Chaucer's Works, Volume 3 — The House of Fame; The Legend of Good Women; The Treatise on the Astrolabe; The Sources of the Canterbury Tales

by Geoffrey Chaucer

[57]. Possibly Chaucer left the sentence incomplete. The words 'thou shalt do well enough' may easily have been added by another hand to bring the sentence to an apparent, though not wholly satisfactory, conclusion. The colophon is written (in a later hand) in MS. A. at the bottom of the page, a part of which, after the words 'howre after howre,' is left blank.

41-43. I have mended the text as well as I could by inserting words, and adopting different readings. Nearly all the emendations rest on authority; see the Critical Notes. The text is not a good one, but I do not see why these sections may not have been written by Chaucer. For a definition of the terms 'Umbra Extensa' and 'Umbra Versa' see sections 5 and 6 of the Practica Chilindri of John Hoveden, published by the Chaucer Society. The umbra extensa or recta is the shadow cast on a plain by any perfectly upright object; but the restriction is commonly introduced, that the altitude of the sun shall exceed 45º. The umbra versa is the shadow cast perpendicularly downwards along a wall by a style which projects from the wall at right angles to it; the restriction is commonly introduced, that the sun's altitude shall be less than 45°. The umbra versa is the one which appeared on the 'chylindre'; hence John de Hoveden explains how to calculate the altitude of an object by it.

44. This article and the next may possibly be Chaucer's. It is well known that he speaks of 'collect' and 'expans yeres' and 'rotes' in the Frankeleines Tale; Cant. Ta., F 1275, 6, the note upon which in the glossary to Urry's Chaucer may be found also in Tyrwhitt's Glossary, s.v. Expans; but it is worth while to repeat it here. 'In this and the following verses, the Poet describes the Alphonsine Astronomical Tables by the several parts of them, wherein some technical terms occur, which were used by the old astronomers, and continued by the compilers of those tables. Collect years are certain sums of years, with the motions of the heavenly bodies corresponding to them, as of 20, 40, 60, &c., disposed into tables; and Expans years are the single years, with the motions of the heavenly bodies answering to them, beginning at 1, and continued on to the smallest Collect sum, as 20. A Root, or Radix, is any certain time taken at pleasure, from which, as an era, the celestial motions are to be computed. By 'proporcionels convenientes' [C. T., F 1278] are meant the Tables of Proportional parts.' To which Moxon adds, from Chamber's Encyclopædia, with reference to C. T., F 1277, that 'Argument in astronomy is an arc whereby we seek another unknown arc proportional to [or rather, dependent upon] the first.'

Tables of mean motions of the Sun are given in Ptolemy's Almagest, lib. iii. c. 2; of the Moon, lib. iv. c. 3; of the Planets, lib. viii. c. 3; also in MS. Ii. 3. 3, fol. 88b, &c.

41a-42b. The fact that these articles are mere repetitions of sections 41-43 is almost conclusive against their genuineness. I do not suppose that sect 46 (at p. [229]) is Chaucer's either, but it is added for the sake of completeness.

THE CANTERBURY TALES.

SOURCES OF THE CANTERBURY TALES.

CONTENTS.

§ [1]. The series of Tales. § [2]. The Prologues to Piers the Plowman and to the Canterbury Tales compared. § [3]. Date of the Tales; from 1386 onwards. § [4]. Number of the Tales. § [5]. Old and new material. § [6]. Days of the month for the various Groups. § [7]. Arrangement of the Groups. § [8]. Group A nearly finished. § [9]. The Tale of Gamelyn. § [10]. The Plowman's Tale. § [11]. Early and late Tales. § [12]. The test of rhythm. § [13]. Origin of the heroic couplet. § [14]. Modification of Chaucer's original scheme. § [15]. The Tale of Beryn. § [16]. Lydgate's Storie of Thebes. § [17]. Group A. The Prologue. § [18]. The Knightes Tale: Palamon and Arcite. § [19]. Boccaccio's Teseide. § [20]. Tyrwhitt's analysis of the Teseide. § [21]. Resemblances to Troilus. § [22]. Later versions of the Knightes Tale. § [23]. The Miller's Prologue. § [24]. The Milleres Tale. § [25]. The Reeve's Prologue. § [26]. The Reves Tale. § [27]. The Cook's Prologue. § [28]. The Cokes Tale. §§ [29]-[34]. The Tale of Gamelyn. § [35]. Group B. The Words of the Host to the Company. § [36]. The Man of Law's Prologue. § [37]. The Man of Lawes Tale. § [38]. The same Tale, as told by Gower. § [39]. The Shipman's Prologue. § [40]. The Shipmannes Tale. § [41]. The Prioress's Prologue. § [42]. The Prioresses Tale. § [43]. Prologue to Sir Thopas. § [44]. Sir Thopas. § [45]. Prologue to Melibeus. § [46]. The Tale of Melibeus. § [47]. The Monk's Prologue. § [48]. The Monkes Tale. § [49]. The Prologue of the Nonne Preestes Tale. § [50]. The Nonne Preestes Tale. § [51]. Epilogue to the Nonne Preestes Tale. § [52]. Group C. The Spurious Prologues to the Phisiciens Tale. § [53]. The Phisiciens Tale. § [54]. Words of the Host to the Phisicien and the Pardoner. § [55]. Prologue of the Pardoneres Tale. § [56]. The Pardoneres Tale. § [57]. Group D. The Wife of Bath's Prologue. § [58]. The Wyf of Bathes Tale. § [59]. The Friar's Prologue. § [60]. The Freres Tale. § [61]. The Somnour's Prologue. § [62]. The Somnours Tale. § [63]. Group E. The Clerk's Prologue. § [64]. The Clerkes Tale. § [65]. The Merchant's Prologue. § [66]. The Marchantes Tale. § [67]. Group F. The Squire's Prologue. § [68]. The Squieres Tale. § [69]. Words of the Frankeleyn. § [70]. The Franklin's Prologue. § [71]. The Frankeleyns Tale. § [72]. Group G. The Seconde Nonnes Tale. § [73]. The Canon's Yeoman's Prologue and Tale. § [74]. Group H. The Manciple's Prologue. § [75]. The Manciples Tale. § [76]. Group I. The Parson's Prologue. § [77]. The Persones Tale.

ACCOUNT OF THE SOURCES OF THE CANTERBURY TALES.