Killing Time in Titus Andronicus: Timing, Rhetoric, and the Art of Defense

Early modern understandings of time have been extensively discussed in relation to Shakespeare’s oeuvre, but this article offers a new understanding of Shakespearean time and timing by analyzing the art of defense in Titus Andronicus. Drawing from the pedagogy of rhetoric on timing, critical conversations about kairos, or opportune time, have typically assumed that waiting on the part of Shakespeare’s avengers is the result of hesitation or madness. However, while rhetorical theory provides a more cooperative model of timing, fencing theory focuses on the interruptive aspect of good timing. Through a reading of English and Continental fencing manuals that shows their investment in a particular understanding of temporality, this essay fleshes out the ways in which Titus Andronicus exemplifies the uniquely disruptive and antagonistic properties of fencing right-timing. These insights reveal a richer, more motivated play than one in which a baffled avenger enacts, by sheer happenstance, a condign revenge. Further, exploring contemporary fencing theory and practice opens up larger questions about timing and narrative craft. This essay argues that the logic of combat, through its emphasis on the tactics of waiting, deeply informed the ways in which early modern dramatists paced their revenge and anti-revenge plays.