Lydgate, in his Siege of Thebes, just at the beginning, describes the astronomers as casting the horoscope of the infant Oedipus. They were expected 'to yeue a judgement, The roote i-take at the ascendent, Truly sought out, by minute and degre, The selfe houre of his natiuite, Not foryet the heauenly mansions Clerely searched by smale fraccions,' &c. To take a different example, Ashmole, in his Theatrum Chemicum, 1652, says in a note on p. 450--'Generally in all Elections the Efficacy of the Starrs are (_sic_) used, as it were by a certaine application made thereof to those unformed Natures that are to be wrought upon; whereby to further the working thereof, and make them more available to our purpose.... And by such Elections as good use may be made of the Celestiall influences, as a Physitian doth of the variety of herbes.... But Nativities are the Radices of Elections, and therefore we ought chiefly to looke backe upon them as the principal Root and Foundation of all Operations; and next to them the quality of the Thing we intend to fit must be respected, so that, by an apt position of Heaven, and fortifying the Planets and Houses in the Nativity of the Operator, and making them agree with the thing signified, the impression made by that influence will abundantly augment the Operation,' &c.; with much more to the same effect. Several passages in Norton's Ordinall, printed in the same volume (see pp. 60, 100), shew clearly what is meant by Chaucer in his Prologue, ll. 415-7. The Doctor could 'fortune the ascendent of his images,' by choosing a favourable moment for the making of charms in the form of images, when a suitable planet was in the ascendent. Cf. Troil. ii. 74. 314. _rote_ is the astrological term for the epoch from which to reckon. The exact moment of a nativity being known, the astrologers were supposed to be able to calculate everything else. See the last note. 332. _Alkaron_, the Koran; _al_ is the Arabic article. [153] 333. Here _Makomete_ is used instead of _Mahoun_ (l. 224). See Washington Irving's Life of Mahomet. _message_, messenger. This is a correct form, according to the usages of Middle English; cf. l. 144. In like manner, we find _prison_ used to mean a _prisoner_, which is often puzzling at first sight. 340. 'Because we denied Mahomet, our (object of) belief.'