June 28. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



515 



ItLtJSTEATIONS OF CHAUCEE, NO. IX. 



The Astronomical Evidence of the True Date of the 

 Canterbury Pilgrimage. 



As a conclusion to my investigation of this sub- 

 ject, 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 may 

 be open to challenge, and that each reader may 

 compare the actual phenomena, rigidly ascertained 

 with all the helps that modern science aftbrds, 

 with the several approximations arrived at by 

 Chaucer. And when it is recollected that some at 

 least of the facts recorded by him must have been 

 theoretical — incapable of the test of actual obser- 

 vation — it must be admitted that his near ap- 

 proach to truth is remarkable : not the less so 

 that his ideas on some points were certainly erro- 

 neous ; as, for example, his adoption, in the Trea- 

 tise on the Astrolabe^ of Ptolemy's determination 

 of the 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 Chau- 

 cer was Saturday the 18th of April, 1388, the 

 following particulars of that day are those which 

 have reference to his description : — 



H. Jf. 



p. ■ f Of the Sun at noon • 2 . 17-2 



Kight J Of the Moon at 4 p.m. 12. 5-7 

 Ascension (_ of the star (S VirginLs) 12 . 25 



^ , rOf the Sun at noon - 1.S •47-5 



Worth J Of the Moon at 4 p. ni. 4. 49 8 



Declination ^ ^j.^,^^ ^^^_. ^g vi.g;,,;,) g . 43-3 



o / 



Altitude 



Aisimuth 



Apparent 

 Time 



'Of the Sun at 10 a. m. 

 Of the Sun at 4 p. m. 

 Of the IMoon at 4 p. m. 

 Of the star at 4 p. m. 

 Of the Sun at rising - 



Of the Sun at half Azi- 

 muth - - - 



Of the Sun at altitude 

 4.5° 



Of the Sun at altitude 

 29° - - - 



Of apparent entrance 

 of ISIoon's centre in- 

 to Libra 



45 



29 



4 



4 



112 



H. 



15 

 15 

 53 

 20 

 30 



17 a. m. 



58 a. m. 



p.m. 



3 . 45 p. m. 



It will be seen that, if the place here assigned 

 to the moon be correct, Chaucer could not have 

 described it more .appropriately than by the phrase 

 "In mene Libra:" providing (of which there can 

 be little doubt) that he used tliose words as syno- 

 nymous with " iu hedde of Libra." " lledde of 



Libra," "hedde of Aries," are expressions con- 

 stantly used by him to describe the equinoctial 

 points ; and the analogy that exists between 

 "head," in the sense head-land or promontory, 

 as, for example, " Orme's Head," " Holyhead," 

 " Lizard Head," and the like ; and " menez " in 

 the same sense, need not be further insisted upon. 

 Evidence fully sufficient to justify a much less 

 obvious inference has been already produced, and 

 I am enabled to strengthen it still further by the 

 following reference, for which I am indebted to a 

 private communication from H. B. C. 



" IMenez, s. m. Grande masse de terre, ou de roclie, 



fort elevee au-dessus du sol de la terre. 

 " Mean, ou Maen, s. m. Pierre, corps dur et sollde 



qui se forme dans la terre. 

 " (En Treguier et Cornoualles), mene. 



(Gonidec, Dictionnaire Cdto-Breton. 

 Angouleme, 1821.) 



This last reference is doubly valuable, in re- 

 ferring the word mene to the very neighbourhood 

 of the scene of Chaucer's " Frankleine's Tale," and 

 in dispensing with the terminal letter z, thereby 

 giving us the verhum ipsissimum used by Chaucer. 



I must not be understood as entertaining the 

 opinion that Chaucer's knowledge of astronomy — 

 although undoubtedly great, considering the age 

 in which he lived and the nature of his pursuits — • 

 would have enabled him to determine the moon's 

 true place, with such correctness, wholly from 

 theory ; on the contrary, I look upon it as more 

 probably the result of real observation at the time 

 named, and, as such, adding another link to the 

 chain of presumptive evidence that renders it more 

 probable that Chaucer wrote the prologues to his 

 Canterbury Tales more as a narration (jvith some 

 embellishments) of events that really took place, 

 than that they were altogether the work of his 

 imagination. A. E. B. 



Leeds, June, 1851. 



CURIOUS EPIGRAMS ON OLIVER CROMWELL. 



Looking carefully over a curious copy of the Fla- 

 gellmn, or the Life and Death, Birth and Buriall of 

 O. Cromivell, the lute Usurper, printed for Randal 

 Taylor, 1672, I found on the back of the title the 

 following epigrams, written in a handwriting .and 

 ink corresponding to the date of the book (which, by 

 the way, is a late edition of the " little brown lying 

 book," by Heath, which Carlyle notices) : as they 

 are curious an<] worth preserving, .and I believe 

 not to be met with elsewhere, I presume they may 

 be of some interest to your readers. The book is 

 also full of MS. nnarginal notes and remarks, 

 evidently by some red-hot royalist, which are also 

 curious in themselves, and with a selection of 

 which I may some day trouble you should you 

 wish it. 



