Queer-e Vol. 1 no. 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7. Lisa Quinn [lmquinn@vax2.concordia.ca] Copyright (c) 1995 by Author, all rights reserved. This text may be freely shared among individuals, but it may not be republished in any medium without express written consent from the authors and advance notification of the editors of Queer-e . ----------------------------------------------- Clothes Make the Man: Cross-dresing and Gender Performance in Sidney's _The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia_ Queen Elizabeth I provided the English Renaissance with an excellent and practical model of gender performance: she was a monarch highly conscious of those performances, of both their codes and their effects. Elizabeth's example emphasizes the culturally prescribed nature of gender: she could imitate the stance of her father, Henry VIII, or play the courtly beloved, depending upon the impact she wished to make in a particular situation. In Sir Philip Sidney's _The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia_ <1> the performance of gender is clearly signified by dress; in order for a character to perform a gender other than that which corresponds to their biological sex, they must cross-dress. In the _Arcadia_ there are two striking examples of cross-dressing for the purpose of gender performance: that of Parthenia as the Knight of the Tomb, and Pyrocles as Zelmane. Parthenia becomes the Knight of the Tomb to avenge the death of her husband, Argalus, who was killed in a duel with Amphialus, another knight; Pyrocles becomes Zelmane in order to become close to his beloved, Philoclea, whose father has forbidden her to marry until his death. These characters are transformed as much by the power of gender as they are by desire or any experience of romantic love: desire may be the initial motive for the exchange of gender, but it is the external aspects of gender--clothing and hairstyle--which enact the inner transformation. Pyrocles sings that he is "transformed in show, but more transformed in mind," and I believe this transformation is a direct result of the gender he performs as Zelmane, rather than of his desire for Philoclea. Parthenia is also transformed by her acquisition of masculinity through the performance of its role. Paula Bennett writes in "Gender as Performance: Shakespearian Ambiguity and the Lesbian Reader": However conservative or radical Shakespeare may have been on the issue of women's place . . . in his concern for gender slippage, he, like many other writers of his period similarly obsessed with the implications of physical and psychological transvestism, opened the door to gender possibilities that lesbian theory is only now beginning fully to explore. (95) Sidney, in the _Arcadia_, appears to share with Shakespeare this same concern for "gender slippage" through transvestism. Shakespeare generally limits this slippage to women characters, while Sidney's slippages concern both men and women; Pyrocles spends a significant portion of the _Arcadia_ as Zelmane. Cross-dressing in the _Arcadia_ is indicative of a character's inner conflict between their desires as a subject and their gender assignments; however, despite the fact that an exchange of gender may give certain liberties (in Parthenia's case, the ability to act), it also restricts behaviour (Pyrocles' inability to act). Cross-dressing allows characters to move among roles culturally prescribed by gender with ease (although not free of charge; both genders come with a set code of behaviour). It is in this act of sacrificing the self (or perhaps the culturally assigned gender of the self) for the attainment of the beloved that gender is most influential, both that assigned by biological sex and the performed gender. Both Pyrocles and Parthenia wish death upon themselves after discovering the death--real or perceived--of their beloved. Pyrocles fails his attempt at suicide because he is caught within the "feminine" sphere of inaction, while Parthenia succeeds due to her entrance into the sphere of "masculine" action. Ironically, each character fulfills the epic role of the gender associated with their biological sex: Pyrocles eventually recovers from the perceived death of his object of desire and lives on, while Parthenia follows the Classical example of Dido and dies for her lover. Judith Butler states, in _Gender Trouble_, that "the exposure of this fictive production [the 'gender core'] is conditioned by the deregulated play of attributes that resist assimilation into the ready made framework of primary nouns and subordinate adjectives." (24) It is in this sense that cross-dressing acts as the signifies of the exchange of one gender for the other; the descriptive language changes with the clothing and name of the character. This is illustrated most dramatically in Chapters 14 & 15 of Book one with the transformation of Pyrocles to Zelmane. Pyrocles tells Musidorus, "from me, no more Pyrocles nor Daiphantus now, but Zelmane. Zelmane is my name; Zelmane is my title; Zelmane is the only hope of my advancement." (151) The chapter ends with "Zelmane dismissed Musidorus, who departed as full of care to help his friend as before he was able to disuade him." (151) Chapter 15 begins with a pronoun change from "he" to "she" in reference to Zelmane: "Zelmane returned to the lodge, where (inflamed by Philoclea, watched by Gynecia, and tired by Basilius) she was like a horse desirous to run and miserably spurred, but so short reined as he cannot stir forward." (152) >From this point on, Zelmane is referred to as "she"; the pronoun "he" returns only with Cecropia's discovery of Pyrocles' true identity. The same technique is used with the character of Parthenia; from her entrance as the Knight of the Tomb, she is referred to as "he" until her true identity is revealed at the moment of her death. In these two examples, cross-dressing allows these characters to move their behaviour from the sphere of their own gender assignment to that of the other gender: these spheres of gender echo the spheres of genre, which Sidney attempts (and ultimately fails, I believe) to merge. The _Arcadia_ attempts to be both epic and romance; these genres can be gendered according to an oppositional model, although not a binary one. While the binary oppositional structure provides a starting point, it is too extreme. As Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick writes in _Tendencies_, The binary calculus . . . depends on the notion that the male and female sexes are each other's "opposites," but I do want to register a specific demurral against that bit of easy common sense. Under no matter what cultural construction, women and men are more like each other than chalk is like cheese. (7n6) It is in this sense that romance and epic can be considered "opposites"; while there are certain elements of each which do fit within the oppositional model, it would be inaccurate to ignore that the genres share significantly more attributes than not. However, it is important to examine how these differences function within the _Arcadia_'s construction of gender. In order for Parthenia to achieve the honourable death her character is worth of, she must move from the sphere of the "feminine," that of romance, to the sphere of the "masculine," that of epic. Pyrocles must experience this same transition in reverse, moving from the epic masculine to the romantic feminine, in order to gain and maintain access to Philoclea. The identity of the Knight of the Tomb allows Parthenia to move from the "feminine" and passive realm of romance to the "masculine" and active realm of epic. She is desperate to take some action to express her grief over the death of Argalus, but is restricted by her gender from making any definitive move. She has already stepped out of her place as woman by physically interferring with the battle between Argalus and Amphialus: "but Parthenia ran between them, fear of love making her forget her nature." (506) Argalus is incredulous, telling her that she was "never until now unwelcome unto [him]." (507) Her rage at the death of Argalus is unfocussed and passive at this point; she tears at her face and hair in an inwardly directed display of that anger. Parthenia's transformation to the Knight of the Tomb allows her to take epic action. Her challenge to Amphialus is motivated by her desire for vengence, a "masculine" desire which can be satisfied only by physical action. This act is, in some ways, a completion of her attempt to halt the original conflict. It is the completion of her "masculine" desire to act. She is no longer restricted by the role of her gender, which limits her to the "feminine" sphere of inaction. Her costume is described in detail as it establishes her new "masculine" identity, as well as hints at her previous "feminine" identity; the Knight of the Tomb is appropriately outfitted, but the impresa on the Knight's shield speaks of Parthenia's despair at the death of her husband. Parthenia's performance as a hero falls well within the limits of respectable in terms of epic "masculinity": He [Amphialus] perceived the knight had lighted from his horse and thrown away his sword, to make that supply his fallow's fault. He also lighted and drew his sword, esteeming victory by advantage rather robbed than purchased: and so the other coming eagerly toward him, he with his shield out and sword aloft, with more bravery than anger drew unto him, and straight made their swords speak for them a pretty while with equal fireceness. (527) The reader is aware that the Knight will lose: Amphialus is more skilled, and death is Parthenia's goal. She is not willing to yield despite the sincere request of Amphialus. She is single-minded in her quest for death, and like a proper epic hero, she achieves her goal via thoroughly conceived and executed action. Pyrocles' attempt to kill himself upon seeing what he thinks to be the severed head of Philoclea is pathetic compared to Parthenia's heroic death. Having performed the role of Zelmane for so much of the _Arcadia_, and thus having performed the female gender, Pyrocles seems unable to act. His reaction is almost identical to Parthenia's initial reaction to the death of Argalus: "The horribleness of the mischief was such that Pyrocles could not at first believe his own senses . . . it was not pity, it was not an amazement, it was not a sorrow which then laid hold on Pyrocles, but a wild fury of desperate agony, so that he cried out." (563) Due to Cecropia's discovery of Pyrocles' true identity, he has been unwillingly thrust back into the "masculine" sphere of epic action. But, having performed Zelmane for so much of the text, Pyrocles is unprepared to re-enter the epic sphere. Pyrocles seems unable, at this point, to relocate his original gender role and its code of behaviour. Like Parthenia, as a woman, Pyrocles can only mourn the perceived death of Philoclea and cannot act upon his desire for "revenge, revenge." (564) The scene of Pyrocles' attempted suicide is fabulously farcical. He begins by berating himself for not taking action before the death of Philoclea or at the present time: "And I have lived not to help her, but to talk of her? And I stand still talking?" and with that, carried with the madness of anguish, not having a readier way to kill himself, he ran as hard as ever he could with his head against the wall, with the intention to brain himself. For as he came to give the blow, his foot tripped so as it came down not with full force. (564) When Pyrocles regains consciousness from his failed suicide attempt, he indulges in all sorts of grandiose plans for the bodies of Pamela and Philoclea, as well as his own death. With this passive distraction, he is "content a while to bear the thirst of death: and yet went he again to the window to kiss the beloved head . . . sorrow having dispersed itself from his heart into all his noble parts, it proclaimed his authority in cries and tears, and with a more gentle dolefulness could pour out his inward evil." (564) He then continues to espouse his love and despair in an extremely "purple" and emotional passage which drags out all the conventions of the courtly beloved: "Love, be ashamed to be called Love: creul Hate, unspeakable Hate is victorious over thee." (565) Pyrocles one attempt to act on his dispair at the death of Philoclea fails miserably and comically; his passivity places his firmly within the realm of the "feminine" and of romance. Pyrocles and Parthenia are both motivated by desire to adopt the performance of the other gender, but it is the nature of gender performance which transforms them, not the nature of their desire itself. In the world of the _Arcadia_, desire does not significantly transform characters. The text does suggest, however, that external appearance has a powerful internal effect. It is gender, as signified by dressing and cross-dressing, which transforms a character both internally and externally. In this fashion, Parthenia enters the "masculine" world of the epic throuh her armour, and Pyrocles gains access to the "feminine" world of romance through his skirts. NOTE <1> A note on the text itself: Sidney's _The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia_ is a text with a convoluted past. The first version was written by Sidney for a small coterie audience, namely his sister, the Countess of Pembroke, and her friends. Sidney later rewrote the _Arcadia_ in an attempt to transform it from a romance to an epic. Unfortunatley, he died before the task could be completed. The Countess of Pembroke continued this work, completing the rewrite of the last two books, as well as editing the first three books Sidney had completed himself. The text I use for this paper is the definitive composite of Sidney's first and second editions, the Countess of Pembroke's thrid edition, as well as changes made by subsequent editors. This composition is not the focus of this paper; I am not concerned here with the integrity of the text as Sidney intended it, but rather with the end product in its accepted form. WORKS CITED Bennett, Paula. "Gender as Performance: Shakespearian Ambiguity and the Lesbian Reader" _Sexual Practice, Textual Theory._ Ed. Susan J. Wolfe and Julia Penelope. Cambridge: Blackwell, 1993. pp. 94-109. Butler, Judith. _Gender Trouble._ New York: Routledge, 1990. Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. _Tendencies_ Durham: Duke U.P., 1993. Sidney, Sir Philip. _The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia._ Ed. Maurice Evans. London: Penguin, 1987. About the Author: Lisa Quinn studies English Literature at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. Her current research interests include the exploration of gender continuity/construction in English Renaissance and Modern Canadian Literature. Her paper "'The Woman I am': Dorothy Livesay's Subjectivity and Her Construction of Gender and Sexuality" was presented to the 1994 convention of the North-East Modern Languages Association (NEMLA).