The Condition of Creatures: Suffering and Action in Chaucer and Spenser

Description: Examines the commonplace theme of "agere et pati" (to act and to suffer) in the works of Chaucer and Spenser, especially KnT and books 1-4 of Spenser's "The Faerie Queene," exploring oppositions between deed and emotion, action and passion, and agency and patience. In KnT, the active Theseus learns to espouse sufferance, and the imagery of constraint enforces the need for human forbearance in the face of cosmic determinism. Generally, Chaucer's works emphasize patience, compromise, and other forms of acceptance without undue struggle (bargains, treaties, promises, and games), perhaps a reflection of his political life.