very outrageous license, compared with other
things of the same kind to be found in Chaucer and poets of the time."
Chaucer's England, Vol. 1. p. 62.
I have quoted this curious comment at full length from the
impossibility of doing it justice with less, and because it affords a
fair specimen of the sort of criticism to which this word has been
exposed. We are to suppose that the lady is eulogized for not
being disposed to order her knight to come home by the caravan,
or, as she might say in these days, by the omnibus : but it does
not appear why it should be a virtue to refrain from that very
THE CAREEN ARE. 103
harmless injunction ; and it is equally difficult to understand how
the "scarcely very bad Italian" word carrettare can have been
adopted " for the sake of the rhyme" when the rhyme required
is to the English word ware.
Now, independently of the grave nature of the subject, the
banter and green-cheese point of view is the last from which these
injunctions should be regarded, when it is recollected how prone
some of the dames of chivalry were to exact from their " Servants"
cruel and dangerous proofs of their valour and devotion. As, for
example, that fair lady who dropped her glove into the arena
before a raging lion, in order that her knight, the famous Don
Miguel Ponce de Leon (for he obtained the surname by the ex
ploit) might descend and recover it.
The beautiful and amiable lady belauded in Chaucer's dream
was of a different nature — " She ne used no such knackes smale" —
but if the ladies with whom she is contrasted are not spoken of
in earnest where would be the force of the comparison ?" The part
ing injunction shows a full determination that it was to be no
joke : —
" And, Sir, be now right ware
That I may of you here saien
Worshippe, or that ye come ageyn."
Moreover, the dangers to be encountered by the wight are in
keeping with the known wars of the time. Pruise, where the
Teutonic knights were waging a savage and sanguinary crusade —
Walakye — Tartarie — Turkye — Alisaundre ! And it is significant of
the real nature of the enterprises that they are nearly the same as
those attributed to THE KNIGHT in the Prologue to the Canterbury
Tales.
Now my interpretation of the Carenare is that it is the gulf of
the Carnaro in the Adriatic.
II Carnaro, the charnel-hole : so called because of its reputed
destructiveness of human life.
Chaucer's residence in Italy would make him well acquainted
with the character of this gulf (now called 11 Quarnero) : and if it
is true that he visited Padua, he would have been in the very place
to hear of it. It is, indeed, from a Paduan writer, Palladio Negro,
that the Abbe* Fortis quotes — "E regione Istriae, sinu Palatico,
quern nautse carnarium vocitant," &c., showing, by this translation
of the name into the Latin equivalent carnarium, that Carnaro was
104 THE CAEEENARE.
not merely a name, but a nickname expressive of its fatal reputa
tion.*
But the most conclusive description is by Vergier, Bishop of
Capo d'Istria, as quoted by Sebastian Munster in his " Cosmogra-
phie," page 1044 (Basle Edition).
"Par dega le goliffre enrag6 lequel on appelle vulgairement Carnarie,
d'autantque le plus souvent on le voit agite de tempestes horribles ; et la
s'englontissent beaucoup de navires et se perdent plusieurs homines."
If it be objected that carnaro is not carrenare, it is an objection
that might be shown in many ways to be of no moment. The
shortest answer is perhaps this, — that if Palladio Negro might
translate the epithet into Latin, so might Chaucer into English
from his own " Careyn "— careynare — to rhyme with ware in the
line following.
It may be that Chaucer was reminded of the fatal character of
the Carnaro by Dante's allusion to it in the Inferno (ix. 112) :
" a Pola presso del carnaro
Fanno i sepolcri tutto il luogo varo " —
which at all events shows that it was at that time a byword of
danger and destruction.
It is a singular coincidence that on the same page of Munster
wherein he quotes the description of the Carnaro there should be
an account of a neighbouring inland lake, intermittent every half
year, which might, in its dry season, be the " drie sea " coupled
with the Carrenare by Chaucer. I do not, however, suggest it
with anything like the same confidence that I do the Carnaro :
because " drie sea " is a description so wide and uncertain, and is
consequently open to so many different interpretations, that unless
some special reference should be discovered to throw light upon it
it is scarcely capable of more than the loosest suggestion. The
following is a translation of Munster's description : —
" It is said that there is a lake near the city of Labac, adjoining the plain of
Zircknitz, which in winter time becomes of great extent, and abounds in fish
of great size, that are taken with spears two or three ells in length. But in
summer the water drains away — the fish expire — the bed of the lake is
ploughed up — corn grows to maturity — and, after the harvest is over, the
* We, too, on the coast of England have our "Shambles" — a dangerous
shoal off the Bill of Portland being so called.
THE CARRENARE. TO 5
waters return with the approach of winter, the lake is again filled, and the fish
reappear. The Augspourg merchants have assured me of this, and it has been
since confirmed to me by Vergier, the Bishop of Cappodistria."
Now it must be recollected that, although this account was
written a century and a half after Chaucer, yet since this lake,
according to a modern observation, published only the other day,
and alluded to in my Introduction, is very nearly in the same state
now, after the lapse of twice that time, it is a fair presumption
that it also existed long before Chaucer : and there is no knowing
what marvellous tales respecting it, and of the peculiar danger of
traversing it hoodless, may have been popularly current in Italy
when Chaucer was there. But then the difficulty is that the same
might be said of any arid sandy desert that might be metaphorically
called a dry sea. Consequently I only suggest this account of the
lake at Zircknitz for what it may be worth, with whatever pre
sumptive support it may derive from its proximity to the Carnaro.
In the modern account the lake is stated to be ten leagues in length
and one in breadth. A journey through it would necessarily be
unwholesome ; and as there must be an absence of all shade in the
dry bed of an intermittent lake, danger from sunstroke might arise
from going into it hoodless.
There is another possible interpretation of " drie sea." A frozen
sea might be so called. And from a passage in Warton's History
of English Poetry, Vol. I., page 461, it seems that to encounter
severe cold hoodless was a feat in amatory chivalry. " It was a
crime to wear fur on a day of the most piercing cold, or to appear
with a hood, cloak, gloves, or muff."
SHIPPES OPPOSTEKES.
As my interpretation of this expression (Knight's Tale, 2017)
was published in the Athenaeum newspaper in 1 867 without my
concurrence, and consequently without that support it might have
received from my own explanation and advocacy, I take this
opportunity to republish it, together with some of the reasons
which have induced me to abide by it.
My interpretation is that the meaning of opposter is— opposer =
106 SHIPPES OPPOSTERES.
opposite = antagonist ; and that the feminine plural form of oppos-
teres was given to it by Chaucer in order to render it an absolutely
literal representative of the bellatrices of Statius and the bellatrici
of Boccaccio.
Such an interpretation would establish a remarkable consistency
of expression in all three versions : each being compounded with a
qualifying noun substantive used adjectively in its feminine plural
form : —
Carinae bellatrices ... Statius, Threbaid, vii. 57
Navi bellatrici... ..... Boccaccio, Teseide, vii. 37
Shippes opposteres ... Chaucer, Knight's Tale, 2017
It has, I believe, been objected that the formation of this word
opposteres from the verb oppose, with the feminine Anglo-Saxon
ebtres would not be consistent with the strict rules of composition.
But if the word is in every other respect exactly suitable, are we to
bind over Chaucer, in his word-craft, to strict conformity with our
notions of proper composition ? Will such objectors explain the
formation of the word divinistre, in line 2811 of the same Knight's
Tale?
But there is another way of answering the objection — by asking
what should prevent Chaucer from forming opposter from oppono,
in the same way that imposter, or impostor, has beon formed from
impon-) ? The French have composteur for what we call composing-
stick ; and if we were to follow their example, and establish corn-
poster, who could demur to it ? Granting, then, that Chaucer might
have framed opposter, the addition of a feminine e is all my inter
pretation requires.
Either explanation of the word ought to be sufficient to justify
its acceptance, when it furnishes such an appropriate and probable
solution of this long-pending crux in Chaucer's text. The identity
of expression which it would complete in all three languages is, in
my opinion, a very strong argument in its favour. Finding the
compound of Statius so literally reproduced by Boccaccio, it is in
the highest degree probable that Chaucer would desire to shew
that he could produce an exact equivalent in his own language :
for that he was as intimately acquainted with Statius as he was
with Boccaccio may be proved almost to demonstration by a com
parison of certain identities of description common to him and
Statius, but which having no existence in Boccaccio's text, could
not have been derived from it.
For example, Chaucer describes the House of Mars : —
" downward from an hille under a bente." — Knight's Tale, 1981.
•
SHIPPES OPPOSTERES. 107
Statius places it under Mount Haemus, in Thrace : —
" adverse domus inunansueta sub Haemo." — Thelaid. vii. 42.
Boccaccio makes no mention of hill or mountain.
Again Chaucer describes, —
"The dores were alle of Athamante eterne."— K.T. 1990.
Statius. — " adamante perenni — fores" — T.viL 68.
Boccaccio (in the Milan edition of the Teseide)
" le porte a dur diamante." — vii. 32.
Chaucer. " The statue of Mars upon a carte stood."— K.T. 2041.
Statius. " Ipse (Mars) subit curru." — T. vii. 70.
Boccaccio. No corresponding expression.
Chaucer. " The cartere over ryden with his carte
Under the wheel ful lowe he lay adoun."— K.T. 2022.
Statius. " Et vacui currus, protritaque curribus ora." — T. vii 56.
Boccaccio. " T voti carri, e li volti guastatl" — T. vii. 37.
Here " under the wheel " and "protrita curribus " convey the same
idea ; but the line from the Teseide is a mere catalogue — Boccaccio
speaks of damaged countenances, but he omits the cause of them.
It is needless to cite more of these parallels : enough has been
shown to prove that Chaucer must have had independent recourse
to the text of Statius as well as to that of Boccaccio, and, therefore,
that he had a double inducement to the formation of " Shippes
opposteres," as I have interpreted it. This double reference is also
a complete answer to the absurd notion that he might have read
lellatrici as ballatrici.
When Chaucer represents these shippes opposteres as " brent" he
does not originate the burning — he only transfers it from the in-
censis urbibus" and "terre arse" of Statius and Boccaccio: and it
cannot be denied that it was a most judicious alteration.
Contending ships mutually in flames is a fine and effective em
blem of war, and one that might well be depicted in mural embel
lishment : but when Tyrwhitt explained " hoppesteres " as female
hoppers, or dancers, and thought burning ships " dancing on the
Waves ' would be a poetical idea, he omitted to explain how that
lively motion was to be represented on the walls of the oratory :
for it must be recollected that the emblematic objects which in
Statius are real, in Boccaccio, partly real and partly istoriati, are in
Chaucer wholly pictorial.
108 SHIPPES OPPOSTERES.
In the existing text of the Knight's Tale I have always felt
perplexed and dissatisfied with the frequent repetition, in the first
person, of I saw and saw I; as though Chaucer had intended to
make the Knight say that he had himself seen those oratories,
prepared by Theseus for a temporary purpose so many ages before.
This would be such a useless and unmeaning anachronism that,
rather than believe it genuine, I suspect a corruption in the MS.
I think we have a key to what Chaucer really did write in the
preceding description of the oratory to Venus: —
First, in the temple of Venus mayst thou see
Wroght on the wal— &c.— 1918.
May'st thou see, — that is, the Knight is presenting the picture
to the mind's eye of his hearers. Now, the substitution of ye
for I, in the similar descriptions of the oratories of Mars and
Diana would continue the same figure of speech: —
Ther saugh ye first the derk imaginyng. — 1995.
Yet saugh ye brent the shippes opposteres. — 2017.
And so of the rest, there being no place where substitution of ye
might not be as easily made as in these two examples : and when
it is recollected that the pronoun / was sometimes spelled Y or
even Yc, it will not appear improbable that some early scribe, per
haps Adam Scrivener himself, misread ye for yc, and under that
idea copied it as J. It even appears that the sound of I was repre
sented by the letters ye — as may be seen in "The Legende of
Goode Women": —
" The daisie, or elles the ye of day," (184).
so that the substitution of the wrong pronoun might have occurred
either through the eye or the ear.
There are certain humorous touches in Chaucer's description of
the House of Mars, such as : —
The cook i-scalded for al his longe ladel —
which seem as though he were slyly quizzing the pompous descrip
tions of Statius and Boccaccio : and the same remark applies to his
joke at their hyperbolic enumeration of the various trees cut down
to construct the funeral piles, when he throws in amongst his trees
the whippul-tree ! or, as we might say, the axle-tree. There have
been many grave discussions as to the species to which the
whippul-tree belonged : a point that may perhaps be ascertained
about the same time as the proper growth and culture of the axle-
tree.
Plate I
Plate K.
Plate
THE RETE OR ZODIAKE.
ALnjOAir a Lyroe
Abrucii/ a. Cyc/ni
_ <x ArLe-ils
— /3 Persei
'—/3 0 riorums
_ a Scorpti,
Alpk&ta, _ oc Coy. BoreaJOs
ALraunruJi, _ OL ttooOs
Alkcuici _ ^ Ursc&McijorLS
h'.A ItJuscuL —ocL eonis
AlqomLsob _
swrs.
THE PI, ATI-'. UNDER THK RETE
Diagram/ or Chcuicer's First Ensample
i oC the Su,rv.\
/
oC Chjauuucer's Second/ En sample
(of ike. Star Rigil, called/ by hun^AUuvbor]
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UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
II
Chaucer, Geoffrey
The treatise on the
astrolabe
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