It is the more unfortunate that we should not be certain what it was that Chaucer really did write, inasmuch as he probably intended to present, in these lines, some means of identifying the year, similar to those he had previously given with respect to the day.
When Tyrwhitt, therefore, remarks, "In what year this happened Chaucer does not inform us"—he was not astronomer enough to know that if Chaucer had meant to leave, in these lines, a record of the moon's place on the day of the journey, he could not have chosen a more certain method of informing us in what year it occurred.
But as the present illustration has already extended far enough for the limits of a single number of "Notes and Queries," I shall defer the
investigation of this last and greatest difficulty to my next communication.
A. E. B.
Leeds, April 29.
DUTCH FOLK-LORE.
1. A baby laughing in its dreams is conversing with the angels.
2. Rocking the cradle when the babe is not in it, is considered injurious to the infant, and a prognostic of its speedy death.