2205. See the Teseide, vi. 8; also Our Eng. Home, 22.
2217. _And in hir houre._ 'I cannot better illustrate Chaucer's astrology
than by a quotation from the old Kalendrier de Bergiers, edit. 1500, Sign.
K. ii. b:--"Qui veult savoir comme bergiers scevent quel planete regne
chascune heure du jour et de la nuit, doit savoir la planete du jour qui
veult s'enquerir; et la premiere heure temporelle du soleil levant ce jour
est pour celluy planete, la seconde heure est pour la planete ensuivant, et
la tierce pour l'autre," &c., in the following order: viz. Saturn, Jupiter,
Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury, Luna. To apply this doctrine to the present
case, the first hour of the Sunday, reckoning from sunrise, belonged to the
Sun, the planet of the day; the second to Venus, the third to Mercury, &c.;
and continuing this method of allotment, we shall find that the
twenty-second hour also belonged to the Sun, and the twenty-third to Venus;
so that the hour of Venus really was, as Chaucer says, two hours before the
sunrise of the following day. Accordingly, we are told in l. 2271, that the
third hour after Palamon set out for the temple of Venus, the Sun rose, and
Emily began to go to the temple of Diane. It is not said that this was the
hour of Diane, or the Moon, but it really was; for, as we have just seen,
the twenty-third hour of Sunday belonging to Venus, the twenty-fourth must
be given to Mercury, and the first hour of Monday falls in course to the
Moon, the presiding planet of that day. After this, Arcite is described as
walking to the temple of Mars, l. 2367, in _the nexte houre of Mars_, that
is, the _fourth_ hour of the day. It is necessary to take these words
together, for _the nexte houre_, singly, would signify the _second_ hour of
the day; but that, according to the rule of rotation mentioned above,
belonged to Saturn, as the _third_ did to Jupiter. The _fourth_ was _the
nexte houre of Mars_ that occurred after the hour last named.'--Tyrwhitt.
Thus Emily is two hours later than Palamon, and Arcite is three hours later
than Emily.
2221-64. To be compared with the Teseide, vii. 43-49, and vii. 68.
2224. _Adoun_, Adonis. See Ovid, Met. x. 503.
2233-6. Imitated from Le Rom. de la Rose, 21355-65, q. v.