I seye for me, it is a greet disese,
Whereas men han been in greet welthe and ese,
To heeren of hire sodeyn fal, allas!
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, Prologue of the Nun’s Priest’s Tale. The Knight interrupts the Monk’s tale on the theme of tragedy and how Fortune is fickle. The Monk related a series of 17 tragedies based on the fall from glory of figures like Lucifer, Adam, Hercules, Sampson and Nero. But the Knight says they want to hear no more about people’s sudden fall.