Astronomical Lore in Chaucer Part 3

When, in the _Canterbury Tales_, the manciple has finished his tale, Chaucer determines the time by observing the position of the sun and by making calculations from the length of his own shadow:

"By that the maunciple hadde his tale al ended, The sonne fro the south lyne was descended So lowe, that he nas nat, to my sighte, Degrees nyne and twenty as in highte.

Foure of the clokke it was tho, as I gesse; For eleven foot, or litel more or lesse, My shadwe was at thilke tyme, as there, Of swich feet as my lengthe parted were In six feet equal of porporcioun."[67]

We must not omit mention of the humorous touch with which Chaucer, in the mock heroic tale of _Chanticleer and the Fox_ told by the nun's priest, makes even the rooster determine the time of day by observing the alt.i.tude of the sun in the sky:

"Chauntecleer, in al his pryde, His seven wyves walkyng by his syde, Caste up his eyen to the brighte sonne, That in the signe of Taurus hadde y-ronne Twenty degrees and oon, and somewhat more; And knew by kynde, and by noon other lore, That it was pryme, and crew with blisful stevene.

'The sonne,' he sayde, 'is clomben up on hevene Fourty degrees and oon, and more, y-wis.'"[68]

Moreover, this remarkable rooster observed that the sun had pa.s.sed the twenty-first degree in Taurus, and we are told elsewhere that he knew each ascension of the equinoctial and crew at each; that is, he crew every hour, as 15 of the equinoctial correspond to an hour:

"Wel sikerer was his crowing in his logge, Than is a clokke, or an abbey orlogge.

By nature knew he ech ascencioun[69]

Of th' equinoxial in thilke toun; For whan degrees fiftene were ascended, Thanne crew he, that it mighte nat ben amended."[70]

Chaucer announces the approach of evening by describing the position and appearance of the sun more often than any other time of the day. In the _Legend of Good Women_ he speaks of the sun's leaving the south point[71]

of his daily course and approaching the west:

"Whan that the sonne out of the south gan weste,"[72]

and again of his westward motion in the lines:

"And whan that hit is eve, I rene blyve, As sone as ever the sonne ginneth weste,"[73]

Elsewhere Chaucer refers to the setting of the sun by saying that he has completed his "ark divine" and may no longer remain on the horizon,[74] or by saying that the 'horizon has bereft the sun of his light.'[75]

Chaucer's references to the daily motion of the sun about the earth are apt to sound to us like purely poetical figures, so accustomed are we to refer to the sun, what we know to be the earth's rotatory motion, by speaking of his apparent daily motion thus figuratively as if it were real. Chaucer's manner of describing the revolution of the heavenly bodies about the earth and his application of poetic epithets to them are figurative, but the motion itself was meant literally and was believed in by the men of his century, because only the geocentric system of astronomy was then known. If Chaucer had been in advance of his century in this respect there would certainly be some hint of the fact in his writings.

References in Chaucer to the sun's yearly motion are in the same sense literal. The apparent motion of the sun along the ecliptic,[76] which we know to be caused by the earth's yearly motion in an elliptical orbit around the sun, was then believed to be an actual movement of the sun carried along by his revolving sphere. Like the references to the sun's daily movements those that mention his yearly motion along the ecliptic are also usually time references. The season of the year is indicated by defining the sun's position among the signs of the zodiac. The Canterbury pilgrims set out on their journey in April when

"the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram his halfe course y-ronne."[77]

In describing the month of May, Chaucer does not fail to mention the sun's position in the zodiac:

"In May, that moder is of monthes glade, That fresshe floures, blewe, and whyte, and rede, Ben quike agayn, that winter dede made, And ful of bawme is fletinge every mede; Whan Phebus doth his brighte bemes sprede Right in the whyte Bole, it so bitidde As I shal singe, on Mayes day the thridde,"[78] etc.

The effect of the sun's declination in causing change of seasons[79] is mentioned a number of times in Chaucer's poetry. The poet makes a general reference to the fact in a pa.s.sage of exquisite beauty from _Troilus and Criseyde_ where he says that the sun has thrice returned to his lofty position in the sky and melted away the snows of winter:

"The golden-tressed Phebus heighe on-lofte Thryes hadde alle with his bemes shene The snowes molte, and Zephirus as ofte Y-brought ayein the tendre leves grene, Sin that the sone of Ecuba the quene Bigan to love hir first, for whom his sorwe Was al, that she departe sholde a-morwe."[80]

More interesting astronomically but of less interest as poetry is his reference to the sun's declination and its effect on the seasons in the _Frankeleyns Tale_, because here Chaucer uses the word 'declination' and states that it is the cause of the seasons. The reference is the beginning of Aurelius' prayer to Apollo, or the sun:

"'Apollo, G.o.d and governour Of every plaunte, herbe, tree and flour, That yevest, after thy declinacioun, To ech of hem his tyme and his sesoun, As thyn herberwe chaungeth lowe or hye;'"[81]

Once again in the _Frankeleyns Tale_ Chaucer refers to the sun's declination and the pa.s.sage of the seasons:

"Phebus wex old, and hewed lyk latoun,[82]

That in his hote declinacioun Shoon as the burned gold with stremes brighte; But now in Capricorn adoun he lighte, Wher-as he shoon ful pale, I dar wel seyn."[83]

Chaucer is here contrasting the sun's appearance in summer and winter. In his hot declination (his greatest northward declination in Cancer, about June 21) he shines as burnished gold, but when he reaches Capricornus, his greatest southward declination (about December 21) he appears 'old' and has a dull coppery color, no longer that of brilliant gold.

2. _The Moon_

From those references to the moon that occur in Chaucer's poetry alone, it would be impossible to determine just how much he knew of the peculiarities of her apparent movements; for he alludes to the moon's motion and positions much less frequently and with much less detail than to those of the sun. But a pa.s.sage in the prologue to the _Astrolabe_ leaves it without doubt that Chaucer was quite familiar with lunar phenomena. In stating what the treatise is to contain, he says of the fourth part: "The whiche ferthe partie in special shal shewen a table of the verray moeving of the mone from houre to houre, every day and in every signe, after thyn almenak; upon which table ther folwith a canon, suffisant to teche as wel the maner of the wyrking of that same conclusioun, as to knowe in oure orizonte with which degree of the zodiac that the mone ariseth in any lat.i.tude;"[84] As a matter of fact the treatise as first contemplated by Chaucer was never finished; only the first two parts were written. But Chaucer would scarcely have written thus definitely of his plan for the fourth part of the work unless he had had fairly complete knowledge of the phenomena connected with the moon's movements.

The moon, in Chaucer's imagination, must have occupied rather an insignificant position among the heavenly bodies as far as appealing to his sense of beauty was concerned, for we find in his poetry no descriptions of her appearance that can compare with his descriptions of the sun or even of the stars. He speaks of moonrise in the most general way:

"hit fil, upon a night, When that the mone up-reysed had her light, This n.o.ble quene un-to her reste wente;"[85]

He applies to her only a few epithets, the most eulogistic of which is "Lucina the shene."[86] In comparing the sun with the other heavenly bodies the poet mentions the moon among the rest without distinction, as inferior to the sun:

"For I dar swere, withoute doute, That as the someres sonne bright Is fairer, clerer, and hath more light Than any planete, (is) in heven, The mone, or the sterres seven, For al the worlde, so had she Surmounted hem alle of beaute," etc.[87]

On the other hand, the stars are elsewhere said to be like small candles in comparison with the moon:

"And cleer as (is) the mone-light, Ageyn whom alle the sterres s.e.m.e.n But smale candels, as we demen."[88]

Whenever Chaucer mentions the moon's position in the heavens he does so by reference to the signs of the zodiac[89] and, as in the case of the sun, usually with the purpose of showing time. In the _Marchantes Tale_ he expresses the pa.s.sage of four days thus:

"The mone that, at noon, was, thilke day That Ianuarie hath wedded fresshe May, In two of Taur, was in-to Cancre gliden; So long hath Maius in hir chambre biden,"[90]

and a few lines further on he states the fact explicitly:

"The fourthe day compleet fro noon to noon, Whan that the heighe ma.s.se was y-doon, In halle sit this Ianuarie, and May As fresh as is the brighte someres day."[91]

When Criseyde leaves Troilus to go to the Greek army she promises to return to Troy within the time that it will take the moon to pa.s.s from Aries through Leo, that is, within ten days:

"'And trusteth this, that certes, herte swete, Er Phebus suster, Lucina the shene, The Leoun pa.s.se out of this Ariete, I wol ben here, with-outen any wene.

I mene, as helpe me Iuno, hevenes quene, The tenthe day, but-if that deeth me a.s.sayle, I wol yow seen, with-outen any fayle.'"[92]

But while the moon is quickly traversing the part of her course from Aries to Leo, Criseyde, pressed by Diomede, is changing her mind about returning to Troy, and by the appointed tenth day has decided to remain with the Greeks:

"And Cynthea[93] hir char-hors over-raughte To whirle out of the Lyon, if she mighte; And Signifer[94] his candeles shewed brighte, Whan that Criseyde un-to hir bedde wente In-with hir fadres faire brighte tente.

. . . . and thus bigan to brede The cause why, the sothe for to telle, That she tok fully purpos for to dwelle."[95]

The pa.s.sage of time is also indicated in Chaucer's poetry by reference to the recurrence of the moon's phases. In the _Legend of Good Women_, Phillis writes to the false Demophon saying that the moon has pa.s.sed through its phases four times since he went away and thrice since the time he promised to return:

"'Your anker, which ye in our haven leyde, Highte us, that ye wolde comen, out of doute, Or that the mone ones wente aboute.

But tymes foure the mone hath hid her face Sin thilke day ye wente fro this place, And foure tymes light the world again.'"[96]

Chaucer refers more often to the phases of the moon than to any other lunar phenomenon, but most of these references to her phases are used for the sake of comparison or ill.u.s.tration and give us little idea of the extent of Chaucer's knowledge. Mars in his 'compleynt' says that the lover

"Hath ofter wo then changed is the mone."[97]

The rumors in the house of fame are given times of waxing and waning like the moon:

"Thus out at holes gonne wringe Every tyding streight to Fame; And she gan yeven eche his name, After hir disposicioun, And yaf hem eek duracioun, Some to wexe and wane sone, As dooth the faire whyte mone, And leet hem gon."[98]