420 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 83. 



the more convinced I felt that the whole line had 

 been corrupted. 



In advocatinsf the restoration of the reading 

 which I have already suggested as the original 

 meaning of Chaucer, I shall begin by establishing 

 the prohahiliti/ 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 phe- 

 nomena frequently resorted to in ancient astro- 

 nomy. 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 noted, that in alluding to the Zodiac, 

 he always refers to the signs, never to the constel- 

 lations — 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 Franke- 

 leine's Tale — 



" He knew ful wel how fer Alnath was shove 

 From the hed of thilke fixe Aries above :" 



— by the hed of Aries, Chaucer did not mean the 

 08 frontis of the Ram, whereon Alnath still shines 

 conspicuously, but the equinoctial point, from 

 which Alnath was shove by the extent of a whole 

 sign. _ 



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 beste real, 

 The gentle Leon, with his Aldrt/an." 



Which means that the sign Leo was then in the 

 horizon — the precise degree being marked by the 

 coincident rising of the star Aldryan. 



Speght's explanation of " Aldryan," in which he 

 has been eopieti 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 authority, if he had any, miglit 

 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 " Aldryan " 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 Ciiaucer'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 "ye< 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 Cambuscan 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 pre- 

 viously. Hence the sun was in thrue degrees of 

 Aries — confirmed in Canace's expedition on the 

 following 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 

 inunediately succeeding noon (or while the " 1st 

 House" of the sim was passing the meridian), and 

 these two hours may, so near the equinox, be 

 taken as ordinary hours. Thei-efore, when "Phebus 

 hath left the angle meridional," 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 equi- 

 noctial. The ascending point of the ecliptic would 

 consequently be twenty degrees in Leo, or within 

 less than a degree of the actual j)lace of the star 

 Regulus, 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, I 

 shall never believe that Chaucer would refer to 

 an inferior star when the grreat "Stella Re<;ia" 

 Itself was m so remarkable a position for his 

 purpose — assuming always, as a matter of course, 

 that he referred his jjlienomena, not to the country 

 or age wherein he laid the action of his tale, but 

 to liis own. 



Tills, then, is the precedent by which I support 

 the similar, and ratlier startling interpretation I 

 propose of these obscure words " In mena Libra 

 alway." 



There are two twin stars, of the same magni- 

 tude, and not far apart, each of which bears the 

 Arabic title of Min al auwa ; one (/8 Virginis) in 

 the sign Virgo — the other (5 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 auwil either from that circumstance, or to dis- 

 tinguish it from its namesake in Virgo. 



Now on the 18th of April this Libra Min al 

 auwa would rise in the neighbourhood of Canter- 

 bury at about half-pnst 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, per- 

 haps in the whole of Chaucer's lifetime, in which 



