In Orality and Performance in Early French Romance I examined at length one important type of performance of narrative in the Middle Ages: recitation of verse romances from memory by minstrels and other performers. Here I will take up a very different sort of performance of romance, but one which was no less significant to medieval culture: erotic reading as a performance mode.

First, some definitions: The term erotic refers both to the reading material, which is about love—typically drawn from romance—and to the effect of the reading, which results in the formation of a couple, and frequently in sexual intercourse. Thus, one might also term this an erotogenic reading; it was a sort of medieval soft pornography (pornographic in that it was sexually stimulating; soft in that it was romantic rather than obscene or hard-edged). As to performance: I am inclined to define this term very broadly, as encompassing any fashion in which verbal/literary material is actualized; thus, any and all modes by which works are brought to life and drawn to the attention of an audience can be called performance (this would include private, silent reading). In these pages, however, by the terms performance and re-performance, I especially wish to emphasize the voiced and physical elements of reading aloud, as well as the readers’ imitation of the characters whose stories they read, and then reenact in their own lives. Thus, my concerns here are with the act of reading in its physical, dramatic and interpersonal aspects—as performance in quite a strong sense of that word. In erotic reading, the voiced and embodied performance of the narrative text moves the inscribed readers, who identify with the characters, to imitate immediately the lovers whose story they have just read.

The prevalence of erotic reading appears to have promoted the success of the romance genre in the Middle Ages. It is also true, however, that some authors expressed ethical concern about this kind of reading as performance since it was often associated with immoral behavior—specifically, extra-marital sex.

Three scenes exemplify the major elements of erotic reading as performance.