206 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Septembeb 1, 1898. 



the modern company — nearer nine-and-twenty thousand 

 than nine-and-twenty — brought any astronomy into their 

 hoHday talk, or, if perchance a little science did leak out 

 in conversation here and there, that it was anything but 

 vague, uncertain, and at second-hand. 



In spite of Board schools and University Extension 

 lectures, we are not in all things the unquestionable 

 superiors of our forefathers in the days of the Plantagenets. 

 The men who deal in Chaucer's trade to-day — the writers 

 of short stories — have multiplied as abundantly as our 

 Bank Holiday makers have increased over the Canterbury 

 pilgrims ; but astronomy is carefully avoided by them 

 unless perchance the hero has to be delivered from a tight 

 corner by a total solar eclipse lasting an hour and a half, 

 or the heroine to be treated to a sight of Venus between 

 the horns of the crescent moon. 



Chaucer's astronomy is of course of quite a different 

 kind from any that would come into popular tales or con- 

 versation to-day. He knows nothing whatsoever of the 

 spots on the sun, of Jupiter's belts, or Saturn's ring. His 

 mind is vexed by no controversies as to whether the 

 " gemination " of the canals of Mars is a real phenomenon, 

 or a mere function of imperfect focussing, and the nebular 

 hypothesis, either in its gaseous or " meteoritic " phase, 

 passes him by untouched. 



Still, astronomy, real astronomy, enters into his verse ; 

 the astronomy of the day and year ; it is familiar and 

 actual both to the poet and to his characters. 



Never did any poem open with a fuller, fresher breath 

 of spring than the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales : 



"Wbanne that April with liis slioiirrs sote 

 The droughte of March hath pureed to the rote, 

 And bathed every veine iu swiche licour, 

 Of whiche vertue engendred is the flour; 

 Whan Zephirus eke with his sote brethe 

 Enspired hath in every holt and hethe 

 The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne 

 Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne. 

 And smale foules maken melodic." 



It is Chaucer's habit to give his notes of time, 

 sometimes by reference to the calendar, sometimes, 

 as in the present passage, by the position of the 

 heavenly bodies, the sun in particular. The eighth line in 

 the above quotation has given rise to some unnecessary 

 discussion. For in Chaucer's day the sun entered the 

 sign Aries — not the constellation — about March 12th. 

 By the first of April, therefore, the sun would have passed 

 through more than half of the sign of the Ram. But the 

 first two lines seem to point to April being far advanced, 

 since its " sweet showers " have " pierced to the root," the 

 " drought of March." Later on Chaucer expressly tells 

 us in the Prologue to the " Man of Lawe's Tale," that it 

 was then the 28th of April when the pilgrimage had 

 nearly come to its close. We may therefore suppose that 

 it is quite the middle of April when the poem opens, and 

 that by the sun's " half course " in the Ram is meant the 

 latter half of the sign, the half he passed through in the 

 first fortnight of April, not the former half, which he 

 passed in the last fortnight of March. 



For it is clear from other passages that Chaucer quite 

 understood when the sun entered Aries, for in the " Squier's 

 Tale " we are told that Cambuscan — 



" He let the feste of his natiritee 



Don crien, thurglioiit San-a, his citee, 



The last Idus of March, after the yere. 

 Phebus the sonne ful jolif was and clore, 

 For he was nigh his exaltation 

 In Martes face, and in his mansion 

 In Aries, the eolerike hote signe : 

 Ful lusty was the wether and benigne, 

 For which the foules again the sonne shen-. 



What for the seson, and the yonge grene, 

 Ful loude Bongen hir affectiona : 

 Hem semed ban getten hem prolections 

 Again the swerd of winter kene iind cold." 



The Ides of March fell on the 15th. For the following 

 day we have a further note of time. The sun has entered 

 Aries four degrees, that is four days. 



•' I'p riseth freshe Canace herselve. 

 As rody and bright, as the yonge sonne. 

 That in the Ram is foure degrees yronne 

 No higher was he, whan she redy wae, 

 And forth she walketh esily a pas, 

 Arrayed after the lusty seson sote." 



So again in the " Nonne Preste's Tale " we have a day in 

 May marked out for us in two ways, first by the calendar, 

 next by the position of the sun in Taurus — 



" Whan tliat the month in wliich the world began 

 That highte March, whan God first maked man, 

 Was complete, and ypassed were also, 

 Sithen March ended, thrittv dayes and two. 



• » ■» • 



Cast up his eyen to the bright sonne. 

 That in the signe of Taurus had yronne 

 Twenty degrees and on. and somewhat more : 

 He knew by kind, and by non other lore, 

 J hat it was prime, and crew with blisful Steven, 

 J he Sonne, he sayd, is clomben up on heven 

 Twenty degrees and on, and more ywis. 

 Madame Pertelote, my worldes blis, 

 Uerkcneth thise blisful briddes how they sing. 

 And see the freshe lloures how they spring." 



Chaucer here evidently means that the sun entered 

 Taurus about April 11th ; hence it would enter Aries March 

 12th ; but the exact day would vary of course with the 

 position of the year with regard to leap year. 



The knowledge of the sun's longitude day by day 

 throughout the year strikes us as strange and imusual. 

 But the above quotations, especially from a work so 

 entirely natural and descriptive as the " Canterbury Tales," 

 shows us how very general was the knowledge at the time, 

 and is a clear indication that the sun's movements were 

 both followed observationaUy with considerable diligence, 

 and were published freely up and down the country in 

 works to which many had access. Probably the great 

 popularity of the Universities at the time, the attendance 

 at which was, relatively to the entire population, some- 

 thing like fifty times what it is at present, had much to do 

 with the wide diffusion of knowledge of this kind. 



Another relation in which astronomy is introduced is a 

 more practical one. The need to be able to tell the time 

 of day has caused men in countries, and in times when 

 clocks and watches are unknown or little used, to pay 

 much more attention to the daily movements of the sun 

 than we do. He stiU, of course, remains our great time- 

 keeper ; but there are so few who now resort to him 

 directly for the information that his service in this con- 

 nection is quite forgotten by the great majority. 



It was not so in Chaucer's day. Then the sun dial, or, 

 failing that, a rough estimation of the sun's altitude, was 

 the means for telling the hour. In the Prologue to the 

 "Persone's Tale, " Chaucer gives us the method by which 

 he concluded that it was four o'clock, and a little calculation 

 shows that he was sufficiently correct. 



" By that the Manciple hail his tale ended. 

 The Sonne fro the south line* was descended 

 So lowe, that it ne was not to my sight 

 Degrees nine and twenty as of hight. 

 Fo\ire of the clok it was tho. as I guess, 

 For enleven foot, a litel more or lesse, 

 My shadow .was at thilke time, as there 

 Of swiche feet as my lengthe parted were 

 In six feet equal of proportion." 



• The meridian, that is to say. 



