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ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC IN
CHAUCER’s “FRANKLIN’s
TALE”
JOHN STRONG PERRY TATLock
sº
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Reprinted from Anniversary Papers by Colleagues and
Pupils of George Lyman Kittredge
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Boston, Ginn & Co., 1913
32. 3.
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ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC IN CHAUCER'S
AºA2AAVA. Z.AV'S 7.4/_/º
JOHN STRONG PERRY TATLOCK
Dorigen, pining by the Breton shore for her husband Arveragus, absent in
England, has fallen into a melancholy, a “ derke fantasye,” which is only in-
creased by the means she takes to relieve it; she cannot look out on the sea
over which he must return to her without seeing the grisly fiendly black
rocks lying out along the coast, and without thinking of the perils of ship-
wreck and striving to see through a thicker cloud than the Breton haze, the
mystery of evil. Even though her friends try to divert her in a charming
inland garden, the menacing rocks seem to be still before her eyes. When
the squire Aurelius has revealed his love to her, and she playfully casts about
for a gentler way of rejecting him than her first flat refusal, she promises to
be his when he shall have removed every stone from the coast of Brittany.
He, like many another lover in mediaeval romance, attempts neither to forget
nor to content her, but takes to his bed; till his more practical brother at last,
after the husband's return, bethinks him how by the aid of magic Aurelius
may keep the word of promise to her eye and break it to her hope. He
fetches an old college mate from Orleans, through whose skill in magic the
rocks vanish for a week or two. Thus by a brilliant stroke of dramatic irony
the very means Dorigen has taken to rid herself forever of her unwelcome
suitor is what puts her helpless in his power, and the very task which her
anxious fidelity to her husband has led her to choose threatens to become the
cause of her unwilling infidelity. It is only through the rare generosity of
her lover, stimulated by that of her husband, that she saves her honor as a
wife without prejudice to the honor of her word.
In this tale astrology and magic are more essential than in any other of
Chaucer's works except the Syntire's 7ale and the Complaint of Mars, and are
used with more evident familiarity than anywhere else except in the latter and
in the treatise on the astrolabe. Everything hinges on the achievement of a
feat of which the lover himself can only say despairingly, when it is proposed,
“This were an inpossible.”
Since Chaucer has set the poem in pagan times, he might have ascribed the
marvel to the power of a divinity, but characteristically of his later manner
* It is curious to notice how astrology and its terms were in Chaucer's mind all through the
poem : cf. 11. 781, IO33, IO 57–1058 (and Skeat's note), 1067–1068, 1246.
339
34o ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC IN FRANKL/V’S TALE
he chose a means which brought the poem closer to real life, the astrological
magic which the Middle Ages almost universally credited." A long episode
precisely in the middle of the poem is formed by the project to bring the
Orleans clerk to Penmark, his reception and entertainment of the travellers,
their return to Brittany, his watching for a time celestially fit for his rites,
and the disappearance of the rocks.
The magician” is the most subtly interesting person in the tale, the only
character who is always master of the situation ; a somewhat complex person,
fit to refute the boast of Simkin in the A’eeve's Tale that
“The gretteste clerkes been noght the wysest men,”
for he is no more notable for his skill in his art than for his practical Sagacity
and tact, his proficiency in the business side of it. He is still young (II.7.3),
but through the reminiscences of Aurelius' brother (II 23 ff.) we are allowed
a glimpse of him when he was yet younger, as a bachelor of law at Orleans,
active, inquisitive, and daring, who neglected his legal pursuits in Order to
study magic on the sly (I I IQ–1128).” Meanwhile he has so progressed in
it that when the brothers meet him he can tell them all that is in their
minds. Since he is walking about alone with a disengaged look 4 in the Out-
skirts of Orleans on the road which leads from Brittany, we may perhaps
infer that he is resolved not to let a rich client slip through his fingers for
want of meeting him halfway. When they reach his well-appointed house,
which impresses even the wealthy Aurelius (I 187–1188), by the prodigality
of his supper" he prepares his visitors for a high price, and gives tacit assur-
ance that he is worthy of it by presenting shrewdly-selected examples of his
skill, taking care however not to weary them (I2O2–12O4). Knowing that his
client is the squire Aurelius and not the clerk-brother, as they sit in his study
* Magic is also the means in the only ante-Chaucerian analogues which involve a quasi-
impossible task, Boccaccio's two versions of the story, which are in the Zºilocoſo (Moutier edition,
II, 48–60) and the Decameron (tenth day, novel 5), and the former of which many believe to be
Chaucer's Source. See Rajna in Aomania, XXXI, 40–47, and XXXII, 204–267, and Lot in Ze
A/oyen Age, 1902, pp. IOS-1 12 ; but, contra, Schofield in Pub/. Alſod'. Zang. Assoc., XVI, 405–449.
* So called in ll. I 184, 1241, 1295; also called a “maister” (1202, 1209, 1220, 1257) and a
“ philosophre" (I 561, I 585, 1607), general words often used in a specific sense. Cf. the Oxford
Dicţionazy, Godefroy, Ducange (s.v. magisterium); according to Martinus Del Rio's /)isguisi-
tiones Magicae (Mainz, 1606), II, 500, the second part of astrology contains magisterium and
nativitatus ; cf. also Albertus Magnus's use of magisterium (Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum
Graecorum, Brussels, 1898–1906, V, i, IoI, Io 5), and Zeitsch. /iir Mathematik u. Physić, XVI, 373.
* It is not quite certain that he is the particular “felawe.” whom Aurelius’ brother first
thought of, for they seem to have belonged to a set in which the clandestine study of magic
flourished (I I 52–1 I 56), but most of the above would apply to any of them. The University of
Orleans in Chaucer's day was only a law school.
* Whan they were come almost to that citee,
But-if it were a two furlong or three,
A yong clerk rominge by him-self they mette (1171–1173).
* Hem lakked no vitaille that mighte hem plese (1186).

TATLOCK 34. I
among his imposing books (1207,1214) he shows them magic visions of hunt-
ing, hawking, and jousting, and finally a cruelly tantalizing vision, enough to
break down the last stronghold of their caution, of Aurelius going on the
dance with Dorigen." Allowing his hints to work while his guests eat, he
takes advantage of their postprandial Optimism to state his terms,” and after
all this he ran small risk of rejection when he “made it straunge ’’ and would
have them believe a thousand pounds a low price,” and it is no wonder
Aurelius “with blisful herte” answers impatiently,
“Fy on a thousand pound !”
to pay which he later realizes would ruin him (1559 ff.). Whenever the clerk
speaks, the manner of his words is apt and forceful. He is imperious and
shows deference toward his guests in addressing his attendant (I2O9–12 I4).
But to them he shows a more familiar manner and gentle traits ; toward the
woebegone lover he is now humorously sympathetic, with his genial chaff,” now
kindly and effectively zealous, with his usual energy and promptness (1261–
1262). Business is business with him, and at the end his cross-examination of
his recalcitrant client is a model of terse pointedness (I 585–1591); but, in the
same style, he announces his magnanimous release of him, when he learns
that this is no time for merely business methods (1607–1619). The keen
and ambitious clerk responds instantly to the noble example set by the self-
controlled knight and the gentle Squire. That every one of these interpreta-
tions represents what was in Chaucer's mind, who could prove (or disprove)
But when we notice how every touch makes fuller and firmer the outline of
a business-like man of Science who is a gentleman as well, how can we doubt
that this is what Chaucer meant? Chaucer's appearance of simplicity is some-
times due merely to the modern reader's inattentiveness.
But our chief concern is with the clerk's technical skill. In the account of
his observances more is meant than meets the ear of the twentieth century,
but much of it was doubtless instantly clear to a well-informed reader in the
fourteenth. The only planet which he is mentioned as considering is the
moon,” and there is reason for this : “Luna enim, ut dicunt, significat super
* Ll. I 189–1201. Magic illusions such as these were just what Aurelius' brother expected his
friend could produce (I I42–1 I 51), are discussed by the rabble in Sy. Z., 2 17–219, and are
ascribed to “Colle tregetour” in H. A., 1277-1281. Professor Schofield gives various other
examples of illusion from mediaeval romance (Pub/. Alſod'. Zang. Assoc., XVI, 419); cf. also
Comparetti, Virgilio me! medio Ævo, Pt. II, ch. x (Engl. transl., p. 360).
* At-after soper fille they in tretee (1219).
* L. I.225; an enormous sum, of course, for such a service, equivalent to ten or fifteen
thousand pounds to-day. * “This amorous folk som-tyme mote han reste" (1218).
* And knew the arysing of his mone weel (1287).
And knew ful weel the mones mansioun
Acordaunt to his operacioun (1289–1290).
Cf. I 129–1 13 I.
342 ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC IN FRANKL/M'S TALE
nigromantiam et mendacium, et ideo lex Lunae erit nigromantica et magica
et mendosa,’’’ and therefore should be particularly favorable to magic illusions.
As to the phase of the moon we are not told, but if it was considered, the
probabilities are that it would be the full.” The wizard in the Filocolo story
(significant as a parallel, whether or not as a source) begins his spells at full
moon.” Medea in Ovid's Metamorphoses expressly waits for it when she is
about to rejuvenate AEson.” In the Vedabò/a /ātaka " a Brahmin by a spell
1 Roger Bacon, Opus Majus (ed. Bridges, London, 1900), I, 262. Cf. also n. 4, below, and
pp. 347 ff. Cornelius Agrippa, speaking especially of the celestial matters to be observed by
magicians, says the moon transmits the influences of the other planets, and has more manifest
powers than they, her movements must be regarded more than theirs, and by her means we
attract the power of higher bodies (/)e Occulta Philosophia, Lugduni, I 531 °; Bk. II, ch. 32, and
cf. 59). The general connection of the moon with witchcraft is well known. Cf. Lea, Inquisi-
tion of the Middle Ages, III, 437; also Apuleius' Apologia (London, 1825), III, 1398, and Ovid's
Metamorphoses, vii, 174–178. On the peculiar power of the moon, according to the Babylonian
paganism, cf. Cumont, Astro/ogy and A’eligion among the Greeks and Āomans (New York),
pp. 59, 124, 126; “a multitude of mysterious influences” were attributed to the moon (and
some are still, even in America). Further, in all “elections of times '' the moon was to be
considered, “semper in electione aspice locum Lunae " (Joannes Hispalensis, AEpitome totius
Astrologiae, Nuremberg, I 548; sig. R 3°); cf. Man of Zaw's Zale, 306–308.
* If this were history, of course we could not assume a full moon at a given time in a given
celestial position. But this is fiction, and analogy and the data point to this phase.
* “Wide i corni della luna tornati in compiuta ritondità" (p. 53).
* Bk. vii, 179–182, 268. This is the source of Boccaccio's account of the magic (Zingarelli in
Kom., XIV, 433–441), and must have been known to Chaucer. It is highly characteristic of the
two men that the former's account is ancient and literary in source, and Chaucer's is contem-
porary and “Scientific,” being based on astrology, as the others are not. From Ovid is also
the story of Medea's spells in Gower’s Covaſessio A/layºffs, who seems muddled as to time
(V, 3957–3958, 3961, 4019, 4 II 5), but puts the end of the process at new moon. He may have
had reason for this, but it would seem a very unsuitable time for the magic of the Orleans clerk,
for the new moon would be in Capricornus, which is its “fall ” or “ detriment,” the position of
least potency (Joannes Hisp., sig. B I, 3 ; Henry Coley's Aey to Astro/ogy, London, 1676,
p. 85; Gower's Coſtſ. Aml., vii, II 75; Oxy. Dict.; Skeat, III, lxxviii). Except perhaps at the pre-
cise moment of conjunction, the new moon anywhere would be unfavorable, according to the
sixteenth-century Cornelius Agrippa (/)e Occ. Philos., Bk. II, ch. 30): “ nisi forte sit in unitate
cum sole,” for magical purposes the moon should not be “combust” (and so deprived of power),
as it or any other planet within 8° 30' of the sun (or 6° according to Joannes) is said to be (cf. Ox/.
Z)ict. : Coley, p. 95; Joannes Hisp., sig. D 419, E I* f., F 3°). Joannes also says (sig. T 3 vo)
that the conjunction of the sun and moon is unlucky. Agrippa does not seem to favor the
precise moment, at least, of full moon either, — “nec sit opposita soli.” Roger Bacon (in his
commentary on the Secreta Secretorum, quoted by Bridges, I, 403-404) says of the day of the
moon’s opposition to the Sun, “ Dies cavenda est in Omnibus operibus quia nullum bonum est in
ea,” and of the day of conjunction with the sun, “In hac die erit luna sub radiis [a technical
term]. Nullum bonum nisi in his quae necesse sunt occultari et contegi.” But none of this is said
with reference to magic. The choice of a waning moon for the riot of witchcraft in the Wal-
purgisnacht scene of Goethe's Faust may be due to a sense of picturesque fitness, though pic-
tures in early works show a moon near the new (Witkowski, Walpurgisnacht, 28, 33). Altogether,
my supposition as to this baffling subject seems justifiable.
* This is the supposed ultimate original of the Pardoner's Zale; cf. Originals and Analogues
(Chaucer Soc.), pp. 418 ff. An oriental parallel is the more likely to be significant because
ideas about the lunar mansions were of oriental origin. The translation edited by E. B. Cowell
(7%e /ătaka, Cambridge, 1895; I, 12 I-I 24) mentions the full moon but not the lunar mansion.
TATLOCK 343
produces a rain of riches when the full moon is in a certain lunar mansion ;
here, too, the magic depends on the lunar mansions. The full seems also to
be the phase of greatest power; according to Joannes Hispalensis," a high
twelfth-century authority, the most powerful stage is from opposition to 12°
thereafter, the next most powerful being from 12° before to opposition. If
the moon is full, this fits in remarkably with other matters. The Sun is in
the sign Capricornus,” and the full moon therefore in Cancer. This sign
is the “house’’ of the moon,” that sign in which it is most potent.” Further,
in Cancer the moon is “lord of the triplicity in common.” ” Now we must note
that Chaucer tells us a little more of the date ; while it is close to the end of
December when the travellers arrive from Orleans," with his utmost haste,
watching night and day (1262–1263), it is only “atte laste” that the clerk
finds a favorable time (1270), which would naturally bring us into January. This
may be significant, for degrees 21–30 of Cancer, which in the fourteenth cen-
tury the moon (if full) would pass through in about three fourths of a day" about
1 Op. cit., sig, F 3ro. Roger Bacon puts the matter a little differently : “Nam in istis quad-
raturis fortissima operatio Lunae est” (op. cit., p. 385); “ quando Luna est in augibus suorum
circulorum, ut in novilunio et plenilunio, tunc sunt fortiores operationes ejus, ut patet in flux-
ibus maris et in piscibus ” (p. 388). He is speaking especially of the influence of the moon on
weather, the tides, and living beings. Aristotle mentions the especial influence of the full moon
on grubs and children (/)e An ima/ibus ///storiae, Paris, 1854; V, xxiii.; VII, xii; and cf. Zºars.
7", 424).
* But now in Capricorn adoun he lighte (1248).
* Joannes Iſisp., sig, B 379, C 2wo ; Bacon, I, 258; Coley, p. 34; John of Salisbury, Policra-
ticus (ed. Webb, Oxford, 1909), I, IIo; Gower, Conſ. Am..., VII, IOG2—IOG3. In 7% of ſ. and
Cº., III, 624–628, the moon (near the new), Saturn, and Jupiter conjoined in Cancer produce a
great rain; Cancer is agºzosae weaturae (Joannes Hisp., sig. B 3°) and is the exaltation of Jupiter,
the conjunction of Saturn and the moon indicates rain (sig. G 2°), and the conjunctio maxima
of Saturn and Jupiter indicates floods (Bacon, p. 263). The moon itself was thought to have
especial influence over rain (Joannes Hisp., sig. G 279, etc.); therefore Nicholas in the A/i//er's
Zale (35.13–352 I) pretends to have learned from it of an imminent flood.
4 The five “ essential dignities ” of a planet are house, exaltation, triplicity, term, and face.
In the first it has five “fortitudes" (or units of power), in the second four, and so on down to
one in a face. See Coley, p. 88; Joannes IHisp., sig. C 2° f., F 2"; 13acon, pp. 257–261 ; Skeat,
III, lxxviii and 359; Oxy. Dict, s.vv. house, mansion. (Is there not some error in the last two
authorities as to the exaltation ?) Note that while each of the other planets has two signs as
houses, the sun and moon have only one each. -
* /.e., by both day and night (Joannes IIisp., sig. B 379, C 2-0 ; Skeat, III, lxxvii f.), Venus
and Mars being lords by day and night respectively. According to Vettius Valens' Anthologiae
(ed. Kroll, Berlin, 1908; Bk. II, ch. 1, p. 56), a Greek work on astrology of the second century A.D.,
often quoted by later writers, these three are lords of the triplicity in Cancer, but the moon
takes third place both day and night. Reginald Scot’s Discouerie of Witchcraft (London, I 584),
p. 398, gives the lords as the moon, Venus, and Jupiter.
* And this was, as the bokes me remembre,
The colde frosty seson of Decembre (1243–1244).
Janus sit by the fyr, with double berd (1252).
And ‘Nowel' cryeth every lusty man (1255).
" The moon advances an average of 134° daily, the tropical month (or time it takes the
moon to return to a given right ascension) being about 27} days,
344 ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC IN FRANKL/W’S TALE
the second or third," are the “face" of the moon.” Moreover, at exactly the
same time (or within a couple of hours) the moon would enter the fourth term
of Cancer, which includes degrees 20–26 and belongs to Jupiter, according to
Joannes Hispalensis,” or 21–27 and belongs to Venus, according to Henry
Coley, a seventeenth-century authority.” These two planets are respectively
the greater and lesser fortunes, whose influence is favorable, and both are
called friendly to the moon ; * and if we can believe Coley," a planet in the
term of Jupiter or Venus has an “accidental fortitude" of one. All this no
doubt is why the Franklin says the clerk
knew the arysing of his mone weel,
And in whos face and ferºme, and every deel (1287–1288).
At the time in question the moon was in term of Jupiter (or Venus) and in its
own face; but it behooved him to act promptly, for not much over half a day
after entering this favorable term the moon would enter the term of Saturn
* Cf. Astro/abe, ii, I and 12, and Bacon, 272-273. The sun, reaching the tropic of Capricorn
on the 12th December in 1361 and for about 125 years thereafter, would enter the last Io9 of the
sign on 2" or 3" January, and the full moon would of course, be at the same time at the point
directly opposite. The date agrees remarkably with that in the Aºſocoſo (Rajna merely notes
that in both tales the travellers return in December : Womania, XXXII, 239). Tarolfo and the
wizard Tebano arrive “assai vicini del mese del quale era stato dimandato il giardino’’ (the
garden being required in January). After privily waiting, “entrato già il mese,” they have a full
moon that night (p. 53), Tebano begins his spells, and after gathering certain matters from all
over the world, returns in his dragon-car before the end of the third day (p. 55), immediately
finishes the garden, notifies Tarolfo, and he the lady (p. 57). This puts the accomplishment of
the task on the 3" or 4th January (in the Decameron version it is the night before the 1st). Since
there is nothing about the time of year in Ovid, it may be that Boccaccio, too, was aware of
the astrological fitness of the early days of January ; yet it is an independent fact that the time
apparently most favorable for astrological magic is the time most unfavorable for gardens. As
to Chaucer, I should be quite ready to admit that at this point he may have remembered
Boccaccio's tale; but considering that the latter ignores astrology and the Aranklin's 7ale is
full of its minutiae, we can hardly doubt that Chaucer clearly saw reason for the date he indi-
cates. It is curious, but hardly significant, that the tables from which the position of a planet
for any date was calculated gave it for noon of the last day of December (Astro/abe, ii, 44–45).
This season can hardly have been selected because the rocks would seem more formidable
then ; they are hardly mentioned here, and from the point of view of the story the selection of
winter is a mere chance.
* Joannes Hisp., sig. B 379, C 3”; Coley, p. 85; Skeat, III, lxxvii. Cf. Astro/abe, ii, 4,
ll. 62-65 (Student’s Chaucer). As early as the fourth century Ammianus Marcellinus ridicules
atheists who will not do the most trivial thing without learning in what part of Cancer the
moon is (Åes Gestae, XXVIII, iv, 24).
* Sig, B 3", C 2°. He assigns degrees 1–7 to Mars, 8–12 to Venus, 13–19 to Mercury, and
27–30 to Saturn.
* Coley assigns the five terms to the planets in not quite the same order as Joannes does
(op. cit., p. 85). That there are not more cases than there are of imperfect agreement among
the astrological authorities cited in this article, ranging in date from the second century to the
seventeenth, shows how firmly the pseudo-science rested on tradition. Joannes' Zºſtome (250
years before Chaucer) and Coley's Aey (300 after) agree closely. Cornelius Agrippa mocks at a
few disagreements among astrologers as to detail, in that pessimistic work, The Vanity of Arts
and Sciences (London, 1676), p. 94. * Coley, p. 9o, 6 P. 88.
TATLOCK 345
(degrees 27 or 28 to 30), which, according to Coley," would produce an
“accidental debility” of one. One thing more; that he
knew the arysing of his mone weel
is doubtless because a planet rising is in the ascendent, the daily position
of greatest power.” This would give the moon five fortitudines or virtutes
for being in its house, three for the triplicity, one for being in term of
Jupiter or Venus, one for being in its own face, and five (or twelve) for
the ascendent.”
The moon in the fourth term and third face of Cancer is in its strongest
6° or 7° of the whole 360°; 4 put it, the planet of necromancy, in the ascendent
to boot, and what time could be so favorable for the clerk's design When
we find analogy indicating a full moon, and the careful and subtle Chaucer's
implications harmonizing with a certain date, and when we find that the full
moon on that date would have this extraordinary potency for his purpose,
how can we believe this accidental 2 Chaucer, who knew astrology well, must
* P. 88. Cf. Cornelius Agrippa (De Occ. Philos., II, 30), — the moon for magical purposes
“non sit impedita à Marte vel Saturno.”
* The “house of the ascendent,” that one of the twelve daily locations of a planet in which
it is most potent, extends from 5° above the eastern horizon to 25° below it (Astro/abe, II, 4,
ll. 17–30; cf. 1-4); or from the eastern horizon to 30° below (Joannes Hisp., sig. D 3°). When
astrological images are made (according to Albertus Magnus, in Catal. Cod. Astrol. Graec.,
V, i, Iog), “sit luna in ascendente facie et signo "; in our case it is stronger yet. For the above
purpose, Agrippa would have it in the ascendent in the ſizst face of Cancer (Z)e Occ. AEA iſos.,
II, 44). In the Filocoſo (p. 53) the time is well on in the night: “I vaghi gradi della notte pas-
savano, gli uccelli le fiere e gli uomini riposavano senza alcuno mormorio”; and midnight in
Ovid (l. 18.4):
Fertaue wagos mediae per muta silentia noctis
Incomitata gradus, Homines volucresque ferasque
Solverat alta quies: nullo cum murmure saepes,
Inmotaeque silent frondes.
In both the Filocolo and Ovid, accordingly, the full moon would be far past the ascendent.
* Coley, p. 88; Joannes Hisp., sig. F 2". Cf. also sig, F 3°, − twelve virtutes from opposi-
tion to 12° thereafter, and eleven from 12° before to opposition. Doubtless an astrologer with
such a problem would have considered many other points. As to these there is little to say,
for want of details. From what we are told we are extracting pretty much the uttermost
farthing, and in any case the points mentioned are the main ones. That Chaucer had not for-
gotten others may be indicated by ll. 1273–1279, partly explained by Skeat. From his “rotes”
and other data, by means of “his centres and his arguments,” “his collect” and “his expans
yeres,” “ and his proporcionels convenients,” he made his “equacions"; that is, probably,
located the signs of the zodiac in the “houses” in the second sense mentioned in note 3, p. 346,
and perhaps ascertained the positions of the other planets both in the zodiac and in the houses,
and hence their “ aspects" to the moon, and the nature and amount of their influence. Cf. Astro-
Zače, ii, 36–37, 40, 44–45, and Joannes Hisp., sig. O 4* f.
* The second-best sign would be Taurus; the moon is exalted in the third degree of it, is
lord of the triplicity by night, and has the second face (degrees 11–20). See Joannes Hisp.,
sig, B 279, C 2-9 f.; and Coley, p. 85. The moon could not have more than three essential
dignities at once, for terms are not assigned to the sun and moon, and the house and exalta-
tion are never in the same sign, except for Mercury in Virgo (Joannes Hisp., B 3°, C 2°;
Coley, p. 85; Bacon, p. 261).
346 ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC IN FRANKL/V'S 7A/F
have studied the matter out as much as his clerk did, and have known as well
as he in what term and face the moon was."
But as to their attention to another lunar matter we are not at all left to
inference. Four or five times we are told that Aurelius' brother and the
Orleans clerk heeded especially
the eighte and twenty mansiouns
That longen to the mone.”
The mansions ° of the moon are divisions of its monthly path each nearly 13°
in length.” When the clerk sets about his work, his first task relates to them.
By his eighte spere in his wirking
He knew ful wel how fer Alnath was shove
Fro the heed of thilke fixe Aries above,
That in the ninthe speere considered is;
Ful subtilly he calculed al this (1280–1284).
Alnath is the name of the first lunar mansion.” He calculates how far it has
J 1 Two other cases of unobtrusive accuracy confirm this belief. First, Aurelius prays the
sun and moon to help him,
“now next at this opposicioun
Which in the signe shal be of the Leoun '' (1057–1058).
This, as Skeat shows, is not because at the opposition next after May 6 (l. 906) either planet
is in Leo, but because Leo is the house of the sun. Secondly, the Franklin evidently had good
reason for assuring those who might be acquainted with “Tables Toletanes" that the clerk's
were “ful wel corrected * (1274). Roger Bacon complains (I, 298–300) that the “tabulae Tole-
tanae" make mistakes as to longitude. Though the term “Toletan tables " is sometimes given
especially to those “published under the direction of Arzachel in 1080” (Arthur Berry, Short
Aſ story of Astronomy, New York, 1910, p. 8o ; cf. Bacon, Z.c., editor's note), Chaucer doubtless
and Bacon very probably refer to the better ones published in 1252 by order of Alfonso el Sabio
of Castile (Berry, p. 85). In the fifteenth century an eclipse of the moon was observed to be
an hour later than it should have been, and Mars 2° from where it should have been, according
to them ; in I 563 Tycho Brahe observed a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn a month from the
time calculated from them (Berry, pp. 87, 130). One trouble with them is said to be that they
recognized “trepidation,” an imaginary inequality in the precession of the equinoxes (Bacon,
l.c.; Zł. d. deutschen movgenländischen Gesellschaft, XVIII, 178). Possibly, however, “cor-
rected ” has the modern meaning of adaptation to a different standard, here to a different
latitude and longitude. * Ll. I 130-II 31 ; cf. I I 54–I I 55, 1280–1286, 1289–1290.
* This word, in which there is no ambiguity in this tale, is of course used in two astrologi-
cal senses — as above, and as a synonym for "house'in the first of the following senses”
“House” is used for the sign in which a planet is most powerful, and for a twelfth part of the
fixed vault of heaven starting down from about the eastern horizon. Cf. Bacon, pp. 258–260.
* Joannes Hisp., sig. T 4”; Zł. d, deutschen movgenländischen Gesellschaft, XVIII, 175–176.
* “ Alnath dicitur prima mansio lune" (gloss in MS. Ellesmere). It is also the name of the
third magnitude star a Arietis. El-nātih or El-nath or Al-nath is one name of the star and man-
sion in the Arabic system of mansions, whence the European was derived; cf. Ludewig Ideler,
Cutersuchungen iberden Crsprung und die Bedeutung der Stern namen (Berlin, 1809), p. 135, and
F. K. Ginzel, Mathematische und technische Chronologie (Leipzig, 1906), p. 72. According to
Joannes Hispalensis, op. cit., Sig. H I*, S 379, T 479, the first mansion is called cozygºta Arietis.
Other references on these mansions in the skies are Cornelius Agrippa, Z.c., ch. 33, 46; Stein-
Schneider in Zł. d, deutschen movgen/āndischeme Gesel/schaft, XVIII, I 18–201, and in Zł. f
TATLOCK 347
been carried, by the precession of the equinoxes," westward from the vernal
equinox, or first point of the sign Aries, which was conceived to be in the
sphere next above that of the fixed stars. He does this because the lunar
mansions, unlike the signs, were determined by the fixed stars,” and therefore
their right ascension, being of course measured from the receding vernal
equinox, gradually increased. It was necessary to know their right ascension
because, though the stars which named them fixed them roughly, the pre-
cise limits of each, and in this case the time of the moon's entrance and
departure and the mansion which included this precise part of Cancer, could
not be found without calculation. The clerk's finding first the right ascen- \,
sion of Alnath, rather than directly that of the mansion he was seeking,
probably indicates that he had no tables giving the exact limits of all the
mansions either in right ascension or in the constellations. Having found
the first, and knowing the angular size of the mansions, he easily found
that which the moon had then reached,” and knew it to be favorable to
his design.”
If my conclusion as to the moon's position is correct, this mansion would
apparently be the eighth,” but none of the accessible authorities reveals anything
Math. 24. Phys., XVI, 369, 371-372, 383; Albirúni’s Chronology of Ancient A’ations (tr. Sachau,
London, 1879), pp. 335–365; /ou/zzea/ Asia/izzee, IX Série, VIII, I 56–162; AZémoires of the
Académie des Inscriptions, XVIII, ii, 354-362; Bibliothèque de l'Acole des hautes Atudes,
fasc. I2 I, pp. IO7–I I I ; AVotices et AExtraits des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque du Aoi, XII, i,
244–252 ; XIV, ii, 35–36; Franz Boll, Sºhaera (Leipzig, 1903); Roger Bacon, oft. cit., 384–385;
Contemporary A'eview, XXXV, 418–419. This lore came from the Far East, and was known in
India, China, and perhaps Babylon (Boll and Ginzel). Joannes IIispalensis quotes the Indians
as authorities on it. The mansions are still observed in the Orient.
1 This may be the exact meaning of l. 1280, above, the second “his” meaning its, and the
“wirking” of the eighth sphere being the agency of the “shoving ” of the mansions fixed in it.
Skeat takes the line with “ knew,” but the clerk could hardly have told the amount of preces-
sion by the sphere of the fixed stars, but only by tables.
* Cf. Joannes Hisp., sig. T 4”; Albirúni, 354; and Ideler, p. 149; also Cornelius Agrippa
(Z)e Occ. Ahilos., II, 33; cf. Zł. d, d, mozg. Ges., XVIII, I 52), — “ Octo et viginti mansiones
Lunae . . . quae in Octava sphera fixae a diversis earundem sideribus & stellis, quae in eis con-
tinentur.” Speaking of Alnath he says, “Initium eius est in capite arietis octavae sphaerae "
(?&id.). Ibn Esra, a Jewish astrological writer, gives directions for finding the mansions (Zº, d.
d. moºg. Ges., XVIII, 161); so does Albirüni, 357 ff.
* Whan he had founde his firste mansioun,
He knew the remenant by proporcioun (1285–1286).
* And knew ful weel the mones mansioun
Acordaunt to his operacioun (1289–1290).
Doubtless he had done earlier as much of all this as he could ; but with imperfect tables and
instruments, and with the moon’s rapid motion, he had to be alert at the time.
* Called “Nebula” or “Nebulosa cum nube” (after the star-cluster Praesepe), and extend-
ing from 16° 1' to 28° 51% of the sign Cancer in the time of Joannes IIispalensis (sig. S 4 vo, T 4to);
called El-nethra by the Arabs (Ideler, I 59–160, 287). Steinschneider gives numerous tables of
the mansions (Z. d. a. movg. Ges., XVIII, 164, 176, 198, 200). Cf. also Albirúni, 343 ff.;
Journal Asiatigue, IX Série, VIII, 158–161; and Agrippa, ch. 33, who seems to give their
limits in the constellations, and not in contemporary right ascension.
348 ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC IN FRANKL/V'S 7A//7
to account for the clerk's especial satisfaction with it." The explanation
probably is that reputable astrological writers ignored the bearings of their
lore on magic. For Chaucer plainly intimates that the twenty-eight mansions
of the moon were connected in some especial way with magic, particularly
with the production of magic illusions. It was a book of “magik naturel,”
into which Aurelius' brother had peered at Orleans, that *,”
spak muchel of the operaciouns
Touchinge the eighte and twenty mansiouns
That longen to the mone (II 29–1 13 I).
It seems to be illusions produced by their help that Holy Church's faith in
Our Credo does not suffer to grieve us (II 33–II 34). After recalling what he
has heard of “diverse apparences” of “subtile tregetoures,” he hopes for a
similar “apparence ’’ through some one's help
“That hadde this mones mansiouns in minde
Or other magik naturel above " (I I 54–1 55).
This implication is confirmed by Albertus Magnus' Speculum Astronomicum ,
denouncing the most blameworthy kind of necromantic astrological images
and the exorcisms and suffumigations with which they were used, he says this
kind of necromancy tries to make itself more respectable by observing such
things as the twenty-eight mansions of the moon and their names.” This connec-
tion between the mansions and magic is amply established by other authorities.
Cornelius Agrippa, speaking of times when the planets are favorable for
magic, says: “Lunam veró habebimus potententem [sic], si in domicilio suo:
vel exaltatione, vel triplicitate, vel facie, & in gradu sibi ad opus optatum con-
venienti, atque si mansionem ex viginti illis & Octo sibi & operi competentem
* Except that Cornelius Agrippa says it favors love and friendship, “et societatem itineran-
tium” (ch. 33). According to Joannes Hispalensis, it is temperate and fortunate; (here he quotes
Dorothius Sidonius) bad for marrying and employing servants, prosperous for sea voyages,
etc. No other mansion looks any more promising. Among the Arabs, the mansions seemingly
were observed chiefly for their connection with the weather (Ideler, 121, 148, 167, 172;
Albirúni, 336; Zł. a. d. 7/107.9. Ges., XVIII, I 59–161, 179, etc.); Bacon says the same of them
(p. 384).
* “ Haec est idololatria pessima, quae ut reddat se aliquatenus fide dignam, observat viginti
Octo mansiones lunae et horas diei et noctis cum quibusdam nominibus dierum, horarum et mansio-
num ipsarum ” (cap. xi : Catal. Cod. Astro/. Graec., V, i, 99. The author gives a valuable bibli-
ography of contemporary authorities on astrology and magic, on which see Zł. ſ. Math. al. Phys.,
xvi, 357–396). Cf. also what he says (p. 98) of certain images exorcized by fifty-four names of
angels, “ qui subservire dicuntur imaginibus lunae in circulo eius ”; the number 54 would ap-
parently allow two angels' names to each mansion on the Hindu system of 27 mansions (Zz, a.
d', movg. Ges., XVIII, 121–122, 157 ff.). The number varied to 29 and 30 (late, for symmetry);
hence a thirteenth-century MS. 2e)\myoópóutov in Milan and a fifteenth-century 'Eirtakepts ris
2éAffvms in Naples give the moon’s influence in 30 stages (Catal. Cod. Astro/. Graec., III,
32–39 ; IV, 142-145).
TATLOCK 349
obtineat” (De Occ. Philos., II, 30). There is a “lib. ymaginum ” on the
mansions of the moon in a Christ Church and in a Harleian M.S., which
professes to be magical, a work printed at Venice in I 509 treats of the same
subject," and I have already referred to the Brahmin in the Vedabb/a
Jātaka who would repeat a spell “when the moon was in conjunction with a
certain lunar mansion.”
It is clear then that the Orleans clerk was well grounded in astronomy and
in astrological magic. Though his astrological observances are what is most
fully described, their sole purpose is to secure a time when the influences al-
ways streaming from the heavens shall reënforce his other rites,” for he
knew also his othere observaunces (129I).
These are so effective that
thurgh his magik, for a wyke or tweye,
It semed that alle the rokkes were aweye (1295–1296).
Just what the observances would be, for this and for the lesser feats done at
Orleans, the Franklin does not tell us, either because of imperfect knowledge
or of distaste for the subject. Yet we can form some idea. For the earlier
Ones he must have used at least images or charms, such as were used in
“natural magic” and were necessary for directing the more hidden powers of
nature to his purposes, yet for even these illusions it looks as if he may have
used the aid of Spirits, since they vanish when he claps his hands (I2O2–I2O4).
For his similar but far greater exploit, the vanishing of the rocks all the way
from the Seine to the Gironde, if he kept his bargain (1221–1222), it may be
suspected that he had to use blood, sacrifices, suffumigations, incantations, and
invocations of demons,” which, according to the authorities,” would make him
a neCIOIſlan Cer.
1 Steinschneider in Zł. f. Math, u. Ahys., XVI, 371, 383,
* Night and day he spedde him that he can
To wayte a tyme of his conclusioun (1262–1263).
This point is well illustrated in the Syuire's Zale, 129–131, by the oriental knight's account of
the making of the magic horse.
* Cf. Aſouse of Arame, 1259–1270.
* Isidor of Seville (Migne's Patrologia Zatina, Vol. LXXXII), Złymologiae, VIII, ix, I I ; John
of Salisbury, Policraticus (ed. Webb), I, 51; Albertus Magnus, in Catal. Cod. Astro/. Graec., V, i, 98–
IO3; cf. Bacon, op. cit., 24 I, 395–396. It is Aurelius' brother, who has only glanced into a book or
two on magic, and is vague and ignorant about it (11 17–1164), that expects such a result merely
from natural magic. The feat of the wizard in the F/ocolo and in the Decameron is due to necro-
mancy, though the word is used only in the latter. Such performances as his in the Filocolo are
strongly condemned by Isidor (Zzymol, VIII, ix; cf. Differentiae, I, 291). Of course the word
“necromancy” became migromancy, and was used in a wider sense than the original. Possibly,
however, Chaucer meant all his clerk's work to be due to natural magic. Cf. Agrippa, Pantity
of 477s, p. I I I. Or he may have been vague about the matter; we cannot be sure, here and
elsewhere, how full and exact his knowledge really was.
35o ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC IN FRANKLIN’S TALE
It is against nefarious magic art, and astrology as a helper to it, that the
Franklin utters the scornful, yet not wholly skeptical, condemnation which
has often been noticed. They are
swich folye
As in our dayes is nat worth a flye;
For holy chirches feith in our bileve
Ne suffreth noon illusion us to greve (I 131–1134).
The Orleans clerk's observances through which the rocks vanish are
his japes and his wrecchednesse
Of swich a supersticious cursednesse (1271–1272);
swiche illusiouns and swiche meschaunces
As hethen folk used in thilke dayes (1292–1293).
This censure of the arts on which the tale hinges is by no means an artistic
error in the Franklin's mouth, still less in Chaucer's, and could not have been
so understood by any mediaeval reader. It is true that Chaucer would hardly
have cared to portray his professor of forbidden arts with such evident and
penetrating esteem had he not very carefully set the tale in pagan antiquity.
But in the same breath in which such practices are flouted as worthless and
impious in the days of Holy Church, they are represented as efficacious and
are not even wholly blamed for earlier times. The attitude toward astrology
and magic which they point to in the speaker is precisely that which we find
in many other mediaeval writers than Chaucer, both literary and theological.
* In the Middle Ages this word had not the implication of unreality which it has now. Cf.
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Zheologiae, II, ii, 92, I.
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