'And kis the steppes wheras thou seest pace
Virgile, Ovyde, Omer, Lucan, and Stace.'
Lucan is expressly cited in B. 401, 3909.
3170. In prose. For example, Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum and De Claris Mulieribus contain 'tragedies' in Latin prose. Cf. ll. 3655, 3910.
3171. in metre. For example, the tragedies of Seneca are in various metres, chiefly iambic. See also note to l. 3285.
3177. After hir ages, according to their periods; in chronological order. The probable allusion is to Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum, which begins with Adam and Nimrod, and keeps tolerably to the right order. For further remarks on this, shewing how Chaucer altered the order of these Tragedies in the course of revision, see vol. iii. p. 428.
The Monkes Tale.
For some account of this Tale, see vol. iii. p. 427.
3181. Tragédie; accented on the second syllable, and riming with remédie; cf. B. 3163. Very near the end of Troilus and Criseyde, we find Chaucer riming it with comédie. That poem he also calls a tragedie (v. 1786)—
'Go, litel book, go, litel myn tragédie,' &c.