The Sentiment of the Sword. Richard Francis Burton
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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 are (1) prime (or first position), so called because it is that naturally and neces- sarily taken by a man drawing his sword from the scabbard which hangs to the left side; (2) seconde; (3) tierce; and (4) carte or quarte (carte dans les armes), as it is technically called.
These four are the natural or elementary parries or passes; but many first-rate fencers use only two, tierce and carte, with the modifications of high and low taking the place of prime and seconde. Excuse me, but it is hardly possible to speak of the art without using these terms, yet we are perfectly aware how unpleasant they are to the public ear. " I expected a book about the sword," onoe said to mo a London publisher, " and now you send me a thing full of carte and tierce." Thus did that eminent man of type " put the cart before the horse."
Will you explain," asked Charlie, "if 'low carte' means the hand held low, or the point directed low? "
In the schools, as you may see in the famous La Boessiere (plate 8), carte basse means point low and hand high. But there is a difference of opinion; some masters refer it to the hand, and others to hand and point when in the same position.
Prime and seconde yearly become rarer; the first because of its many risks in case of failure, and the second because it causes the point to deviate absolutely from the line of direction. Wary swordsmen affect them only against those who " run in," or to force the blade which lingers too long on the lunge.
Another simplification, probably due to the facility which it is the fashion of our age to cultivate, has been apparently borrowed from the Italian school. The old tierce, with nails down, and the carte, with nails up, are reserved for certain conventional exercises; they embarrass the learner, and they waste time in execution (9). Wo now adopt the posizione media as a general guard, the thumb upwards, pressing upon the
(9) There has been a tendency of late years in the modern French school, led by the classic Camilla Provost, to revive the use of Tierce convex side of the grip, and the little finger downwards, the sole requisite precaution being an additional "opposition," or, as some call it, " angulation " that is to say, pressure upon the opposing blade. This may be called the natural position because all the muscles are comparatively at rest; turn the hand one way or the other, and you have tension or extension.
A low and sullen murmur made itself heard; it came from the direction where Seaton was sitting.
There are four other parries and passes which are affected by the treatises, as late as the nineteenth century. Some of them are now so rarely used, even in books, that many a fencing master either knows them only by theo.ry, or has a, very hazy idea of them. You need not learn them I quote the names only to complete my list. These are (1) quinte, for which the moderns use "low carte"; (2) sixte, also called " carte sur les armes "; (2) septieme, of which nothing remains but its classical parry, the demi-circle; and (4) octave or seconde, with the nails turned up, sometimes used to force in a weak guard.
I can tabulate the whole eight within a minute:
INSIDE OR LEFT.
1. Prime (low line).
4.