Astronomical Lore in Chaucer

r's As

hat they would seem astonishing and, to many people, out of place, in modern poetry. They were not so in Chaucer's time, when the exigencies of practical life demanded of the ordinary man a knowledge of astronomy far surpassing that possessed by most of our contemporaries. Harry Bailly in the Introduction to the Man of Lawes Tale determines the day of the month and hour of the day by making calculations from the observed position of the sun in the sky, and from the length of shadows, although, says Chaucer, "

rologue to the Canterbury Tales, where the friar's eyes are compared to twinkling stars[52] to extended allegories like the Compleynt of Mars in which the myth of Venus and Mars is related by describing the motions of the planets Venus and Mars for a certain period during which Venus overtakes Mars, they are in conjunction[53] for a short time, a

olde, and sho

saw men suc

heven had

golde ano

e egles fet

ounward gan h

Chaucer also employs them often in descriptions of day and night, of dawn and twilig

e day, and ble

his stremes d

flour with his

fe and vigor that nature puts forth whe

d the erthe

at him naked

werd of cold s

tempre sonne a

, and clad hit

ariably employed with poetic purpose. These poetical allusions to heavenly phenomena, however, together with the more technical and detailed references in Chaucer's prose works give evidence of a rather extensive knowledge of astr

The

him perhaps most often in the classical manner as Phebus or Apollo. He is called the "golden tressed Phebus"[57] or the "laurer-crowned Phebus;"[58] and when he make

onour, and t

, al this clep

ste, and dounw

e his dayes cou

ies with which classical myth had endowed him-the fo

with his ros

to dresse him u

w am

nd tho swifte

awen forth th

by-path in desp

hat was co

paleys-yate

onde, of which t

re knokkeden f

e that Chaucer often smiled as he did this, for he sometimes humorously apologizes for his poetical conceits and conventions by expressing his idea immediately afterwards in perfectly plain terms. Such is the

brighte sonne

hath reft the s

by the sim

he to seye as i

y always simply in the form of allusions to his rising and setting. Canacee in the Squieres Tale, (F. 384 ff.

resshe Canac

ight as dooth

[65] is four de

s he, whan s

n might be mentioned, if space permitted, simply for their b

ebus ryseth

ient laugheth

stremes dryet

es, hanging on

e, Chaucer determines the time by observing the position of the

unciple hadde h

the south lyne

he nas nat,

and twenty

lokke it was t

ot, or litel

at thilke ty

as my length

equal of por

eroic tale of Chanticleer and the Fox told by the nun's priest, makes even the r

eer, in al

ves walkyng

eyen to the b

igne of Tauru

and oon, and

nde, and by no

e, and crew with

sayde, 'is clo

and oon, and mo

in Taurus, and we are told elsewhere that he knew each ascension of the equinoctial and c

as his crowing

okke, or an

ew he ech as

noxial in t

ees fiftene w

hat it mighte nat

the sun more often than any other time of the day. In the Legend of Good Women he speak

nne out of the so

s westward moti

t hit is eve,

the sonne ginn

s completed his "ark divine" and may no longer remain on the horizon,[7

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 litera

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

yonge

his halfe cour

Chaucer does not fail to mention

moder is of

ures, blewe, and

yn, that wint

wme is fletin

oth his brigh

whyte Bole,

on Mayes day the

oetry. The poet makes a general reference to the fact in a passage of exquisite beauty from Troilus and Criseyde w

essed Phebus h

alle with h

olte, and Ze

in the tendre

sone of Ecu

hir first, for

e departe shold

ts effect on the seasons in the Frankeleyns Tale, because here Chaucer uses the word 'declination' and states

God and

nte, herbe, t

after thy d

m his tyme a

e chaungeth low

Chaucer refers to the sun's declina

d, and hewed l

is hote d

rned gold with

apricorn ado

n ful pale, I d

declination in Cancer, about June 21) he shines as burnished gold, but when he reaches Capricornus, his greatest sou

The

ar 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 orizon

far as appealing to his sense of beauty was concerned, for we find in his poetry no descriptions of her appearance

l, upon

mone up-reysed

ne un-to her r

a the shene."[86] In comparing the sun with the other heavenly bodies the poe

swere, with

e someres

lerer, and h

lanete, (i

or the ste

e worlde,

m alle of bea

elsewhere said to be like small c

as (is) the

alle the st

ndels, as we

to the signs of the zodiac[89] and, as in the case of the sun, usually with the purpo

t, at noon, w

e hath wedde

r, was in-to

ius in hir cham

ther on he states t

ay compleet fr

e heighe mas

t this Ianu

the brighte s

ises to return to Troy within the time that it will take the

this, that cert

uster, Luci

asse out of

re, with-out

lpe me Iuno,

but-if that de

, with-outen a

o Leo, Criseyde, pressed by Diomede, is changing her mind about returning to

3] hir char-ho

of the Lyon,

] his candeles

seyde un-to h

adres faire b

. . .

nd thus big

y, the sothe

lly purpos for

phases. In the Legend of Good Women, Phillis writes to the false Demophon saying that the moon has pa

which ye in ou

ye wolde comen

mone ones

e the mone hat

y ye wente fr

s light the wo

of these references to her phases are used for the sake of comparison or illustration and give

then changed is

fame are given times of wax

at holes g

ng streigh

n yeven ec

ir disp

hem eek

exe and w

he faire w

t hem g

cribes the crescent

e with hir hor

rayer to the

rnes olde eek by

es may be seen. The phase of the 'new moon,' when the moon is in conjunction with the sun (i. e., between the

on the chaungi

the world a night

om-tyme, whan the mone, pale with hir derke hornes, approcheth the sonne, leseth hir lightes;" The moon 'shining with her full horns' means with her horns filled up as at full moon when she is in a position opposite both earth and sun so that she reflects upon

on as he shall remove all the rocks from along the coast of Brittany, and Aurelius prays to the sun, or Apollo, to help him by enlisting the aid of the moon, in accomplishing this fea

l suster, Luc

e is chief god

us have deite

sse aboven

lord, that ri

ed and lightn

e folweth yo

e see desyr

r, as she th

and riveres more

the sea's desire to follow her, Chaucer is, of course all

ed and lightned

fact that the moon deriv

r in conjunction with the sun, if the moon could only be kept in either of these positions with regard to the sun for a long enough time, so great a flood would be produced, Aurelius thinks, that the rocks would be washed awa

d Phebus, this

le, or do myn

ext at this

signe shal be

so greet a fl

e at the leest

okke in Armo

flood endure

. . .

go no faster

th your suste

rs than ye th

been evene att

laste bothe nig

, which is included in complete editions of Chaucer's works but which he almost certainly did not write,

l chaungen

lips right

is from u

e, that bit

nd hir, as

party, or

maketh her

rnes to sh

re she hath l

fully, and

he shadowe

umined age

tnesse of th

o hir ageyn h

clear that it nee

dow of the earth, can only take place when the moon is full, that is, in oppositio

wexen pale and infect by the b

he stars which are lost to sight in the bright ray

discovereth the sterres that she hadd

he P

e planet itself, but an imaginary planet, represented by a point. The real planet moved upon a smaller circle called the "epicycle" whose center was the moving point representing the imaginary planet. The deferent of each planet was supposed to be traced as a great circle upon a transparent separate crystal sphere; and all of the crystal spheres revolved once a day around an axis passing through the poles of the heavens. As the sun and moon did not show the same irregularities[108] of motion as the planets, Ptolemy supposed these two bodies to have deferents but no epicycles. Later investigators complica

e us satisfactory evidence of the extent of his knowledge, but occasional passages from his prose works again throw l

r heed she t

en sterres s

n

floures, s

elken sterr

explained, although it is not from his poetry that we can learn the fact. He uses the word 'epicycle' only once in all his works. In the Astrolabe when comparing the m

n the right or east side of the meridian, and its second altitude is less than its first, then the planet's motion is direct. If the planet is on the left or west side of the meridian, and has a smaller altitude at the second observation than at the first, then the planet's motion is retrograde. If the planet is on the east side of the meridional

peres" may have reference only to the one motion of the planets, that is, their motion concentric to the star-sphere; or it may be used to include also their epicyclic motion. Skeat interprets the expression in

fers to Venus, in the classical manner, as Hesperus when she appears as evening[115] star and as Lucifer when she is seen as the morning star: "and that the eve-sterre Hesperus, which that in the firste tyme of the night bringeth forth hir colde arysinges, cometh eft ayein hir used cours, and is pale by the morwe a

the daye

and out hir bem

ance as evening star is mentioned but

Venus folwede

rode Phebus dou

land near which Greek myth represented her as havi

wenden on h

lisful Cith

honurable an

Parlement

ou blisful la

zes and velocities of the spheres of Mercury, Venus and Mars are made the basis for most of the action of the poem. The greater the sphere or orbit of a planet, the slower is its apparent motion. Thus Mars i

entre, as faste

exte paley

ours til she

r to haste hir f

r his solitude hastens

ret compassion

in solitude

. . .

pedde hir as fa

ay, as he dide

d armour and bids Venus flee. Phebus, who in Chaucer's time was regarded as the fourth planet, can overtake Mars but not Venu

not, ne mighte

n his helm of

th his swerde;

re, as he was

o that almos

was to walke

olde with Ve

leen, lest Ph

alas! what ma

paleys of th

nde, in peril

. . .

t, wel mayst thou w

continues to follow Venus, lamenting

ut oo steyre

es, for al hi

r that is his

. .

alketh sof

that hit pite

lady bright

wyde a compas

mete yow, herte

ry's palace where he soon overtakes he

pped fo

t Venus weping

yding in hi

ance mighte h

salueth, and

th as his frend

or ride, and is here used in the sense of 'swift course.' The passage, then, simply refers to the swift motion by which in a very short time Mercury passes from Aries to a po

Knightes Tale Saturn, addressing Venus, speaks of the great distance that he traverses with h

hter Venus,'

t hath so wyde

er than wot a

other planets. In the Astrolabe[132] Chaucer explains a method of determining in what position in the heavens a conjunction of the sun and moon takes

one with hir

ve, in Cancro i

he G

Its resemblance to a road or street has been suggested in the names given to it by many peoples. Ovid called it via lactea and the Roman peasants, strada di Roma; pilgrims to Spain refer

arlement of Foules, where Africanus shows Scipio

folk shal go,

shewed him the

Fame's palace, points out to him the Galaxy and then relates the myth of Phaeton

he tho, 'cas

r, lo, th

clepeth th

whyt: and s

t Watling

was y-bren

onnes sone

e Pheton,

fader car

hors gonn

coude no

or to lepe

him now up

e saw the

in heven a

ferde, los

d lest the

rs; and t

mounte, and

he eyr and

er, lo, a

fro the cart

may have been imitating Dante who re

andoned Phaet

, as still appears,

he use made of it by some p

ustain its heat, set on fire the place through which it passed; and so these traces of the conflagration remain there. And I believe