Consuming Compassion: Feast, Fast, and Charity in George Herbert

Abstract

Abstract:This article explores George Herbert's engagement with concepts of practical and spiritual charity through close attention to the language of feast, fast, and feeding others in The Temple and The Countrey Parson. Arguing that an intensely bodily conception of compassion works as a vital hinge between the literal and metaphorical understandings of feeding and eating throughout Herbert's writing, the article focuses on a recurring image of the beggar at the door as a potent distillation of Herbert's pastoral and poetic understanding of human charity.