¹ J. S. P. Tatlock, Development and Chronology of Chaucer's Works, Chaucer Soc., 1907, pp. 20 24.

² Ibid., pp. 26-33.

³ J. L. Lowes, “The Date of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde,” P. M. L. A. XXIII. 285-306. Dr. Lowes had earlier suggested the date 1383-1385 in P.M. L.A., XX. 861.

⁴ Mod. Lang. Notes, XXVI. 208 (1911).

⁵ The lines under discussion have no counterpart in Boccaccio's Filostrato, beyond a statement that the night in which Troilo first attained his desires was “oscura e nebulosa” (3.24 ). Is it possible that Chaucer's thunderstorm may have been suggested by the storm of hail and thunder which drove Dido and Aeneas to take shelter together in the fateful cave (Aen. 4 160-172)?

⁶ Other episodes of the poem are clearly placed in the calendar. Troilus sees Criseyde for the first time at the feast of Palladion in April (1. 156). Pandaras broaches the matter to Criseyde on May 3, or perhaps May 4, (2. 56), and on the next day persuades his niece to write Troilus a letter. An interval elapses, during which Troilus is alternately elated or depressed according to the tenor of Criseyde's answers to his letters (2. 1338-1354). Pandaras then devises the meeting at the house of Deiphebus, at which Criseyde promises full surrender. The time of year is not specified; but Troilus's reference to “ Aperil the laste” (3.360) shows that we are still within the first year of the story. There is again an interval in which Troilus and Criseyde occasionally see each other, and in which letters are exchanged (3. 435 510). Then follows the first night together, which, as we have seen, takes place in May or early June, presumably one year after the first wooing. The episode of Criseyde's departure for the Greek camp begins in late July, when the Sun is in the early degrees of Leo (4. 31, 32); and there have been three spring seasons since Troilus began to love her (5. 8-14). If one counts as one of these three springs the spring in which the story begins, Troilus has enjoyed the full love of Criseyde during a period of some fourteen months ; if one counts exclusively of the first spring, another year must be added. Boccaccio opens his poem in the spring (Filostrato 1. 18), but gives no further dating of his story.

⁷ More accurately the period is 19.8586 years.

⁸ Had Chaucer been curious to discover in what signs conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn occurred in the twelfth century B. C., the period assigned by the old chronologers for the Trojan War, he could have figured it out very easily with the aid of the approximately correct data available to him in such an author as Albertus Magnus. Had he made such a calculation, he would have found that these conjunctions then occurred in the “triplicity” of Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius. The more accurate data given above show that in the twelfth century B. C. they occurred in the early part of Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius.

⁹ The sign Gemini comprises the space of 60°-90°, and Cancer 90°-120° of the zodiac.

¹⁰ See below, p. 55.

¹¹ In June occurred another remarkable set of conjunctions. Saturn and Jupiter, still within 5° of one another, were overtaken by Mars, which was in conjunction with Saturn on June 14 and with Jupiter about a week later—all within the sign of Cancer. On June 12 the Sun; with Mercury very close on his heels, entered Cancer. On June 17 the Sun was in conjunction with Saturn, on June 18 (approximately )with Mercury, on June 23 with Mars, and on June 27 with Jupiter. On June 18 and 19 all five bodies were within 5° of longitude. About June 10 the crescent Moon again passed Saturn and Jupiter in the sign of Cancer. All these conjunctions of the month of June occurred too near the Sun to be visible; but the astrologers must have been busy in the spring and early summer of 1385!

¹² Rolls Series, Vol. II, p. 126. The entry appears in nearly identical language in Walsingham's Chronicon Angliae, Rolls Series, p. 364.

¹³ Rolls Series, p. 341.

¹⁴ A date in April is confirmed by Cyprian Leovitius, see below, p. 60, n.30.

¹⁶ See D.N.B. s. v. Walsingham, Thomas

¹⁶ Bohn ed., London 1852, pp. 24, 25. See also J. M. Manly, “The Date and Interpretation of Chaucer's Complaint of Mars” (Harvard Studies and Notes V.) pp. 112, 119.

¹⁷ Conjunctions in Cancer occurred in 1444, 1504, and 1563. They will not occur again in this sign til! 2239 A. D.

¹⁸ Two MSS. read his (hese), but they are certainly corrupt.

¹⁹ As a matter of fact there was no morning star in May, 1385. The only planet which rose before the sun was Mercury; and Mercury was too near the sun to be visible. The other planets were all congregated, as we have seen, on the other side of the sun.

²⁰ Oxf. Chaucer VI, 404. Cf. ibid. V, 82, 83.

²¹ The process is briefly described in Skeat's note in Oxford Chaucer V, 82, 83. If the reader is curious to pursue the subject, he may consult Henry Cornelius Agrippa, De Occulta Philosophia, Lib. II, Cap. xlviii and Lib. III, Cap. lxiv, and the treatise of Gerardus Cremonensis which is included in the 1531 edition of Agrippa.

²² Skeat happily compares the figure to a four of diamonds placed above a two of diamonds.

²³ See Skeat's note in Academy, Nov. 3, 1894, p. 352.

²⁴ The conclusion reached by Professor W. C. Curry in Mod. Lang.

Notes, XXXVIII. 94-96 that Fortuna Major “is neither more nor less than the Sun” does not seem tenable. Fortuna Major does indeed refer the geomancer to the Sun (and also to the sign Aquarius); but it is a long step from that to the assumption that it is a name for the Sun itself. Nor does such an interpretation suit the context either of Chaucer or of Dante. Professor Curry had apparently overlooked Skeat's note, which is hidden away in the Errata of the Oxf. Chaucer (VI. 404), and was consequently not aware of the parallel passage in the Purgatorio.

²⁵ The supposed time of the action of the Divine Comedy is Eastertide. In the early spring the constellation “Fortuna Major” crosses the eastern horizon some two hours before sunrise.

²⁶ B. Alberti Magni Opera Omnia, ed. Borgnet, Paris 1890, IX. 597-633. It is a pleasure to acknowledge indebtedness for this reference to Professor Lynn Thorndike's History of Magic and Experimental Science, New York, 1923 (Macmillan). The wealth of bibliographical material in this admirable book will prove invaluable to students of the Middle Ages.

²⁷ From a work entitled Opus Albumazaris de Magnis Conjunctionibus…magistri Johannis Angeli correctione, published at Augsburg in 1489 (Tract. I, Diff. II) we learn that Pisces is strongest and Cancer weakest of the three.

²⁸ Cf. Chaucer's phrase: “O influences of thise hevenes hye” (3. 618).

²⁹ Albert explains carefully what he means by a conjunction which begins in one sign and is completed in the next. It happens, “quando centra epiciclorum vel ipsi epicicli ad se accedunt prius in uno signo, et ipsi planetae conveniunt paulatim in alio” (p. 621).

³⁰ The sixteenth century German astronomer and astrologer, Cyprian Leovitius, in his De Conjunctionibus Magnis Insignioribus Superiorum Planetarum, written in 1564, traces through the centuries the successive conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn, and recounts the dire events which followed on each. Of the conjunction of 1385 he says (ed. London, 1573, fol. C iij verso): “Rursus in extremitate Trigoni Aerei, accidit Coniunctio magna superiorum planetarum anno Domini 1385 mense Aprile, in grad. 27 Geminorum. Et paulo post in Iunio, Mars coniungebatur Saturno, deinde statim Ioui, constitutis in Cancro, quibus etiam Sol & Mercurius accedebant idem signum permeantes.” He attributes to this conjunction various battles and other political disturbances, but says nothing of any meteorological effects. He regards the conjunction of 1405 as initiating the “watery triplicity.”

³¹ Rolls Series, No. 41, IX. 78. Malverne does not mention the conjunction.

³² Historia Anglicana, Rolls Series, II. 130.

³³ In 3. 626 the earliest version of the text reads: “That madyn such a reyne fro hevyn avale”—a quite unimportant variation of reading.

³⁴ One can hardly insist that the lines were necessarily written later than May 14, when the two planets had entered Cancer, or April 13, when the exact conjunction took place. On March 21, Saturn and Jupiter were within a few degrees of one another in the sign of Gemini. Then, or even two or three months earlier, any watcher of the skies must have been aware that the conjunction was impending. It seems unlikely, though, that Chaucer should have figured out many months before the fact the relatively unimportant detail, that at just the time when the planets entered Cancer they were accompanied by the pale crescent Moon. If one is inclined to regard the thunder-storm of July 14 as one of the elements contributing to the suggestion of the Chaucerian passage, the date must be advanced to midsummer.

* Professor Russell, who is head of the department of Astronomy at Princeton, is responsible for the purely astronomical elements of this article. Professor Root is sponsor for the astrology and for the literary history.