Black Monday (1652)
Observing the Eclipse
When the Moon’s shadow eclipsed the Sun’s light in August 2017, many North Americans had the opportunity to observe a total solar eclipse for the first time in nearly forty years. Extensive coverage in the media and on social media made this a highly anticipated event. Likewise, the total solar eclipse predicted for March 29, 1652 was also highly anticipated. Dubbed “Black Monday,” this event was commemorated in astrological and astronomical treatises, almanacs, poems, and sermons.
It is impossible to know whether Hester Pulter observed a lunar or solar eclipse; however, “The Eclipse” describes both astronomical events and also foregrounds the experience of observing. Gathered here are sources about “Black Monday” that suggest the broad range of contexts for the observation of eclipses during the seventeenth century.
The Eclipse as Portent
Eclipses were traditionally interpreted as political portents; they were often cited as heralds of leaders’ downfalls or other calamities. “Black Monday” resulted in numerous publications demonstrating both credulous and skeptical responses to its portentous significance. The excerpts here include an astrologer’s predictions, a satirical ballad, and a sermon, which suggest a wide range of responses to “Black Monday.”
William Lilly was one of the most famous astrologers during this period and he published several works that put forth prognostications based on Black Monday. In Annus Tenebrosus or the Dark Year, he explains that the eclipse of March 1652 is the “greatest this Age hath beheld,” which means that readers “may expect accidents or effects to follow suitable to the greatnesse” (24). His book includes technical and scientific information about the prediction of eclipses and what observers can expect to see during the eclipse, but the work’s focus is political prediction based on astrology, or, in other words, precise location of the planets and other astronomical objects during the event. Some of these predictions are remarkably specific, such as the following description of its consequences for Parliament:
The time of the events signified by this Eclips, ending a little after that time which this present Parliament seems to have voted to give a period to their sitting; it is therefore very probably to be gathered from the effects of this Eclipse, that in good earnest the Souldier and People will join in one for calling a New Representative in this Commonwealth: for the Moon, who signifieth the People, eclipseth the Sun; as if nothing would satisfie our earnest desires but that which perhaps it had been better for us to decline, it being more easier to repair an old house, then build a new.
While astronomers had predicted a total solar eclipse for March 29, 1652, over most of England, only a partial solar eclipse was visible. As a result, publications after the event mocked astrologers who predicted dire events (and the people who believed them). The anonymous ballad Bugbear Black Monday mocks the many Londoners who fled the city out of superstitious fear:
- And why (ye frighted Women!) do ye shake?
- Must an Eclipse needs make the Earth to quake?
- The Heavens their order, and due motion keep.
- Why you disord’red? startle? sigh? and weep?
- Why load ye Coaches and forsake the place?
- As ye confest, its sin were ev’n past grace?
Like Pulter, some observers used the eclipse as an opportunity for spiritual reflection. In a sermon preached at St. Paul’s on the Sunday before the eclipse (and published shortly after), Fulke Bellers creates an analogy between the shadow of the Moon that blocks the light of the Sun during a solar eclipse and the eclipsing effects of Sin on an individual believer’s relationship with Christ:
And so when the dense body of the Moon interposeth it self between us and the Sun, it causeth a Solar eclipse. These are the natural causes of them. And so it is in regard of our spiritual eclipses, when as the condensed clouds of our sins ascend over our heads, and stand as the Moon between us and Christ, presently we come into an eclipse, in regard of our comfort.
Almanacs and the Observation of Eclipses
One common source of astronomical information in the seventeenth century was the almanac, a yearly publication that gathered useful information about geography, weather, history, and culture in a single relatively inexpensive and accessible format. Almanacs were headed by calendar pages for each month. These pages had space for users to make notes and also usually included holidays, the phases of the moon, and other important events along with partial and total solar and lunar eclipses. The almanacs for 1652 make note of the occurrence of both a lunar and solar eclipse during the month of March, sometimes encouraging readers to observe the events. For instance, the calendar page for March of Vincent Wing’s 1652 almanac explains the eclipse in technical terms and reminds readers that they will not be able to observe the like again:
The Sun Eclipsed 12. Deg. The 29. Day at 10 before noon. Not a man now living ever saw the like before in England, nor shall hardly ever see the like again; therefore it will be worth your Observation.
Almanacs provided technical and practical information that could aid readers in gaining a scientific understanding of eclipses and allow them to observe a solar eclipse safely. Pond’s almanac for 1652 includes instructions for predicting eclipses and also the following advice, which would certainly be necessary in an age before the widespread availability of light-blocking eclipse glasses:
Take a burning-glass, such as men use to light tobacco within the sunne; or a spectacle-glasse that is thick in the middle, such as is for the eldest sight; and hold this glasse in the sunne as if you would burn through it a pastboard a or white paper book, or such like; and draw the glasse from the board or book, twice so farre as you do to burn with it: so by direct holding it nearer or further, as you shall see best, you may behold upon your board, the round body of the sun, and how the moon passeth between the glasse and the sun during the whole time of the eclipse.
This mayest thou practise before the time of an eclipse, wherein thou shalt discern any cloud passing under the sunne: or by putting or holding a bullet or his fingers end betwixt the sun and the glasse at such time (The sunne shining) as though holdest the glasse as before thou are taught.
Further reading
- William E. Burns, “‘The Terriblest Eclipse That Hath Been Seen in Our Days’: Black Monday and the Debate on Astrology During the Interregnum.” In Rethinking the Scientific Revolution, edited by Margaret J. Osler, 137-52. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.