57. 'Stellarum autem globi terræ magnitudinem facile vincebant. Iam ipsa
terra ita mihi parva visa est, &c.... Novem tibi orbibus, vel potius
globis, connexa sunt omnia ... Hic, inquam, quis est, qui complet aures
meas, tantus et tam dulcis sonus? ... impulsu et motu ipsorum orbium
conficitur.'
59. The 'nine spheres' are the spheres of the seven planets (Moon, Mercury,
Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn), that of the fixed stars, and the
_primum mobile_; see notes to the Treatise on the Astrolabe, part 1, § 17,
in vol. iii.
61. This is an allusion to the so-called 'harmony of the spheres.' Chaucer
makes a mistake in attributing this harmony to _all_ of the nine spheres.
Cicero plainly excludes the _primum mobile_, and says that, of the
remaining eight spheres, two sound alike, so that there are but _seven_
tones made by their revolution. 'Ille autem _octo_ cursus, in quibus _eadem
vis est duorum, septem_ efficiunt distinctos intervallis sonos.' He
proceeds to notice the peculiar excellence of the number _seven_. By the
two that sounded alike, the spheres of Saturn and the fixed stars must be
meant; in fact, it is usual to ignore the sphere of fixed stars, and
consider only those of the seven planets. Macrobius, in his Commentary,
lib. ii. c. 4, quite misses this point, and clumsily gives the same note to
Venus and Mercury. Each planetary sphere, in its revolution, gives out a
different note of the gamut, so that all the notes of the gamut are
sounded; and the result is, that the 'music of the spheres' cannot be heard
at all, just as the dwellers by the cataract on the Nile fail to hear the
sound of its fall. 'Hoc sonitu oppletæ aures hominum obsurduerunt; nec est
ullus hebetior sonus in vobis; sicut ubi Nilus ad illa, quæ Catadupa
[Greek: katadoupoi] nominantur, præcipitat ex altissimis montibus, ea gens,
quæ illum locum accolit, _propter magnitudinem sonitus_, sensu audiendi
caret.' Macrobius tries to explain it all in his Commentary, lib. ii. c.
1-4. The fable arose from a supposed necessary connection between the
number of the planets and the number of musical notes in the scale. It
breaks down when we know that the number of the planets is _more_ than
seven. Moreover, modern astronomy has exploded the singular notion of
revolving hollow concentric spheres, to the surface of which each planet
was immoveably nailed. These 'spheres' have disappeared, and their music
with them, except in poetry.
Shakespeare so extends the old fable as to give a voice to every star. See
Merch. of Venice, v. 60:--
'There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st,
But in his motion like an angel sings,' &c.
The notion of the music of the spheres was attributed to Pythagoras. It is
denied by Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Naturale, lib. xv. c. 32--Falsa
opinio de concentu cæli. Vincent puts the old idea clearly--'Feruntur
septem planetæ, et hi septem orbes (vt dicitur) cum dulcissima harmonia
mouentur, ac suauissimi concentus eorum circumitione efficiuntur. Qui sonus
ad aures nostras ideo non peruenit, quia vltra ærem fit':--a sufficient
reason. He attributes the notion to the Pythagoreans and the Jews, and
notes the use of the phrase 'concentum cæli' in Job xxxviii. 37, where our
version has 'the bottles of heaven,' which the Revised Version retains. Cf.
also--'Cum me laudarent simul astra matutina'; Job xxxviii. 7.