Abstract
Lak of Stedfastnesse exemplifies the shift prior criticism took from a strictly humanist perspective on Chaucer's work, wherein he eschewed politics, to an understanding of his poetry wherein political references and concerns abound. Reading this poem in light of both the mirror-for-princes genre and traditions of grammatical instruction, the article shows how Chaucer interweaves the concerns of a timebound, contingent, political world with those of the timeless, absolute world of moral values. Through a negotiation between these two worlds, Chaucer suggests how poetry might intervene in ethical practice. Lak of Stedfastnesse reveals how the political becomes a means rather than an end. Neither political nor apolitical, Chaucer forges a middle way to explore the potentialities of language and literature.
