The idea of four elements[38] has its origin in the attempts of the early
Greek cosmologists to discover the ultimate principle of reality in the
universe.
Thales reached the conclusion that this principle was water, Anaximines,
that it was air, and Heracleitus, fire, while Parmenides supposed two
elements, fire or light, subtle and rarefied, and earth or night, dense
and heavy. Empedocles of Agrigentum (about 450 B. C.) assumed as primary
elements all four--fire, air, water, and earth--of which each of his
predecessors had assumed only one or two. To explain the manifold
phenomena of nature he supposed them to be produced by combinations of the
elements in different proportions through the attractive and repulsive
forces of 'love' and 'discord.' This arbitrary assumption of four
elements, first made by Empedocles, persisted in the popular imagination
throughout the Middle Ages and is, like other cosmological ideas of
antiquity, sometimes reflected in the poetry of the time.
The elements in mediaeval cosmology were assigned to a definite region of
the universe. Being mortal and imperfect they occupied four spheres below
the moon, the elemental region or region of imperfection, as distinguished
from the ethereal region above the moon. Immediately within the sphere of
the moon came that of Fire, below this the Air, then Water, and lowest of
all the solid sphere of Earth. Fire being the most ethereal of the
elements constantly tends to rise upward, while Earth sinks towards the
center of the universe. This contrast is a favorite idea with Dante, who
says in the _Paradiso_ i. 112-117:
"'wherefore they move to diverse ports o'er the
great sea of being, and each one with
instinct given it to bear it on.
This beareth the fire toward the moon; this
is the mover in the hearts of things that die;
this doth draw the earth together and unite it.'"
Elsewhere Dante describes the lightning as fleeing its proper place when
it strikes the earth:
"'but lightning, fleeing its proper site, ne'er
darted as dost thou who art returning thither.'"[39]
And again:
"'so from this course sometimes departeth the
creature that hath power, thus thrust, to swerve
to-ward some other part,
(even as fire may be seen to dart down from
the cloud) if its first rush be wrenched aside
to earth by false seeming pleasure.'"[40]
The same thought of the tendency of fire to rise and of earth to sink is
found in Chaucer's translation of Boethius:[41]
"Thou bindest the elements by noumbres proporcionables, ... that the
fyr, that is purest, ne flee nat over hye, ne that the hevinesse ne
drawe nat adoun over-lowe the erthes that ben plounged in the
wateres."
Chaucer does not make specific mention of the spheres of the elements, but
he tells us plainly that each element has been assigned its proper region
from which it may not escape:
"For with that faire cheyne of love he bond
The fyr, the eyr, the water, and the lond
In certeyn boundes, that they may nat flee;"[42]
The position of the elements in the universe is nevertheless made clear
without specific reference to their respective spheres. The spirit of the
slain Troilus ascends through the spheres to the seventh heaven, leaving
behind the elements:
"And whan that he was slayn in this manere,
His lighte goost ful blisfully is went
Up to the holownesse of the seventh spere,
In converse letinge every element."[43]
"Every element" here obviously means the sphere of each element;
"holownesse" means concavity and "in convers" means 'on the reverse side.'
The meaning of the passage is, then, that Troilus' spirit ascends to the
concave side of the seventh sphere from which he can look down upon the
spheres of the elements, which have their convex surfaces towards him.
This passage is of particular interest for the further reason that it
shows that even in Chaucer's century people still thought of the spheres
as having material existence.
The place and order of the elements is more definitely suggested in a
passage from _Boethius_ in which philosophical contemplation is
figuratively described as an ascent of thought upward through the spheres:
"'I have, forsothe, swifte fetheres that surmounten the heighte of
hevene. When the swifte thought hath clothed it-self in the fetheres,
it despyseth the hateful erthes, and surmounteth the roundnesse of the
grete ayr; and it seeth the cloudes behinde his bak; and passeth the
heighte of the region of the fyr, that eschaufeth by the swifte
moevinge of the firmament, til that he areyseth him in-to the houses
that beren the sterres, and ioyneth his weyes with the sonne Phebus,
and felawshipeth the wey of the olde colde Saturnus.'"[44]
In this passage all the elemental regions except that of water are alluded
to and in the order which, in the Middle Ages, they were supposed to
follow. When in the _Hous of Fame_, Chaucer is borne aloft into the
heavens by Jupiter's eagle, he is reminded of this passage in Boethius and
alludes to it:
"And tho thoughte I upon Boece,
That writ, 'a thought may flee so hye,
With fetheres of Philosophye,
To passen everich element;
And whan he hath so fer y-went,
Than may be seen, behind his bak,
Cloud, and al that I of spak.'"[45]
Empedocles, as we have seen, taught that the variety in the universe was
caused by the binding together of the four elements in different
proportions through the harmonizing principle of love, or by their
separation through hate, the principle of discord. We find this idea also
reflected in Chaucer who obviously got it from Boethius. Love is the
organizing principle of the universe; if the force of love should in any
wise abate, all things would strive against each other and the universe be
transformed into chaos.[46]
The elements were thought to be distinguished from one another by peculiar
natures or attributes. Thus the nature of fire was _hot_ and _dry_, that
of water _cold_ and _moist_, that of air _cold_ and _dry_, and that of
earth _hot_ and _moist_.[47] Chaucer alludes to these distinguishing
attributes of the elements a number of times, as, for example, in
_Boethius_, III.: Metre 9. 14 ff.:
"Thou bindest the elements by noumbres proporciounables, that the
colde thinges mowen acorden with the hote thinges, and the drye
thinges with the moiste thinges";
In conclusion it should be said that all creatures occupying the elemental
region or realm of imperfection below the moon were thought to have been
created not directly by God but by Nature as his "vicaire" or deputy, or,
in other words, by an inferior agency. Chaucer alludes to this in _The
Parlement of Foules_ briefly thus:
"Nature, the vicaire of thalmyghty lorde,
That hoot, cold, hevy, light, (and) moist and dreye
Hath knit by even noumbre of acorde,"[48]
and more at length in _The Phisiciens Tale_. Chaucer says of the daughter
of Virginius that nature had formed her of such excellence that she might
have said of her creation:
"'lo! I, Nature,
Thus can I forme and peynte a creature,
Whan that me list; who can me countrefete?
Pigmalion noght, though he ay forge and bete,
Or grave, or peynte; for I dar wel seyn,
Apelles, Zanzis, sholde werche in veyn,
Outher to grave or peynte or forge or bete,
If they presumed me to countrefete.
For he that is the former principal
Hath maked me his vicaire general,
To forme and peynten erthely creaturis
Right as me list, and ech thing in my cure is
Under the mone, that may wane and waxe,
And for my werk right no-thing wol I axe;
My lord and I ben ful of oon accord;
I made hir to the worship of my lord.'"[49]
What is of especial interest for our purposes is found in the five lines
of this passage beginning "For he that is the former principal," etc.
"Former principal" means 'creator principal' or the chief creator. God is
the chief creator; therefore there must be other or inferior creators.
Nature is a creator of inferior rank whom God has made his "vicaire" or
deputy and whose work it is to create and preside over all things beneath
the sphere of the moon.