Part 5 (1/2)
In spite of his sorrow, Mars patiently continues to follow Venus, lamenting as he goes that his sphere is so large:
”He pa.s.seth but oo steyre in dayes two, But ner the les, for al his hevy armure, He foloweth hir that is his lyves cure;[126]
After he walketh softely a pas, Compleyning, that hit pite was to here.
He seyde, 'O lady bright, Venus! alas!
That ever so wyde a compa.s.s is my spere!
Alas! whan shal I mete yow, herte dere,'” etc.[127]
Meanwhile Venus has pa.s.sed on to Mercury's palace where he soon overtakes her and receives her as his friend:[128]
”hit happed for to be, That, whyl that Venus weping made hir mone, Cylenius, ryding in his chevauche, Fro Venus valance mighte his paleys see, And Venus he salueth, and maketh chere, And hir receyveth as his frend ful dere.”[129]
Mercury's palace was the sign Gemini and Venus' valance, probably meaning her detrimentum or the sign opposite her palace, was Aries. 'Chevauche'
means an equestrian journey or ride, and is here used in the sense of 'swift course.' The pa.s.sage, then, simply refers to the swift motion by which in a very short time Mercury pa.s.ses from Aries to a position near enough to that of Venus in Gemini so that he can see her and give her welcome. Mercury's sphere being the smallest of the planets, his motion is also the swiftest.
The size of Jupiter's...o...b..t is not mentioned in Chaucer and that of Saturn's only once. In the _Knightes Tale_ Saturn, addressing Venus, speaks of the great distance that he traverses with his revolving sphere but does not compare the size of his sphere with those of the other planets:
”'My dere doghter Venus,' quod Saturne, 'My cours, that hath so wyde for to turne, Hath more power than wot any man.'”[130]
Besides the reference in the _Compleynt of Mars_ to the conjunction of Venus and Mars[131], there are occasional references in Chaucer to conjunctions of other planets. In the _Astrolabe_[132] Chaucer explains a method of determining in what position in the heavens a conjunction of the sun and moon takes place, when the time of the conjunction is known. A conjunction of the moon with Saturn and Jupiter is mentioned in _Troilus and Criseyde_, in the lines:
”The bente mone with hir hornes pale, Saturne, and Iove, in Cancro ioyned were,”[133]
4. _The Galaxy_
The Galaxy or Milky Way, which stretches across the heavens like a broad band whitish in color caused by closely crowded stars, has appealed to men's imagination since very early times. Its resemblance to a road or street has been suggested in the names given to it by many peoples. Ovid called it _via lactea_ and the Roman peasants, _strada di Roma_; pilgrims to Spain referred to it as the _road to Santiago_; Dante refers to it as ”the white circle commonly called St. Ja.n.u.s's Way”[134]; and the English had two names for it, _Walsingham way_ and _Watling-street_.
Chaucer twice mentions the Galaxy; once in the _Parlement of Foules_, where Africa.n.u.s shows Scipio the location of heaven by pointing to the Galaxy:
”And rightful folk shal go, after they dye, To heven; and shewed him the galaxye.”[135]
In the _Hous of Fame_, the golden eagle who bears Chaucer through the heavens toward Fame's palace, points out to him the Galaxy and then relates the myth of Phaeton driving the chariot of the sun, a story traditionally a.s.sociated with the Milky Way:
'Now,' quod he tho, 'cast up thyn ye; See yonder, lo, the Galaxye, Which men clepeth the Milky Wey, For hit is whyt: and somme, parfey, Callen hit Watlinge Strete: That ones was y-brent with hete, Whan the sonnes sone, the rede, That highte Pheton, wolde lede Algate his fader cart, and gye.
The cart-hors gonne wel espye That he ne coude no governaunce, And gonne for to lepe and launce, And beren him now up, now doun, Til that he saw the Scorpioun, Which that in heven a signe is yit.
And he, for ferde, loste his wit, Of that, and lest the reynes goon Of his hors; and they anoon Gonne up to mounte, and doun descende Til bothe the eyr and erthe brende; Til Iupiter, lo, atte laste, Him slow, and fro the carte caste.'[136]
In narrating this story here, Chaucer may have been imitating Dante who refers to the myth in the _Divine Comedy_:
”What time abandoned Phaeton the reins, Whereby the heavens, as still appears, were scorched,”[137]
and states its source and the use made of it by some philosophers in the _Convivio_:
”For the Pythagoreans affirmed that the sun at one time wandered in its course, and in pa.s.sing through other regions not suited to sustain its heat, set on fire the place through which it pa.s.sed; and so these traces of the conflagration remain there. And I believe that they were influenced by the fable of Phaeton, which Ovid tells at the beginning of the second book of the _Metamorphoses_.”[138]
V