PART II

. § 1. Rubric, _hir cours_. The gender of the sun was feminine in

Anglo-Saxon, and that of the moon masculine; but in Chaucer's time, the gender was very variable, owing to the influence of Latin and French.

§ 3. Between sections 2 and 3, a section is inserted in the late copies, which merely repeats section 1, and is clearly spurious. It does not appear at all in the best MSS.; though it is found in the black-letter editions. I quote it here from MS. L.

'TO KNOWE THE DEGRE OF THYN SONNE IN THYN ZODIAK BY THE DAYS IN THE BAKSYDE OFF THE ASTROLABYE.

'[T]hanne iff þou wylte wete thatt / rekyn & knowe / qwych is the day off the monyth thatt thow arte yn_n_e, & ley thy rewle of thy astrolabye, that is to sey, the allydatha, vpon þe day in the kalendr_e_ off the Astrolabye, & he schall schewe the thy degree of the sonne.'

26, 7. After 'assendent,' the following additional paragraph occurs in MS. Bodley 619; fol. 21. It is worthy of notice, because the original of it appears in Messahala's treatise, with the title 'De noticia stellarum incognitarum positarum in astrolabio.' The paragraph runs thus:--

'Nota. þat by þis conclusio_n_ þou may knowe also where ben at þat same tyme all_e_ oþir sterres fixed þ_a_t ben sette in thin Astrelabie, and in what place of þe firmament; And also her arising in thy orizonte, and how longe þ_a_t thei wol ben aboue þe erthe wiþ þe Arke of þe nyght / And loke eu_er_more hov many degrees þou fynde eny sterre at þat tyme sitting vpon þin Almycant_er_as, and vp-on as many degrees sette þou þe reule vpon þe altitude in þe border_e_; And by the mediaciou_n_ of þy eye through þe .2. smale holes shalt thou se þe same sterre by the same altitude aforseid, And so by this conclusiou_n_ may þou redely knowe whiche is oo sterre from a-noþ_er_ in the firmament / for as many as ben in the Astrelabie. For by þ_a_t same altitude shal thou se that same sterre, & non othir / for þ_er_e ne woll_e_ non othir altitude accorde þerto.'

30. _Alhabor_; i.e. Sirius or the Dog-star, as is evident from the fact of its being represented by a dog's head on the Astrolabe; see also the table of stars marked on the Astrolabe (in MS. Camb. Univ. Lib. li. 3. 3, fol. 70, back), which gives the declination 15° S, the latitude 39° S, and places the star in Cancer. It is also plainly described in the same table as being 'in ore canis', so that it is difficult to resist the conclusion of the identity of Alhabor and Sirius. Mr. Brae, following later copies that have different readings of the numbers employed, identifies Alhabor with Rigel or [beta] Orionis. This is impossible, from the fact that Rigel and Alhabor _both_ occur in the diagrams and tables; see, for instance, Fig. 2. It is true that Rigel was sometimes called _Algebar_, but _Alhabor_ stands rather for the Arabic _Al-'ab[=u]r_. The Arabic name for the constellation Canis Major was _Al-kalb al-akbar_, 'greater dog,' as distinguished from _Al-kalb al-asghar_, or 'lesser dog'; and the star [alpha] Canis Majoris was called _Al-shi'ra al-'ab[=u]r_, the former of which terms represented the Greek [Greek: seirios] (_Sirius_), whilst from the latter (_al-'ab[=u]r_) we have our _Alhabor_. See Ideler, Über den Ursprung und die Bedeutung der Sternnamen, pp. 237, 256.

§ 4. 'The houses [in astrology] have different powers. The strongest of all these is the first, which contains the part of the heaven about to rise: this is called the _ascendant_; and the point of the ecliptic which is just rising is called the horoscope.'--English Encyclopædia; art. Astrology.

21. In the English Cyclopædia, art. Astrology, a quotation is given from an astrological work, in reply to the question whether the 'querent' should succeed as a cattle-dealer. It contains some words very similar to Chaucer's. 'If the lord of the sixth be in quartile, or in opposition to the dispositor of the part of Fortune, or the Moon, the querent cannot thrive by dealing in small cattle. The same if the lord of the sixth be afflicted either by Saturn, Mars, or the Dragon's Tail; or be found either retrograde, combust, cadent, or peregrine. [See l. 33.] The Dragon's Tail and Mars shew much loss therein by knaves and thieves, and ill bargains, &c.; and Saturn denotes much damage by the rot or murrain.' The evil influence of the Dragon's Tail is treated of in the last chapter of 'Hermetis Philosophi de revolutionibus nativitatum', fol. Basileæ; n.d.

32. 'May seen the ascendant.' Cf. 'Cum dominator ascendens viderit, res quæ occulta est secundum ascendentis naturam erit; quod si non videt, illud erit secundum naturam loci in quo ipse est dominator'; Cl. Ptolemæi _Centiloquium_; sect. 90.

33. _combust_, said of a planet when its light is quenched by being too near the sun. Tyrwhitt, in his Glossary, says that it is used when the planet is not more than 8½ degrees distant from the sun. Cf. Troilus, iii. 717, and the note.

40. _Face._ See note to