JUSSERAND, J. J., _History of English Poetry_. Vol. II. London. 1895. KITTREDGE, G. L., _Chaucer and His Poetry_. Harvard University Press. 1915. LEGOUIS, EMILE, _Geoffrey Chaucer_. Trans. by L. Lailavoix. London. 1913. LOUNSBURY, T. R., _Studies in Chaucer_. New York. 1892. MORLEY, HENRY, _English Writers_. Vol. V. London. 1887 ff. ROOT, ROBERT K., _The Poetry of Chaucer_. Boston and New York. 1906. TATLOCK, JOHN S. P., "Astrology and Magic in Chaucer's _Franklin's Tale_." Kittredge Anniversary Papers. 1913. TATLOCK, JOHN S. P., _The Scene of the Franklin's Tale Visited_. Chaucer Society Publications. 1914. FOOTNOTES: [1] The name of Ptolemy occurs once in _The Somnours Tale_ (D. 2289): "As wel as Euclide or (as) Ptholomee." and once in _The Astrolabe_, I. 17.6: "whiche declinacioun, aftur Ptholome, is 23 degrees and 50 minutes, as wel in Cancer as in Capricorne." The _Almagest_ is mentioned in _The Milleres Tale_ (A.3208): "His Almageste and bokes grete and smale," Twice in _The Wif of Bathes Prologue_ occur both the name of the _Almagest_ and that of its author: "'Who-so that nil be war by othere men, By him shul othere men corrected be. The same wordes wryteth Ptholomee; Rede in his Almageste, and take it there.'" (D. 180-183) "Of alle men y-blessed moot he be, The wyse astrologien Dan Ptholome, That seith this proverbe in his Almageste, 'Of alle men his wisdom is the hyeste, That rekketh never who hath the world in honde.'" (D. 323-327) Professor Lounsbury (_Studies in Chaucer_, ii p. 186 and pp. 396-7) has difficulty in explaining why Chaucer makes the Wife of Bath attribute these moral maxims to Ptolemy. He is inclined to think that Chaucer, so to speak, was napping when he put these utterances into the mouth of the Wife of Bath; yet elsewhere he acknowledges that the supposition of confused memory on Chaucer's part in this case is hard to reconcile with the knowledge he elsewhere displays of Ptolemy's work. I think it very probable that Chaucer's seeming slip here is deliberate art. The Wife of Bath is one of Chaucer's most humorous creations and the blunders he here attributes to her are quite in keeping with her character. From her fifth husband, who was a professional scholar and a wide reader, she has picked up a store of scattered and incomplete information about books and names, and she loses no opportunity for displaying it. At any rate, whether or not Chaucer had read the _Almagest_ in translation, his many cosmological and astronomical references show clearly his acquaintance with the Ptolemaic system of astronomy. [2] An Arabian scholar of the eighth century. [3] 1.18 ff. "This tretis, divided in fyve parties, wole I shewe thee under ful lighte rewles and naked wordes in English; for Latin ne canstow yit but smal, my lyte sone."