es already appended
to well-known editions of the text.

Now the precise explanation of the planetary distribution of the
twenty-four hours of the day, given by [Greek: e]. in the first portion of
his communication, was anticipated seventy or eighty years ago by Tyrwhitt
in his note upon the same passage of Palamon and Arcite. And with respect
to [Greek: e].'s second explanation of the meaning of "houre inequal," that
expression also has been commented upon by Tyrwhitt, who attributes it to
the well-known expansive duration of ancient hours, the length of which was
regulated by that of the natural day at the several seasons of the year:
hence an _inequality_ always existed; except at the equinoxes, between
hours before, and hours after, sunrise. This is undoubtedly the true
explanation, since Chaucer was, at the time, referring to hours before and
after sunrise upon the same day. On the contrary, [Greek: e].'s ecliptic
hours, if they ever existed at all (he has cited no authority), would be
obviously incompatible with the planetary disposition of the hours first
referred to.

I shall now, in my turn, suggest explanations of the two new difficulties
in Chaucer's text, to {202} which, at the conclusion of his note, [Greek:
e]. has drawn attention.

The first is, that, "with respect to the time of year at which the
tournament takes place, there seems to be an inconsistency." Theseus fixes
"this day fifty wekes" from the fourth of May, as the day on which the
final contention must come off, and yet the day previous to the final
contention is afterwards alluded to as "the lusty seson of that May,"
which, it is needless to say, would be inconsistent with an interval of
fifty _ordinary_ weeks.

But fifty weeks, if taken in their literal sense of 350 days, would be a
most unmeaning interval for Theseus to fix upon,--it would almost require
explanation as much as the difficulty itself: it is therefore much easier
to suppose that Chaucer meant to imply the interval of a solar year. Why he
should choose to express that interval by fifty, rather than by fifty-two,
weeks, may be surmised in two ways: first, because the latter phrase would
be unpoetical and unmanageable; and, secondly, because he might fancy that
the week of the Pagan Theseus would be more appropriately represented by a
lunar quarter than by a Jewish hebdomad.

Chaucer sometimes makes the strangest jumble--mixing up together Pagan
matters and Christian, Roman an