On the 18th of April, 1388, Libra Min al auwâ, and the moon, rose together about half-past three P. M. in the neighbourhood of Canterbury; and Tyrwhitt, alluding to the writing of the _Canterbury Tales_, "_could hardly suppose it was much advanced before 1389!_" Such a coincidence is more than remarkable--it is convincing: especially when we add to it that 1388 "is the very date that, by a slight and probable injury to the last figure, might become the _traditional_ one of 1383!" Should my view, therefore, of the true reading of this passage in Chaucer be correct, it becomes of infinitely greater interest and importance than a mere literal emendation, because it supplies that which has always been supposed wanting to the _Canterbury Tales_, viz., some means of identifying the year to which their action ought to be attributed. Hitherto, so unlikely has it appeared that Chaucer, who so amply furnishes materials for the minor branches of the date, should leave the year unnoted, that it has been accounted for in the supposition that he reserved it for the unfinished portion of his performance. But if we consider the ingenious though somewhat tortuous methods resorted to by him to convey some of the other data, it is by no means improbable that he might really have devised this circumstance of the moon's rising as a means of at least _corroborating_ a date that he might intend to record afterwards in more direct terms. A. E. B. P.S.--Since writing the foregoing I have obtained, through the kindness of Mr. Thoms, the several readings of the lines commented upon in six different MSS. in the British Museum. And I have great satisfaction in finding that five out of the six confirm my hypothesis, at least with respect to the uncertain spelling of "alway." The readings in respect of the two words are these: I meene alweye. In mena alway. I mene allweye. In mene allwey. I mene alweie. I mene alwaye.