[4] We may mention another historical allusion in Piers Ploughman, which seems to involve a chronological difficulty; the dry April in the mayoralty of John Chichester, 1. 8567. It appears clear that this is an allusion to a remarkable drought in the year 1351, which answers precisely to a calculation of the date given in the text, in which all the manuscripts that I have consulted agree. But the only year in which Chichester is said to have been mayor was 1368-9 according to some, or 1369-70 according to others. Stowe (as quoted in the note on this passage) has altered the text of Piers Ploughman to suit the year in which Chichester is known to have been mayor: yet there can be little doubt (even from the allusion to the treaty of Bretigny) that the poem itself was composed before that date, and therefore the same or another Chichester had probably been mayor before. [5] Political Songs, p. 240. [6] This terrible calamity was said by the astrologers to have been brought about by an extraordinary conjunction of Saturn with the other planets, which happened scarcely once in a thousand years. An astrologer and physician, who witnessed its effects, Symon de Covino, has left a Latin poem on the subject under the title _De Judicio Solis in Conviviis Saturni_, in which he describes Saturn as indulging his malevolence towards the human race by obtaining a judgment against men for their sins. This opinion is alluded to in Piers Ploughman, l. 4453, "And so seide Saturne, And sente yow to warne." The influence of this planet was represented by astrologers as being peculiarly noxious, as is expressed in the following old distich:-- "Jupiter atque Venus boni, Saturnusque malignus, Sol et Mercurius cum Luna sunt mediocres." [7] "Qui male pastus erat fragili virtute ciborum, Labitur exiguo percussus flamine cladis: Indeque Saturni vulgus, pauperrima turba, Grata morte cadunt, quia vivere talibus est mors. Post quos lunares pereunt et mercuriales. Et sic debilior succumbit in ordine primo: Post alii tandem pestem secuntur eamdem. Sed dea principibus et nobilibus, generosis, Militibus, seu judicibus fera Parca pepercit. Raro cadunt tales, quia talibus est data vita Dulcis in hoc mundo, quam gloria laudat inanis." _Symon de Covino_, in the _Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Chartes_, tom. ii. p 236.