A View of Chaucer's Astronomy.

Author/Editor
Smyser, Hamilton M.

Title
A View of Chaucer's Astronomy.

Published
Smyser, Hamilton M. "A View of Chaucer's Astronomy." Speculum 45 (1970): 359-73.

Review
Smyser sets out to determine whether Chaucer's interest in astronomy is characteristic "of fourteenth-century attitudes" or "primarily an individual interest and aptitude" (360). In general Smyser notes, nobody before Chaucer was interested in astronomy, but rather only in astrology. He takes Gower as a case-in-point, arguing that "Gower is in no sense an astronomer but only a compiler of astronomical-astrological data" because he fails "to grasp the concept of the zodiac" (361-63). [RFY. Copyright. John Gower Society eJGN 41.2.]

Date
1970

Gower Subjects
Backgrounds and General Criticism