English wayfaring life in the middle ages : (xivth century) / by J.J. Jusserand ... tr. from the French by Lucy Toulmin Smith.

  • Jean Jules Jusserand
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: English wayfaring life in the middle ages : (xivth century) / by J.J. Jusserand ... tr. from the French by Lucy Toulmin Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    394/462 (page 388)
    moon is the planet assignée! them on this account. According to Gower, it is owing to her that they visit so many countries afar off : “ What man under his [Le., the moon’s] powerc Is bore, he shall his place chaunge And seche many londes straunge ; And as of this condicion The mones disposicion Upon the londe of Alemaigne Is set, and eke upon Britaigne, Which now is cleped Engelonde, For they travaile in every londe.” ‘ Wyclif places them under the patronage of the same planet, but draws different conséquences from it ; 2 and Ralph Higden the chronicler expresses himself in these ternis, which seem prophétie, they hâve proved so exact : That people are curious enough that they may know and tell the wonders that they hâve seen ; they cultivate other régions, and succeed still better in distant coun- tries than in their own, . . . wherefore it is that they are spread so wide through the earth, considering every other land that they inhabit as their own country. 1 “Confessio Amantis,” vol iii. p. 109 (Pauli’s édition). 2 Hc says the English are vvanting in perseverance, “Et hinc secundum astronoinos lunain habent planetani propriam, cj^ux in inotu et lumine est inagis instabilis” (“Fasciculi Z'izanioruni^ edited by Dr. Shirley, p. 270, Rolls Sériés). Caxton at the point of the Renaissance also considers the moon as exccUnue the planet of the English : “ For we englysshe men ben borne vnder the domynacyon ot the mone, whiche is neuer stedfaste but euer wauerynge” (Prologue to his “ Boke of Eneydes compyled by Vyrgyle,” 1+90).