The Sentiment of the Sword. Richard Francis Burton

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СКАЧАТЬ of arms; but when the parents shall set the example, the sons will follow them.

      " Ou le pere a passe, passera bien 1'enfant," but the sooner drill is introduced perforce into our public schools, the better.

      " The worst of fencing," said Charlie, the Oxonian, " is that one must begin from one's childhood, like riding; one must work for years to be a tolerable hand; if one does not keep it up, it becomes as rusty as running or swimming."

      Parenthetically, I knew that my fresh-cheeked and stout- framed Oxonian had been an inveterate sportsman from his greenest years, and that even now many an hour during vacation was given to otter hunting. He could also whip a stream and throw a quoit admirably in fact, he had spent upon these and other recreations time and toil enough to make a complete swordsman. But he was leading up to my point, so I told him bluntly enough he was wrong.

      " Pardon me, I've turned over a treatise or two in the library, and they made me feel small; really, it is like reading up geometry or alchemy, or any other secret science."

IV. Early Fencing Treatises and Technicalities Simplification Italian School and Names of Parries

       Table of Contents

Now we come to the gist of the matter. You are quite right about the treatises. They are produced mostly by or for men far more used to the company of Captain Sword^[4]than that of Captain Pen. Though some masters in the olden day were highly educated men, and, later still, others have written comedies, the pretensions of the modern school are less to literature than to moral dignity. For instance:

      " Le maitre d'armes doit avoir une conduite irreprochable, une humeur egale, de la bonte, de 1'indulgence sans faiblesse, il doit surtout etre juste et impartial, c'est le moyen pour lui d'obtenir 1'estime publique et la confiance de scs elevcs.

      " Le professorat est un sacerdoce, et le maitre d'armes ne doit jamais 1'oublier.

      " Le maitre d'armes devrait etre non seulement un modele de l^nu, de dignite, do maintien, de politesse et de courtoisie, mais encore un modele d'honneur."

      This does not much help one with a foil. Again, the art of arms is a subject which, like chemistry, cannot bo learned from books; even illustrations give only the detached stanzas of the poem (6). Chief of all, these are the words of the professional men who take a pride in making and multiplying difficulties; as masters they must know everything, and as authors they must show what they know. With them the noble art becomes an abstruse science, a veritable mystery of which they are the Magi, the priests. It is well, indeed, when each one does not modify the principles of all others and propound his own system. Without such show of erudition they would expect to bo called " ignorants."

      Lastly, like the Lemons d'Armes (Paris, 1862) of the good Cordelois, the book too often becomes a mere puff.

      A few in England and elsewhere have tried to simplify these treatises, with the effect of a skeleton drill book. These also have unduly neglected principles, or, rather, principes, and the result has been a mere tax upon the memory, resembling those abstracts and manuals of history, all names and dates, which no brain at least, no average brain beyond its teens can remember.

      The voice of Seaton now made itself heard.

      " I agree with you here. It is my opinion that the affected names and the endless hair-splittings of the fencing books make up a mere jargon. Why talk of the hand in ' pronation ' or in ' supination? Can't you say ' nails down ' or ' nails up '? We had trouble enough at school to learn the difference between pronus and supinus, I'm sure. Why must we be taught such technicalities as Avoir de la main, des doigts, des jambes, df la tete, de Vcpaule. chasser les mouches, passer en arriere. caver, faire capot, le cliquetis, eperonner (7), and scores of the same kind? They remind me of my crabbed Madras major,

      (6) One of the rarest books on fencing happens to be the poem La Xiphonomie (1821), by Lhoma.ndie, a pupil of Texier de la Boissiere, the- "British Museum having no copy.

      (7) Many of those terms are still current in the Salle d'Armes. Tlip definitions may IK- found in M. La Boossiere's Traitc de I'Arf r?e. Armes (pp. 18-24).

       who knew some three hundred native names for horse furniture, and could turn them upon any hapless sub. he wanted to ' spin,' or ' pluck,' as you call it here."

      " But every art and every science must have its own vocabulary its own slang, if you like. And why not fencing? I, for one, am sure that many of the hard words are of use in fixing the things firmly in memory. And I'm certain," said Shughtie, slowly and deliberately, " that strange alphabets help to fix strange terms in one's memory. My head could never hold Sanskrit, Hebrew, Arabic from one of your new-fangled, Romanised things all powdered into points, accents, and italics. Hungarian and Slav are bad enough, especially Slav; it is beautiful in native costume, and uncomely and barbarous in Latin dress. When I want to learn a new language I use my eyes, my ears, and even my tongue; I read out loud, and I read standing, if possible, by way of distinguishing study from the common way of wasting time over printed stuff. And the want of alphabet would add a month to my work."

      Are we not digressing a trifle? I suggested. Granted there must be technical words for technical things; but every art has enough of them without inventing superfluities.

      What I most object to in the older and best treatises is the eccentric mania of increasing and multiplying passes and parries, attacks and replies (ripostes), the baggage of the so- called " romantic," the classical and professional schools of arms. I object, also, to the amour-propre which thinks only of faire ecole, of inventing its own system. L. J. Lafaugere, a practical foil of note, gives (Trait I des Armes, 1825) 1272 thrusts and combinations, which remind one of those venerables and reverends who calculated how many angels could stand upon a needle point; beyond this what can man possibly invent? His eccentricities in high attacks engendered by way of reaction the escrime terre-d-terre (8). And what I especially reproach these gentlemen with is their excess of method and order, making their books the most wearisome things after the New- gate Calendar. They read like a list of chess problems, handfuls of detached items

      " Scattered pearls, the Persians would more politely call thorn," remarked Shughtie.

      Placed before you without the connecting and carrying thread.

      Let us begin at the beginning. After "engagement," or crossing blades, the swordsman may be attacked, or he may attack, in any of these four directions, technically called the linos of defence and offence.

      1. On the right of his sword hand beneath the hilt = the low line outside.

      (8) A t<rm borrowed from the Manege art: might be translated " ground-game fencing.."

       2. On the left of his sword hand beneath the hilt = the low lino inside.

      3. On the right of his sword hand above the hilt = the high line outside.

      4. On the left of his sword hand above the hilt = the high line inside.

      Evidently the sword, unless describing a circle, can protect only one of these lines at a time, and the other threo remain unguarded.

      Each line, therefore, relies upon two parades (parries), which may be reduced to half, as the direction of the blade is the same in both; and the only difference is in the nails being turned upwards or downwards. The parries were named by the Italian school after the Latin numbers, and we have adapted them from the French. These СКАЧАТЬ