But we may, with patience, learn a few things more from the grouping of the tragedies. Putting aside group (f) as an addition at the time of revision, we may note that group (e) follows (a), for the simple reason that the story of Zenobia is in Boccaccio, whom Chaucer was imitating. We then have only groups (d), (c), and (b) to consider, and we notice at once that Chaucer has purposely somewhat mixed up these; for, if we merely transpose (d) and (c), we bring the tragedy of Nero next that of Crœsus, and immediately preceding it. That is the original order of things, since the stories of Nero and Crœsus are both taken from the Romaunt of the Rose, where they appear together, and Nero preceded Crœsus in Chaucer's work as a matter of course, because his story preceded that of Crœsus in the original. We have thus the pleasure of seeing Chaucer actually at work; he begins with Boccaccio and the Vulgate version of the Bible, drawing upon his recollections[[118]] of Boethius for the story of Hercules; he next takes a leaf or two from the Romaunt of the Rose; the story of Alexander, suggested (see B 3845) by the book of Maccabees, leads him on to write the tragedy of Caesar; then he tires of his work, and breaks off. Returning to it for the purpose of filling up his great work, he adds a few 'modern instances'; mixes up the order of tales; writes an apology for their want of order; humorously assigns them to the Monk, from whom the Host had expected something widely different; and makes the Knight cut him short when the right moment comes. The pilgrims had heard enough about tragedies, and began to want something more cheerful.
The great collection of tragedies which Chaucer may have originally contemplated, in imitation of Boccaccio, was fully carried out by his successor Lydgate, one of whose best works is the 'Falls of Princes.' This poem, written in Chaucer's favourite seven-line stanza, was not, however, taken from Boccaccio directly, but through the version of a Frenchman named Laurent de Premierfait, an ecclesiastic of the diocese of Troyes; see Morley's Eng. Writers, vi. 112, and the excellent dissertation by Dr. Köppel entitled 'Laurents de Premierfait und John Lydgates Bearbeitungen von Boccaccios De Casibus Virorum Illustrium'; München, 1885. Lydgate's poem long continued in favour, and in its turn suggested the famous series of tragedies by Sackville, Baldwin, and others, known by the name of the Mirror for Magistrates; see Morley's First Sketch of Eng. Lit., pp. 335-337. The most interesting point in Lydgate's version is his recognition of Chaucer's Monkes Tale in the following stanza of his prologue:—
'My mayster Chaucer[[119]] with his fressh commedies
Is dede, allas, cheif poete of Bretayne,
That sumtyme made full pitous tragidies;
The "fall of princes" he dide also compleyne,
As he that was of makynge souereyne;
Whom all this londe of right[e] ought preferre,
Sith of oure langage he was the lode-sterre.'
There is a poem entitled the Fall of Princis in the Percy Folio MS., ed. Hales and Furnivall, iii. 168; but it is of no great merit.