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

the smallere the betere. Set thy pin by a plom-rewle evene

upright; and let this pin be no lengere than a quarter of the

diametre of thy compas, [fro the centre]. And waite bisily, aboute

10 or 11 of the clokke and whan the sonne shyneth, whan the

10

shadwe of the pin entreth [any-thing] with-in the cercle of thy plate

an heer-mele, and mark ther a prikke with inke. Abyde thanne

stille waiting on the sonne after 1 of the clokke, til that the

schadwe of the wyr or of the pin passe ony-thing out of the cercle

of the compas, be it never so lyte; and set ther a-nother prikke