The Problem of the Performative in Chaucer's Prioress Sequence

Abstract

The Problem of the Performative in Chaucer’s Prioress Sequence William Orth "So for the love of God, this grete emprise Perfourme it out, for now is moste nede." (Troilus and Criseyde, III, 416–17) Situated at the center of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, Troilus's commandment that Pandarus "perfourme it out" marks a point of no return.1 More specifically it signifies the exact moment at which the plans to seduce Criseyde become a plan-in-action. It is here that indecision gives way to decision, thought gives way to act, and romance gives way to tragedy. All this occurs by virtue of a special valence in the language used. Troilus's utterance is in every way a performative utterance. It does something; in other words, it enacts, commits, transforms. That this performative contains the very word perfourme is intriguing. It perhaps tempts us to investigate the passage as one that somehow prefigures or suggests ideas native to contemporary performance and speech-act theory. This temptation is undoubtedly a powerful one. Discovering such proto-awareness in medieval literature would provide deep historical validation for the upstart field of performance theory.2 Regrettably, further analysis makes clear that Troilus's "perfourme," and indeed Chaucer's perform in general, is not at all the "perform" of contemporary theory. The reasons for this are many. Up until the fifteenth century, for instance, perform appears only as a verb, and so the attendant critical-theoretical notions of "performance" and "performer" are absent.3 More importantly, however, the verb refers almost exclusively in Middle English to the finite product of a finite act. (We shall look at two examples of this shortly.) One might perform a chair, therefore, or even a great enterprise, but the notion of performing something like "gender"—a performance that unfolds through reiteration—is a notion absent from Middle English. Additional complications obtain in the fact that the central medieval force of perform is one in which the form subsumes the per. This is to say, Middle English usage typically emphasizes [End Page 196] the object of the performance over its agent: the created over the creator. Thus, while individuals may indeed perform things (beds, books, foundations, promises, great enterprises), they typically do not themselves, in the intransitive sense of the verb, "perform well" or "perform poorly."4 These distinctions are potent ones, and their combined weight makes clear the chasm that exists between medieval and contemporary usage. Again, Chaucer's perfourme is not our own. Having established this general rule, however, I would like now to take up briefly what appears to be a genuine—and remarkable—exception. This occurs late in the Canterbury Tales, in the opening stanza of the prologue of the Prioress's Tale.5 Invoking her Muse, the Prioress states: O Lord, oure Lord, thy name how merveillous Is in this large world ysprad—quod she— For noght oonly thy laude precious Parfourned is by men of dignitee, But by the mouth of children thy bountee Parfourned is, for on the brest soukynge Somtyme shewen they thyn heriynge. (VII 453–59) Setting aside for a moment the performative function of this passage—it is an invocation, after all—let us look simply at how perform operates within its confines. For simplicity's sake, imagine the two clauses containing "parfourned" rearranged into formations in which subject and object rest on either side of the verb. Such an arrangement could look as follows: 1. God's praise ("laude") is performed by men of dignity. 2. God's praise ("heriynge") is performed (sometimes) by children sucking at the breast. Two things are revealed in this arrangement. The first is that a ritual act of praise occupies the subject position in both clauses. The OED notes this usage as a first, and cites it as evidence for a new entry, 7.a: 'To do, go through, or execute formally or solemnly (a duty, public function, ceremony, or rite; a piece of music, a play, etc.).'6 This new entry is necessary because the objects of performance in this passage are ritual: they refer to a repeated action rather than to a concrete "thing." The right side of the...