Performing the Penitential Psalms in the Middle Ages

Abstract

Performing the Penitential Psalms in the Middle AgesIn his early fifteenth-century paraphrase of the Seven Penitential Psalms, commenting on Psalm 142: 10 'Doce me facere voluntatem tuam, Quia Deus meus tu es' ('Teach me to do your will, because you are my God'), the Franciscan friar Thomas Brampton remarks 'Teche me to performe thy wylle'. 1 'To performe' functions here as a translation of the Vulgate's 'facere'; an alternative translation would be, of course, 'teach me to do thy will'.But 'to performe' is a perfectly valid rendition of 'facere'; indeed, evidence that this word was used to denote a range of actions is provided by the Middle English Dictionary, which, among its definitions of 'performen', offers the following: 2. (a) To act; accomplish (a deed, task, service, etc.), carry out from beginning to end, achieve, perform (a duty, an office, a crime, penance, etc.); make (a pilgrimage); ~up, ~out; (b) to carry out (a promise, agreement, command, threat, law, etc.), fulfill, comply with; satisfy (desire, lust); put into effect or into practice (a plan, purpose); follow (advice); of a dream: come true; ~wille, carry out the request or desire (of sb.), act under the sway (of sb. or sth.) 2 Of these possible sub-definitions, 'to carry out, fulfil, comply with' is most obviously relevant to Brampton.3 The simple act of doing is clearly what _____________ 1 Thomas Brampton's Metrical Paraphrase of the Seven Penitential Psalms, ed. by James R. Kreuzer in Traditio 7 (1949), pp.359-403, p. 403.Thomas Brampton's paraphrase of the Seven Penitential Psalms survives in two versions, conventionally labelled 'A' and 'B'.'A' was edited by W.H. Black (A Paraphrase on the Seven Penitential Psalms in English Verse, ed. by William Henry Black, London 1842 (Percy Society 7)), and 'B' by Kreuzer.For reasons which will be explained later, this paper focuses throughout on 'B'. 2 Middle English Dictionary ed. by Hans Kurath, Sherman M. Kuhn et al, Ann Arbor 1952-2001, O-P, pp.814-815.3 Other definitions (abbreviated) are -1.(a) To complete (work, a task, a course, etc.), finish; (b) of persons: to live out (time); (c) to perfect (sb.or sth.), make perfect, make whole; dedicate (a house), consecrate; not performed, incomplete, imperfect; ~to knouen, know (sth.)perfectly; (d) to complete the number of (sth.), comprise; ~up. 2. (c) to execute (the provisions of a will or testament); pay (costs, debts); (d) to conduct (an examination, operation); make use of (powers); (e) ~to falsnesse, to speak deceitfully; ppl.performed, of a text: discoursed or lectured upon.3. (a) To make or construct (a building, wall, statue, etc.); ben performed, of a building, garment, etc.: be made, be finished; after the performed, after it had been made, after the Creation; (b) ppl.performed (up, of the human body: formed, shaped; (c) ppl.performing up, ?established, ?formed;(d) ppl.

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