The Cock and the Clock: Telling Time in Chaucer’s Day

The Cock and the Clock: Telling Time in Chaucer's Day Linne R. Mooney University ofMaine The sonne fro the south lyne was descended So !owe that he nas nat, to my sighte, Degrees nyne and twenty as in highte. Foure of the clokke it was tho, as I gesse, For ellevene foot, or lite! moore or Jesse, My shadwe was at thilke tyme, as there Of swiche feet as my lengthe parted were In sixe feet equal of proporcioun. Thetwith the moones exaltacioun I meene Libra- alwey gan ascende As we were entryng at a thropes ende;.... The Parson's Prologue 2-121 wTifESE WORDS, in thePrologue to TheParwn} T,le, nm the end of The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer emphasizes that it was four o'clock in the afternoon ofa mid-Aprilday, nearing the end ofthe day and the end of the pilgrimage, by referring to the time as calculated in three different manners: by angle (or height) ofthe sun, by shadow length, and by position ofthe zodiac. For us moderns "foure ofthe clokke," at line 5, is the only reference that immediately connotes time ofday. In Chaucer's 1 All citations of Chaucer's works are from Larry D. Benson, gen. ed., The Riverside Chaucer, 3d ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987). For a discussion of the astronomical reading of these lines, see J. C. Eade, The Forgotten Sky: A Guide to Astrology in English Literature (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984), pp. 137-41. 91 STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER time people calculated time ofday by a number ofmethods, depending on their learning, their occupation, or their proximity to time-telling devices. Apparently even those like Chaucer learned in the various methods some­ times found them confusing: Chaucer makes an error in the passage just quoted when he says that Libra is the moon's exaltation; in fact, Taurus is the moon's exaltation, while Libra is Saturn's.2 People in the fourteenth century had inherited from the classical world a number ofmethods for telling time. Through examining two almanacs, or calendars, written by Chaucer's contemporaries and Chaucer's own refer­ ences to time, I havediscoveredthatmany ofthese methods for telling time were still in use and that at least the two almanac writers and Chaucer were in the habit of citing the time by several methods consecutively, as if to compare them. What is more surprising is the evidence that these writers give ofthe growing preeminence ofclock time among the methods as early as the last quarter of the fourteenth century, when historical and archae­ ological data suggest that there were still relatively few clocks in England. The two almanac writers are John Somer and Nicholas of Lynn, who compiled calendars in 1380 and 1386, respectively, to cover the seventy-six yearsfrom 1387 to 1462.3 Their astronomical calendars presented informa­ tion about times of sunrise and sunset, about conjunctions of sun and moon, and about the height of the sun at midday, as well as other astronomical or astrological data on month-by-month calendars of saints' days and other religious festivals, together with tables ofeclipses and other tables of astronomical, astrological, or medical importance. Chaucer was clearly acquainted with these astronomical calendars and their use, since he proposed to include tables from them in the unfinishedor now lost Part3 of his Treatise on the Astrolabe (lines 77-86): The thirde partie shal contene diverse tables oflongitudes and latitudes ofsterres fixe for the Astrelabie, and tables of the declinacions of the sonne, and tables of longitudes ofcitees and townes; and tables as well for the governaunce ofa clokke, 2 An exaltation is a degree in a sign ofthe zodiac in which a planet is thought to have its greatest power to influence earthly affairs. The exaltations are as follows: moon, 3 degrees in Taurus; Mercury, 15 degrees in Virgo; Venus, 27 degrees in Pisces; Sun, 19 degrees in Aries; Mars, 28 degrees in Capricorn; Jupiter, 15 degrees in Cancer; Saturn, 21 degrees in Libra; Dragon's Head, 3 degrees in Gemini; and Dragon's Tail, 3 degrees in Sagittarius. See Eade, Forgotten Sky, pp. 64-65. 3 ForNicholasofLynn'sKalendan·um seetheeditionofSigmundEisner, The Kalendarium ofNicholas ofLynn...