Arts and Humanities Commons^™

“There Is Nothing More Divine Than These, Except Man”: Thomas Moffett And Insect Sociality, Monique Bourque

Quidditas

When Thoomas Moffett wrote in the Theater of Insects that "there is nothing more divine than these, except Man," he asked his readers some pointed questions about insects, and made some blunt statements:

where is Nature more to be seen than in the smallest matters, where she is entirely all? for in great bodies the workmanship is easie, the matter being ductile; but in these that are so small and despicable, and almost nothing, what care? how great is the effect of it? how unspeakable is the perfection? ... Do you require Prudence? regard the Ant; Do you desire Justice? …

Natural Law And Chaucer's Physician's Tale, Jay Ruud

Quidditas

Of all the Canterbury Tales, the Physician's Tale may well be the least appreciated. Its subject matter is distasteful in itself–a despicable judge abuses his position of public trust and authority by deliberately setting out to obtain an innocent young virgin as an object of lust, while too frustrate the even the victim's father beheads her after cold-blooded premeditation. But if that were not enough, the tale contains at least two apparently incongruous digressions, and the storyteller appends a moral that must make the reader suspect the Narrator has not been listening to his own story. Perhaps a modern …