—by the hed of Aries, Chaucer did not mean the os frontis of the Ram, whereon Alnath still shines conspicuously, but the equinoctial point, from which Alnath was shove by the extent of a whole sign.
This being premised, I return to the indication of a point in the ecliptic by the coincident rising of a star; and I contend that such was plainly Chaucer's intention in those lines of the Squire's Tale wherein King Cambuscan is described as rising from the feast:—
"Phebus hath left the angle meridional,
And yet ascending was the beste real,
The gentle Leon, with his Aldryan."
Which means that the sign Leo was then in the horizon—the precise degree being marked by the coincident rising of the star Aldryan.
Speght's explanation of "Aldryan," in which he has been copied by Urry and Tyrwhitt, is—"a star in the neck of the Lion." What particular star he may have meant by this, does not appear; nor am I at present within reach of probable sources wherein his authority, if he had any, might be searched for and examined; but I have learned to feel such confidence in Chaucer's significance of description, that I have no hesitation in assuming, until authority for a contrary inference shall be produced, that by the star "Aldryan" he meant REGULUS, not the neck, but the heart, of the Lion—
1st. Because it is the most remarkable star in the sign Leo.
2nd. Because it was, in Chaucer's time, as it now is, nearly upon the line of the ecliptic.
3rd. Because its situation in longitude, about two-thirds in the sign Leo, just tallies with Chaucer's expression "yet ascending,"—that is, one-third of the sign was still below the horizon.