'And ther he saugh with ful avysement
The erratik sterres, herkening armonye
With sounes fulle of hevenish melodye'; &c.
This passage, by the way, is a translation from Boccaccio, Teseide, xi. 1.
Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 17151-5.
See also Longfellow's poem on the Occultation of Orion, where the poet
(heretically but sensibly) gives the _lowest_ note to Saturn, and the
_highest_ to the Moon; whereas Macrobius says the contrary; lib. ii. c. 4.
A. Neckam (De Naturis Rerum, lib. i. c. 15) seems to say that the sound of
an eighth sphere is required to make up the octave.
64. 'Sentio, inquit, te sedem etiam nunc hominum ac domum contemplari: quæ
si tibi parva, ut est, ita videtur, hæc cælestia semper spectato; illa
humana contemnito.... Cum autem ad idem, unde semel profecta sunt, cuncta
astra redierint, eandemque totius anni descriptionem longis intervallis
retulerint, tum ille vere vertens _annus_ appellari potest.... Sermo autem
omnis ille ... obruitur hominum interitu, et oblivione posteritatis
exstinguitur.'
The great or mundane year, according to Macrobius, Comment, lib. 2. c. 11,
contained 15,000 common years. In the Roman de la Rose, l. 17,018, Jeun de
Meun makes it 36,000 years long; and in the Complaint of Scotland, ed.
Murray, p. 33, it is said, on the authority of Socrates, to extend to
37,000 years. It is not worth discussion.
71. 'Ego vero, inquam, o Africane, siquidem bene mentis de patria quasi
limes ad cæli aditum patet,' &c. 'Et ille, Tu vero enitere, et sic habeto,
non esse te mortalem, sed corpus hoc.... Hanc [naturam] tu exerce in
optimis rebus; sunt autem optimæ curæ de salute patriæ: quibus agitatus et
exercitatus animus velocius in hanc sedem et domum suam pervolabit.'
78. 'Nam eorum animi, qui se corporis voluptatibus dediderunt,...
corporibus elapsi circum terram ipsam volutantur; nec hunc in locum, nisi
multis exagitati sæculis, revertuntur.' We have here the idea of purgatory;
compare Vergil, Æn. vi.
80. _Whirle aboute_, copied from _volutantur_ in Cicero; see last note. It
is remarkable that Dante has copied the same passage, and has the word
_voltando_; Inf. v. 31-8. Cf. 'blown with restless violence round about The
pendent world'; Meas. for Meas. iii. 1. 125; and 'The sport of winds';
Milton, P.L. iii. 493.
85. Imitated from Dante, Inf. ii. 1-3 (with which cf. Æneid, ix. 224).
Cary's translation has--
'Now was the day departing, and the air,
Imbrowned with shadows, from their toils released
All animals on earth.'
90. 'I had what I did not want,' i. e. care and heaviness. 'And I had not
what I wanted,' i. e. my desires. Not a personal reference, but borrowed
from Boethius, bk. iii. pr. 3; see vol. ii. p. 57, l. 24. Moreover, the
same idea is repeated, but in clearer language, in the Complaint to his
Lady, ll. 47-49 (p. 361); and again, in the Complaint to Pity, ll. 99-104
(p. 276).
99. Chaucer discusses dreams elsewhere; see Ho. of Fame, 1-52; Nonne
Prestes Tale, 76-336; Troil. v. 358. Macrobius, Comment. in Somn.
Scipionis, lib. i. c. 3, distinguishes five kinds of dreams, giving the
name [Greek: enupnion] to the kind of which Chaucer here speaks. 'Est enim
[Greek: enupnion] quotiens oppressi animi corporisve sive fortunæ, qualis
vigilantem fatigaverat, talem se ingerit dormienti: animi, _si amator
deliciis suis aut fruentem se videat_ aut carentem: ... corporis, si ...
esuriens cibum aut _potum sitiens_ desiderare, quærere, vel etiam
_invenisse videatur_,' &c. But the real original of this stanza (as shewn
by Prof. Lounsbury) is to be found in Claudian, In Sextum Consulatum
Honorii Augusti Præfatio, ll. 3-10.
'Venator defessa toro cum membra reponit,
Mens tamen ad silvas et sua lustra redit.
Iudicibus lites, aurigæ somnia currus,
Vanaque nocturnis meta cavetur equis.
Furto gaudet amans; permutat navita merces;
Et vigil elapsas quærit avarus opes.
Blandaque largitur frustra sitientibus ægris
Irriguus gelido pocula fonte sopor.'
Cf. Vincent of Beauvais, lib. xxvi. c. 62 and c. 63; Batman upon
Bartholome, lib. vi. c. 27, ed. 1582, fol. 84. And see the famous passage
in Romeo and Juliet, i. 4. 53; especially ll. 70-88. The Roman de la Rose
begins with remarks concerning dreams; and again, at l. 18564, there is a
second passage on the same subject, with a reference to Scipio, and a
remark about dreaming of things that occupy the mind (l. 18601).