tion with the Weltum- Spanner (' Stretcher- The 

 round-the- World ') or Ocean-Stream. Milky 



I do not know when the Milky Way as a 

 designation first came into common English 

 use. Possibly there is no prior mention to 

 that in Chaucer's Hous of Fame : 



" Se yonder, lo, the Galaxyc, 



Which men clepeth the Milky IVey" 



— an allusion which certainly points to already 

 familiar usage. It is now, I fancy, almost 

 universal. Perhaps the old translator Eden 

 was among the first to popularise it, with his 

 rendering of the Latin Via Lactis and Via 

 Lactea as ' the Mylke way ' and ' Mylke whyte 

 way.' There has been no need to derive the 

 term from the Italian Via lattea or the French 

 Voie lactee, since Eden's use and Chaucer's 

 preceded that of any French poet or romancist. 

 Certainly the phrase became part of our 

 literature after it passed golden from the mint 

 of Milton (paraphrasing Ovid) — 



" Broad and ample road whose dust is gold, 

 And pavement stars, as stars to thee appear 

 Seen in the Galaxy, that milky way 

 Which nightly as a circling zone thou seest 

 Powdered with stars. . . ." 



It is rarely now alluded to as the Galaxy, and 



225 Q 



