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.
3183. _fillen_, fell. _nas no_, for _ne was no_, a double negative. Cf. Ch.
tr. of Boethius--'the olde age of tyme passed, and eek of present tyme now,
is ful of ensaumples how that kinges ben chaunged in-to wrecchednesse out
of hir welefulnesse'; bk. iii. pr. 5. 3.
3186. The Harl. MS. has--'Ther may no man the cours of hir whiel holde,'
which Mr. Wright prefers. But the reading of the Six-text is well enough
here; for in the preceding line Chaucer is speaking of Fortune under the
image of a person fleeing away, to which he adds, that no one can _stay her
course_. Fortune is also sometimes represented as stationary, and holding
an ever-turning wheel, as in the Book of the Duchesse, 643; but that is
another picture.
3188. _Be war by_, take warning from.