Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History BookF 1275-6. [49] Not wishing to enforce this view upon every reader, and in order to save trouble in reference, I have numbered these sections 44 and 45. But if they belong, as I suppose, to Part iv., they should have been named 'Part iv. Canon 1,' and 'Part iv. Canon 2' respectively. [50] 'A smal instrument portatif aboute'; Prol. l. 52 (p. 177). [51] 'The almikanteras in thyn Astrolabie been compouned by two and two.' Part ii. sect. 5, l. 1. [52] Mr. Bradshaw gave me the hint; I afterwards found this remark by Selden, in his Preface to Drayton's Polyolbion: 'his [Chaucer's] Treatise of the Astrolabe, which I dare swear was chiefly learned out of Messahalah.' [53] Macha-allah or Messahala, an Arabian astronomer, by religion a Jew, flourished towards the end of the eighth century. Latin translations of four of his works (_not_ including the Treatise on the Astrolabe) have been printed, and were published at Nuremberg in 1549. A list of his works is given in Casiri (Bibl. Arab.-hisp. tom. 1er. pag. 434), and in the Biographie Universelle. [54] This splendid MS., of the _thirteenth_ century, is dated 1276, and illustrated with beautifully executed coloured diagrams. It is a storehouse of information about the Astrolabe, and I have often consulted it. [55] It is printed in full in my edition of Chaucer's Astrolabe, published for the Early Eng. Text Society in 1872, at pp. 88-104. [56] In my edition of the 'Astrolabe' for the Early Eng. Text Society (1872), I have inserted a large number of examples of strange blunders in the printed editions. [57] There are two astrolabes in Merton College, besides a plate exhibiting astronomical tables. These are all described in a paper entitled 'Remarks on an Astrolabe belonging to F. A. Hyett, Esq.,' written by my friend Robert Taylor, M.A., and printed in the Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archæological Society, vol. xii. Mr. Taylor further describes two Astrolabes in the British Museum. [58] This word has several senses in Chaucer. It means (1) the discs of an astrolabe; (2) a set of tablets; (3) astronomical tables; and (4) the game of 'tables.' [59] '_Pertuis_: m. A hole. _Pertuis de l'Araigne_, the centre of an Astrolabe; the hole wherein all the tables thereof are, by a pin or naile, joined together.'--Cotgrave's French Dictionary. [60] As far as I can ascertain. [61] Here insert--[they mene]--which CP omit. [62] The words from _euene_ to _climat_ are added at the bottom of the page in the MS. [63] Really _ten_; for _rout-e_ is dissyllabic. [64] _Misprinted_ wo; cf. _two_, l. 2093. [65] Imitated from Parl. of Foules, 693. [66] Cf. Book Duch. 1332. [67] From Parl. of Foules, 696. [68] There _are_ such accounts; but they are probably copied from Chaucer, who seems to have invented this transformation himself. See Notes and Queries, 7 Ser. vi. 186, 309, 372. [69] Not twentieth; for Legend IV contains two heroines. [70] The MS. has _shete_, an obvious error for _swete_, the alliteration being on _sw_. But the editors print _shene_. [71] Not 'formator,' as in Bell's note; a contraction for 'um' is added. [72] This is doubtless quoted from some gloss upon Ptolemy, not from the work itself. The reference is right, for the 'motus celi' are discussed in the Almagest, lib. i. c. 8. [73] This star ([alpha] Arietis) was on the supposed horn of the Ram, and hence its name; since _El-nâtih_ signifies 'the butter,' and 'El-nath' is 'butting' or 'pushing.' See Ideler, Die Bedeutung der Sternnamen, p. 135. [74] Well expressed by Dante, Parad, xxx. 38-- 'Noi semo usciti fuore Del maggior _corpo_ al ciel ch'é pura luce.' Dante, like Chaucer, makes the eighth sphere that of fixed stars, and the ninth the _primum mobile_ or swiftest heaven (_ciel velocissimo_); Parad, xxvii. 99. [75] Here follows a table, shewing that, in _Aries_, the value of _Saturn_ is 5, of _Jupiter_ 5, &c.; with the values of the planets in all the other signs. The value 5, of Saturn, is obtained by adding a _triplicite_ (value 3) to a _terme_ (value 2), these being the 'witnesses' of Saturne in Aries; and so on throughout. [76] So on p. 12 of another tract (D) in the same MS., we find-- '_Aries calidu_m _& sucu_m; _bonu_m. Nill capiti noceas, Aries cum lu_n_a refulget, De vena minuas & balnea tuti_us_ intres, Non tangas Aures, nec barbam radere debes.' Each of the signs is described in similar triplets, from the grammar of which I conclude that _Aries_ is here put for _in Ariete_, in the first hexameter. [77] 1385 is also the date of the latest allusion in the Canterbury Tales; see note to B 3589. [78] King John of France travelled from Canterbury to Dover (16 miles) on Sunday, July 5, 1360; but he heard mass in the cathedral before starting.--Temporary Pref. to the Six-text Edition, p. 131. [79] Tyrwhitt says 'at least one Tale'; but see Prol. 792. The fact is that Chaucer himself tacitly modified his plan afterwards, and altered the _two_ tales to _one_; see the Parson's Prologue, I 16-29. [80] Warton wrongly adds, or the Host. But the Host was the umpire, not a tale-teller himself. [81] The term 'link,' and such terms as 'head-link,' 'end-link,' and the like, are to be found in the Six-text edition published by the Chaucer Society, whence I have copied them. [82] In 1749, the coach from Edinburgh to Glasgow, forty-four miles, took two days for the journey. Twenty miles a day was fast. We may allow the pilgrims about fifteen miles a day. See Chambers' Book of Days, ii. 228. Once more, it is absurd to suppose Chaucer capable of proposing to crowd about sixty tales or so into a single day! A day of ten hours would, with interruptions, leave each speaker less than ten minutes apiece. See also Temporary Pref. to the Six-text, p. 119, shewing that Queen Isabella, in 1358, arrived at Canterbury from London in three or four days; stopping at Dartford, Rochester, and Ospringe. From the same, p. 129, we find that King John of France went from London to Eltham, June 30, 1360 (Tuesday); to Dartford (Wednesday); to Rochester (Thursday); to Ospringe (Friday); and to Canterbury (Saturday). Cf. Notes and Queries, 8th S. i. 474, 522. [83] By 'B 5' I mean Group B, l. 5, as numbered in the Chaucer Society's Six-text edition; the arrangement of which I have adopted throughout. [84] See note to l. 8 of the Prologue. [85] Except as regards convenience of reference. It was Dr. Furnivall who placed C more forward; nothing is gained by it, and it complicates references. I heartily wish this had never been done. [86] Tyrwhitt suggests the same thing, in a note to his Introductory Discourse. [87] In the Proem, the Nun calls herself an 'unworthy _son_ of Eve'; G 62. [88] See the extracts from Chaucer's Book of the Duchess as compared with some from Machault's Remède de Fortune in Furnivall's Trial Forewords, p. 47, where |