# Amadis Iden — Amaryllis at the Fair character guide

> Amadis Iden in Amaryllis at the Fair by Richard Jefferies.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Amadis the invalid, Iden, Amadis

**First appearance:** 0004-i

## Snapshot

Amaryllis's invalid brother, too feeble to earn a shilling and full of ideas, who loves her with a hopelessness that sharpens the novel's sense of wasted fitness.

## Who they are

Amadis is poor, debilitated, and talking of seeing the doctor again about his fearful debility, yet he sits with Amaryllis on the brown oak timber in the long grass and is happier than he has been in months. He knows he cannot offer her the life she deserves — a Launcelot du Lake with the income of Sir Gorgius Midas — and the narrator grieves over the mismatch. Their summer idyll becomes the book's tenderest interlude, a pause in the play of human life before care and poverty resume.

## In the story

### [XXV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/amaryllis_at_the_fair_se/chapters/xxv)

Arrives as a visitor from Iden Court, carrying a portmanteau.

### [XXVI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/amaryllis_at_the_fair_se/chapters/xxvi)

Arrives pale and convalescent from low fever; his vital energy has been sapped.

### [Alere Flamma's Retreat to Coombe Oaks](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/amaryllis_at_the_fair_se/chapters/xxx)

Amadis is present in the summerhouse with Flamma, Amaryllis, and Iden.

### [XXXI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/amaryllis_at_the_fair_se/chapters/xxxi)

Plays the flute for Amaryllis, drinks Goliath ale, and shows signs of improved color and vitality.

### [XXXII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/amaryllis_at_the_fair_se/chapters/xxxii)

Tries to churn butter but becomes exhausted and disappointed by his weakness.

### [XXXIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/amaryllis_at_the_fair_se/chapters/xxxiii)

Weak and bitter, despises himself for his frailty compared to others; drinks milk while others drink ale.

### [XXXIV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/amaryllis_at_the_fair_se/chapters/xxxiv)

Weak and unable to earn a shilling, he leans on the oak trunk, tormented by his uselessness, yet lost in love with Amaryllis.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/amaryllis_at_the_fair_se/characters/amadis_iden
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/amaryllis_at_the_fair_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/amaryllis_at_the_fair_se/characters