:o(

One of the effects of having an English teacher for a father was that we were exposed to some bizzare literature LONG before we (ok, I!) was capable of understanding it! This, for example, was something I could recite by-heart, without ever getting it when I was in Class III!

"Tragedie is to seyn a certeyn storie,
As olde bokes maken us memorie,
Of him that stood in greet prosperitee
And is y-fallen out of heigh degree
Into miserie, and endeth wrecchedly."*

Anyway, it took some Googling around to dig it out, coz there were just phrases that were still wedged in my brain. Bits of it came back to me (and I undertand it now) after watching Zidane last night :o(

* Chaucer's definition of a Tragedy, Prologue to The Monk's Tale