Exit Belpheobe—Timias lays down his arms, “wearing out his youthly years” (41). Whenever knights retreat into the woods they tend to become either delirious (Orlando) or ascetic (Yvain); Timias turns to “willful penury” (41). The poem describes Timias’s retreat lyrically, and it is as if time flows differently in isolation. After he quits questing, Timias becomes self-absorbed, physically and mentally, hiding his face behind unkempt hair. We noted similarities between Timias and other allegorical figures—the overgrown Lust and the single-minded Care. What had been perversions of the poem’s project of coordination have, ever since the termination of the tournament, become the norm. The narrative has split into several strands, and characters pursue idiosyncrasy. Timias remains unmoved even by Arthur’s efforts “to change his wonted tenor” and instead lives out a life of devotional repetition, the arrhythmia of a broken heart (46-47).
We should say that Arthur does not recognize his squire, and Timias treats him ambiguously, “shewing joyous semblance for his sake” (44). Does Timias dissemble joy, or does he find joy in semblance, in withholding himself from Arthur? A similar ambiguity attends Timias’s inscription of “BELPHEBE” (some editions space out the letters), which appears autotelic, yet “he wexed glad, / When he it heard” read (46). Not only then does Timias refuse to rejoin the narrative, but his self-absorption appears theatrical. Does this episode restage the paragone of epic and theater from Canto 3? What does that have to do with friendship? All of us, I hope, have a friend who hates drama. [JY]