The Episode and Its Witnesses

Scenes with dramatic action alternate with others, of a more contemplative nature, defined as episodes.¹ The attraction of an episode is description with its tropical and rhetorical finish. The detail of depiction and the bravado of trope and concetto – not dramatized personae – supply the ‘action’ of the episode. The referential representation of a theme outweighs the identity of the speaker and the protagonist. An occasional interaction between the speaker and an anonymous hearer, addressed as ‘you’ does not change this focus, for they are merely defined by their roles of composer and recipient of a work of verbal art. The salient trait of these intermittent voices is their lack of independence; they are not expected to disagree or require persuading, like dramatized personae, and will therefore be referred to as ‘witnesses’. They appear in the opening verses and various other places of episodes, notably in the above-quoted night ride episode.² This introductory function of direct speech in episodes finds confirmation in Hans Wehr’s discovery that the common introductory formula, wa-rubba, derives from an old interjection.³ Within an ongoing episode, witnessing voices also indicate variations in an ongoing theme or announce climax and closure.⁴ Moreover, the hearer is often addressed in idiomatic phrases.⁵ Though only supporting figures, witnesses fulfill important functions: first, they provide the historical poet and his audience a place within the poem; second, they uphold the contact between them on a phatic level; and third, they presuppose the hearers’ acknowledgment, on a rhetorical level.⁶ In the fakhr episode, they confirm the poet’s pure skill of poetic depiction, and in episodes of madīḥ they attest to the patron’s worthiness.