Astronomical Lore in Chaucer

r's Co

e not parts of interpolations from other writers his use of them is due to their intimate relation to the life his poetry portrays or to his appreciation of their poetic value. When Chaucer says, for example, that the sun has grown old and shines in Capricorn with a paler light th

rs of the ocean, and as covered by a dome-like material firmament through which the waters above sometimes came as rain; while, as we have seen, by the fourteenth century among scholars the geocentric syst

al Spheres and

s and human destiny was a sublime conception and one that naturally appealed to the imagination of a poet. Chaucer was impressed alike by the vastness of the revolving spheres in comparison to the earth's smallness, by their orderly arrangement, and by the unceasing regularity of their appearance which seemed to show that they should eternally abide. In the Parlemen

him the litel er

f the heven

wed he him th

eir order in the heavens. He speaks of Mars as "the thridde hevenes lord above"[10] and of Venus as presiding over

ht, of which t

e thridde heve

sphere they called the primum mobile, or the sphere of first motion, and supposed it to revolve daily from east to west, carrying all the other spheres with it. The thought of the two outer spheres, the primum mobile, whirling along with it all the inner spheres, and the firmament, bearing hosts of bright stars, seems to have appealed strongly to the poet's ima

-fastned to thy perdurable chayer, and tornest the hevene with a rav

expanse of the heavens, is many times mentioned by Chaucer; and its appearance on clear or cloudy night

rmony of

C., and continued to appeal to men's imagination until the end of the Middle Ages. It was thought that the distances of the planetary spheres from one another correspond to the intervals of a musical scale and that each sphere as it revolves sounds one note

to participate in this celestial music; but the poets have taken liberties with this idea and have given it

ye crysta

ss our h

wer to touch

your sil

melodi

e of heaven's d

our ninefo

sort to the ange

rb of the heavens send f

smallest orb wh

otion like a

o the young-eye

kes all nine sph

hat the melo

thilke speres

is of musyk

eer, and cause

he celestial melody is heard during a dream or vision. In Troilus and Criseyde, after Troilus' death his spiri

saugh, with f

terres, herke

lle of hevenis

oints and the Reg

ght," and the "left," later given the names North, South, East, and West, appears among peoples in their very earliest stages of civilization, and because of its great usefulness has remained and probably will remain throughout the history of the human race. Only one of Chaucer's many references t

foure spiri

an tanoyen l

d south, and al

er see, ne la

h below, and a region of darkness and gloom beneath the earth. Chaucer usually speaks of the three

ddesse of the

evene and erthe

egne of Pluto

to stand midway betwee

stant, as

in middes

ene, erthe,

e 'tryne compas' is used of the threefold

ryne compas lo

see and heven

rien;

, Hell an

in hope of future blessedness, play an important part. According to Dante's poetic conception hell was a conical shaped pit whose apex reached to the center of the earth, purgatory was a mountain on the earth's su

te idea of their location as we find in the Divine Comedy. The nearest Chaucer comes to indicating the place

folk shal go,

d shewed him

nd burning", thus to some extent departing fro

as thise phi

ift and round an

ayre Cecilie t

seen, was thought to have a swift diurnal motion from east to west. His use of the epithet "burning" is in c

f it by incidental allusions, whether or not this was the view of it he himself held, is practically the one commonly

e and soghte him

Man of Lawe

t under f

pent depe in h

ver by devils who await an opportunity to draw sinful souls to their punishment.[27] Elsewhere in the same tale the parson describes hel

alle thinges in right ordre, and no-thing with-outen ordre, but alle thinges been ordeyned and

ting marriage, fears that he may lose hope of heaven hereafter, because he will have his heaven here on earth in the joys of wedded life. His friend Iustinus sarcastically tells him that perhaps his wife will be his purgatory, God's instrument of punishment, so that when he dies

las that day t

rison worse

hape eterna

atorie, but i

Mount of Purgatory, but rather as a period of punishment and probati

of the lawe,

folk, after th

rle aboute the

rld be passed

-yeven alle h

come unto tha

en god thee sen

the highest degree of earthly beauty or joy by comparing it with paradise. Criseyde's face is said to be l

world it is a

same tale, woma

elp and h

rrestre and hi

s reaches

me to

low of helle,

of his estat

fore their fall. In the Monkes Tale we are told that Adam held sway over all paradise except

ader, and h

s to labou

r that vyce, i

t Adam faste

aradys; and

ruyt defende

t-cast to we a

Four El

attempts of the early Greek cosmologists to discov

as primary elements all four-fire, air, water, and earth-of which each of his predecessors had assumed only one or two. To explain the manifold phenomena of nature he supposed them to be produced by combinations of the elements in different proportions through the attractive a

as distinguished from the ethereal region above the moon. Immediately within the sphere of the moon came that of Fire, below this the Air, then Water, and lowest of all the solid sphere of Earth. Fire bei

y move to diver

being, and

iven it to

he fire toward

the hearts of

he earth togethe

ightning as fleeing its proper

, fleeing its p

ou who art return

ag

course sometime

th power, thus t

some oth

may be seen to

ts first rush b

alse seeming

to rise and of earth to sink is found i

fyr, that is purest, ne flee nat over hye, ne that the hevinesse ne d

e elements, but he tells us plainly that each element has b

faire cheyne

eyr, the wate

es, that they ma

specific reference to their respective spheres. The spirit of the slain Troilu

he was slayn

oost ful bli

wnesse of the

etinge every

that Troilus' spirit ascends to the concave side of the seventh sphere from which he can look down upon the spheres of the elements, which have their convex surfaces towards h

a passage from Boethius in which philosophical contemplation is figu

unteth the roundnesse of the grete ayr; and it seeth the cloudes behinde his bak; and passeth the heighte of the region of the fyr, that eschaufeth by the swifte moevinge of the f

h, in the Middle Ages, they were supposed to follow. When in the Hous of Fame, Chaucer is borne alo

houghte I

a thought ma

eres of P

n everic

e hath so

seen, behi

al that I o

principle of love, or by their separation through hate, the principle of discord. We find this idea also reflected in Chaucer who obviously got it from Boethius. Love is the

as hot and dry, that of water cold and moist, that of air cold and dry, and that of earth hot and moist.[47] Chaucer allude

s, that the colde thinges mowen acorden with the hote

elow the moon were thought to have been created not directly by God but by Nature as his "vicaire" or deputy

vicaire of th

hevy, light, (and

even noumbre

f the daughter of Virginius that nature had formed her of

I, N

rme and peynt

ist; who can m

, though he ay

peynte; for I

is, sholde we

e or peynte or

sumed me to

is the for

me his vica

peynten ert

t, and ech thin

e, that may w

rk right no-t

I ben ful of

the worship of

rincipal" means 'creator principal' or the chief creator. God is the chief creator; therefore there must be other or inferior creators. Nature is a crea