Chaucer's Prioress: Et Nos Cedamus Amori Author(s): Joseph P. McGowan Source: The Chaucer Review, Vol. 38, No. 2 (2003), pp. 199-202 Published by: Penn State University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25094245 . Accessed: 17/11/2014 18:03 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected].
.
Penn State University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Chaucer Review.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 74.217.196.6 on Mon, 17 Nov 2014 18:03:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
CHAUCER'S PRIORESS:
ET NOS CEDAMUSAMORI byJoseph P. McGowan It iswith some trepidation that one would venture to say anything about the Prioress's brooch, its "crowned A," and the hemistich taken as motto, is fairly often "Amor vincit omnia."1 The ultimate source of the hemistich often is noted the diversionary argument (Virgil, EcloguesX.69),2 though made that Chaucer had the half-line via an intermediary source, namely Le Roman de laRose (line 21,332) .3This is hardly necessary, for even in the the line from Virgil was known whole, not just by Anglo-Saxon period or from glossary lemmata. For example, hemistich in Oxford, Bodleian a collection of Old homilies from the mid 85, Library MSJunius English eleventh additions in of hands the twelfth and thirteenth (with century one et nos finds the line "omnia uincit Amor: cedamus Amori" centuries), of twice.4 quoted Knowledge poets such as Virgil by early Anglo-Latin Aldhelm and Alcuin was fairly extensive, and knowledge of Virgil first hand only improved in the later English medieval Thus have crit period.5 ics recorded
the
source
and
often
noted
its secular
and
nature,
then
they
leave Virgil behind to pursue just what sort of amor ismeant and just what the brooch's betokens. In examining the portrait of the inscription Prioress in conjunction with her tale of the "litel clergeon" (VII 503), Alan if the Prioress Gaylord noted in passing: "Could one ever seriously wonder that
'thought'
remark
Amor
contained
is in part a rebuttal For
the motto
on
the
even
a
trace
of
of John Livingston Prioress'
brooch
earthly
love?"6
Gaylord's
Lowe's musings: was
a convention
with
a his
tory. The line ("love conquers all things") is, as everybody knows, from one of Virgil's Eclogues. There it refers, of course, to the way of a man with a maid. But by a pious transfer, which took place before and behind had it the Chaucer, long strange jumble of was mediaeval to the about the line converted superstitions Virgil, use of love celestial. Now is it now love that all, conquers earthly the two. And it heavenly; the phrase plays back and forth between is precisely that happy ambiguity of the convention?itself the
THE
CHAUCER REVIEW, Vol. 38, No. 2, 2003. ? 2003 The Pennsylvania State University,
Copyright
University
Park,
PA
This content downloaded from 74.217.196.6 on Mon, 17 Nov 2014 18:03:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
200
THE CHAUCER
result
of
as a final
an
earlier
transfer?that
makes
love
stroke.
Which
I do not know;
to the Prioress?
she meant
use
Chaucer's
a master
touch,
summarizing
does "amor" mean thought
REVIEW
of
it here,
two of the
loves
I think
she
but
celestial.7
"As everybody remark may be a bit too eagerly dismissive. But Gaylord's to Lowe, the hemistich is taken from Virgil?that knows," according "everybody"
Chaucer's
meaning
presumably
also
and
critics,
clearly
the Prioress, and a number of the other pilgrims in including Chaucer, their company. Chaucer's Prioress would hear plenty enough about love earthly along the way to Canterbury. That her name would call to mind the romances (such as Blanchardyn and Eglantine) may or may not be sec memo ularly suggestive,8 but Madame Eglentyne would have read (and rized at least in part) her Virgil, and she would have known the Tenth Eclogue.
too,
Chaucer,
could
an
expect
of his
audience
not
to know
day
half. The but also its complementary only the source of the hemistich for hemistich pressed into service as motto, however commonly modified was purpose,9 religious references other passing amor The Stace."10 and to wonder
whether
the
o?
the
such
Prioress's the motto
species
less
classical?no
transparently to authors
so
than
any
of
the
as
Lucan, Ovide, Orner, "Virgile, one cause could brooch certainly to celes is than the refers other
it was only earthly love Virgil further whether tial. One might wonder to. himself referred Gallus that is, Cornelius When Virgil sings his song for Gallus, (70/ was friend fellow poet, both and the soldier who 69-27/26 BC), Virgil's he be
laments sung,
the perhaps
"Amor"
toll
has
taken.
a reconciliation,12
to effect
non
Amor
nee
talia
cytiso
tur
curat,
nee gramina
lacrimis crudelis Amor saturan
left Gallus
nee
apes
fronde
riuis capellae.
(X.28-30)
cares
Love
pastures nor and
bees cruel
never have of
clover
Love
nor
never
not
for
such
their fill of fresh goats has
the
song
is to
heartbroken
Sylvanus, and finally Arcadia's of the the first direct mention
in Arcadia; shepherds, Menalcas, Apollo, god Pan come to him there. Pan makes god of Love:
nee
to whom
Lycoris,11 has
of enough
green of
things,
streams leaves: tears.13
This content downloaded from 74.217.196.6 on Mon, 17 Nov 2014 18:03:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Gallus's
lament
motto:
"omnia
closes with
(lines 31-69)
et nos
Amor:
uincit
201
P. MCGOWAN
JOSEPH
the line supplying
cedamus
Amori"
the Prioress's
(Love
all:
conquers
and we must give in to Love). The "Amor" here is of course the god Amor invoked elsewhere in Virgil (or Greek Eros), (e.g., Aeneid IV.412: non tora mortalia pec "improbe Amor, quid cogis!") and other Roman (Ovid,
poets
Amoris
Remedia
36:
"movit
Amor
aureus
gemmatas
aulas"14).
(lines 70-77) ;as he tells the Muses Virgil, as shepherd, closes the Eclogue he his will be (Pi?rides), songs hopes enough, his own love for Gallus grow amor tan turn mihi crescit in horas"). It is the hour cuius ("Gallo, ing by now
to go,
time ...
saturae of Love's
ite
he
and
drives
capellae"). have would
work,
home
No
his
goats ("surgamus a bucolic such picture to the Prioress. And
doubt appealed
. . . ite domum of
love,
the
amor
and por
trayed, both the god of Love himself and Virgil's own love for Gallus, is not strictly earthly?it is celestial too, albeit from profane times. That there could be in the brooch's motto a mixture of the profanely classical with that of the Christianized is nothing out of the ordinary in nor would the Canterbury Tales (or in Troilus for that matter), it involve treatment of Virgil in the medieval Prioress any unusual (the period the medieval, surely knew the Virgil of the Fourth Eclogue, proto Christian of the Augustan Prioress is no refashioning poet). Chaucer's aware
doubt
of
the
as would
allusion,
Virgilian
have
been
con
Chaucer's
motto
temporary readers. The Virgilian may be for her at one and the same time in keeping with of Christian love and expected conceptions laden with remembered reading from school days of classical love stories and
the
romances.
It may
of some smatterings a matter
serious
and
serve
also
(if not more)
(and,
dignified
on account of overreaching, before the Senate, brought
as a bit
of
of classical as
in
an
polish,
learning,
the
advertisement
of love treated as at
romances,
times
tragic:
Cornelius Gallus was recalled from Egypt, and indicted; he died by his own hand in
27/26 BC). Much
has been written of the ambiguity of the details to the Prioress's of Virgil to the discussion would in no way portrait, and the restoration resolve any seeming contradictions. It will not lift the charge that Chaucer's portrait of the Prioress is "his satiric exposure of the Prioress' failings, rather than his amused tolerance of them."15 Nor can it support an entirely "pious" reading of her brooch: amoris also the god Amor of Virgil and Ovid, and that the Prioress may have in mind love other than celestial has been suggested of the line "Hire already by examination is no gretteste ooth was but by Seinte Loy" (I 120). The brooch's motto it to be, suggestive?suggestive of a love proper doubt, as Chaucer meant and Pauline (if ironic in the Prioress's failings with regard to caritas), of a
love
secular
or
popular,
of
the
god
Amor
and
the
conventional
This content downloaded from 74.217.196.6 on Mon, 17 Nov 2014 18:03:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
pains
202
THE CHAUCER
and
heartache
upon
the
ally
he
triggered,
ambiguous
causes
brooch?the
in classical
and
the Virgilian Love
verse.
pastoral
hemistich's
complexity:
REVIEW
complement
message
conquers
all,
Not
all
is understood,
may and
add
we must
is
engraved memori
to the portrait's give
in to it.
University of San Diego San Diego, California (mcgowan @sandiego. edu) from the Canterbury Tales are from The Riverside Chaucer, 1. Lines 161?62; all quotations 3rd edn. (Boston, ed. Larry D. Benson, 1987). from Virgil are taken from P. Vergili Maronis 2. Quotations Opera, ed. R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford, 1969). and Amor Vincit Omnia," Studia Prioress "Chaucer's 3. See, for one, John Finlayson, at 172. 60 (1988): 171-74, Neophilologica to the I owe this reference in the top and left margins; 4. At fol. 44v the line is found Pulsiano. See also N. R. Ker, Catalogue late Phillip Containing ofManuscripts Anglo-Saxon (item 336). (Oxford, 1957), 409-11 and the Prioress' "'Amor Vincit Omnia' E. Jungmann, 5. See, for instance, Robert in his study Virgil 3 (1983): Lore and Language Baswell, 1-7, at 1-3. Christopher Brooch," some thirty-five Virgil manuscripts from inMedieval England 1995), identifies (Cambridge, to Chaucer and traditions of reading equally available "which represent medieval England, sectors of his audience" the more learned (8). (if perhaps quite limited) Tale of the Prioress," "The Unconquered 6. Alan Gaylord, Papers of theMichigan at 623. Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters Al (1962): 613-36, and Revolt in Poetry (Boston, 7. John Livingston Lowe, Convention 1919), 66. cer H. Ridley, note to line 121 (Riverside Chaucer, 804). Laura Kendrick 8. Florence in the name (Chaucerian Play: Comedy and Control in the suggestion tainly sees provocative see too Richard and the "Madame Rex, 1988]); Eglentyne Canterbury Tales [Berkeley, and Other Essays on Chaucer in his uThe Sins of Madame Bankside Brothels," Eglentyne" at 79-80. 1995), 78-94, (Newark, Del., and Other Essays on Chaucer A Lost Language in Sister M. Madaleva's 9. A point made "Chaucer's Use of Signs in His Portrait (New York, 1951), 43. But see also Chauncey Wood, and John J. in Signs and Symbols in Chaucer's Poetry, ed. John P. Hermann of the Prioress," of notes that the alleged at 98. Wood Burke, Jr. (University, Ala., 1981), 81-101, frequency than proven. ismore the "love celestial" presumed interpretation 10. TC V, 1792. as of Antony, mistress described freedwoman taken as Volumnia 11. Usually Cytheris, actress (mima) or prostitute (meretrix): Ad Gallum Cornelium et Volumniam Thecidem meretricem, from Georg Thilo and Hermann of Iunius Philargyrius, quam Lycoridam dicit (commentary 3:1. See also 3 vols. 1887; repr. 1961]), [Hildesheim, eds., Servii Grammatici, Hagen, A Commentary on Virgil: Eclogues Wendell 1994), 288. Clausen, (Oxford, to Vergil's in Edward Coleiro, of views is given trans., An Introduction 12. A summary Bucolics With a Critical Edition of the Text (Amsterdam, 1979), 268-76. 13. My translation. "Love all golden translation: 14. No one seems to have improved upon J. H. Mozley's rev. G. P. Goold his jewelled moved (Ovid, The Art of Love and Other Poems, wings" 1929; 2nd edn., 1979], 180-81). Mass., [Cambridge, 15. Rex, Sins, 129.
This content downloaded from 74.217.196.6 on Mon, 17 Nov 2014 18:03:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
