Je is equivalent to e in there. The sound in sieve is modern.

O long is equivalent to oa in boar. Oo had the same value.

O short is equivalent to o in got, nearly.

Oi is equivalent to oo'ee, as in wooing, nearly.
Ou had three sounds :-

1. Oo in boot was the most common, as in schoures, flour, pourchase, south, ploughman, pronounced shoo'ress, floor, poorchass, sooth, ploochman. In the last example ch stands for the sound of ch in the Scotch loch, and the German licht.

2. U in pull, put. This is not very common, but is found in boucleer, of which the last syllable is sounded like ere in there.

3. Ou in soul, ow in snow.

This is found in

words having aw, or ow in very Early English.

Yknow, though, i-kno-oo, tho-oo-ch.

Ow has the sounds of ou just mentioned.

U long is equivalent to the

occurs in French words only. comes near it.

German ❞ and

The u in tune

U short is equivalent to u in bull, never u in but.

W vowel is equivalent to u, or oo, as wdę, herberwe, oodë, herberoo.

ON READING CHAUCER.

CV

In compiling these brief directions the effort has been to make them as simple and comprehensive as possible. In reading Chaucer it should be remembered that even the writers of the present day cannot all be understood fully without a dictionary. Many of the words used by Emerson, Browning, or Ruskin are not completely comprehended by the ordinary reader at first sight. When Mr. Lowell writes of the "secular leisures of Methuselah," it is probable that all do not immediately understand him to use the word "secular" in its primary sense; and when Mr. Longfellow entitled his lines to Tennyson "Wapentake," not a few were surprised to find the word in their dictionaries. It is by no means strange if we meet many words that we do not fully understand in a poet who lived half a millennium ago. The real wonder is that we can read Chaucer as readily as we can. He is much more easily read than is the "Vision concerning Piers the Plowman," of the same date.

ASTROLOGICAL TERMS AND DI

VISIONS OF TIME.

AN acquaintance with the terms of astrology and with the nomenclature of divisions of time in use in the fourteenth century is a help to the understanding of many passages in Chaucer. Much light has been thrown on these subjects by the Rev. Mr. Skeat, in his edition of Chaucer's treatise on the Astrolabe, and by Mr. Furnivall in his "Trial Forewords to Chaucer's Minor Poems," from which the following remarks have been compiled.

The astrologers seemed to derive from Aristotle the notion that the heavenly bodies were ensouled, and that a power flowed out from them to affect human beings. The translators' expression "sweet influences of Pleiades " (Job xxxviii. 31) is a relic of this belief. Upon the relative positions of the planets were founded predictions and rules for action.

Houses, Mansions, Lords. The celestial

ASTROLOGICAL TERMS.

cvii

sphere was divided into twelve equal portions by six circles which passed through the north and south points of the horizon. Two of the circles were the meridian and the horizon. The portions were called Houses or Mansions. Each House is assigned to one of the heavenly bodies, which is called its Lord.

Exaltation. The Exaltation of a planet is that degree of a sign in which it has its greatest power.

-

Dejection. The Dejection of a planet is the sign opposite its Exaltation.

Combust. A planet is said to be combust when it is so near the sun as to have its own light extinguished. "Troylus and Cryseyde,"

iii. 717.

Fall. The Fall of a planet is the sign opposite its Mansion.

1. Aries is the mansion of Mars, and the exaltation of the Sun.

2. Taurus is the mansion of Venus, and the exaltation of the Moon.

3. Gemini is the mansion of Mercury, and the exaltation of the Dragon's Head.

4. Cancer is the mansion of the Moon, and the exaltation of Jupiter.

5. Leo is the mansion of the Sun, and the exaltation of none.

6. Virgo is the mansion of Mercury, and the exaltation of Mercury.

7. Libra is the mansion of Venus, and the exaltation of Saturn.

8. Scorpio is the mansion of Mars, and the exaltation of none.

9. Sagittarius is the mansion of Jupiter, and the exaltation of the Dragon's Tail.

10. Capricorn is the mansion of Saturn, and the exaltation of Mars.

II. Aquarius is the mansion of Saturn, and the exaltation of none.

12. Pisces is the mansion of Jupiter, and the exaltation of Venus.

This arrangement is that of Mr. Skeat (compiled from Raphael's "Manual of Astrology," London, 1828); but Mr. Brae, another editor of Chaucer's "Astrolabe," dissents from it.

The Houses have also the following names : I. The House of Life; II. Of Riches; III. Of Brothers; IV. Of Parents; V. Of Children; VI. Of Health; VII. Of Marriage; VIII. Of Death; IX. Of Religion; X. Of Dignities; XI. Of Friends; XII. Of Enemies.

Powers of the Houses. Each of the Houses has a different Power, the first, the House of