The Sentiment of the Sword. Richard Francis Burton
Читать онлайн книгу.
Carte (high line).
5. Quinte (demi-circle, high line).
7. Septieme (low line).
OUTSIDE OR RIGHT.
2. Seconde (low line).
3. Tierce (high line).
6. Sixte (high line).
8. Octave (low line).
This contains every guard, thrust, and parry that has ever been devised, or that ever will be devised by man; you can add no more to it than to the forms of the syllogism, or to the orders of architecture. It is the less formidable, as only one-half is necessary to be learned, and only a quarter is generally used.
Perhaps, if you will allow me to define certain other technical terms, thus they will more easily be grasped by memory.
" Disengagement," the reverse of " engagement," is with- drawing beyond measure [5]. By measure (mesure, misura, das maas) we understand the distance which separates two adversaries. It is of three kinds:
1 The short measure (" within measure "), when the " strong " (forte), or lower halves of the blades nearest the hilt. i ncct and cross.
2 Normal, or middle measure, when the swords join in the centre of both.
3 Long measure ("out of measure"), when the "weak" halves (or foibles) cross each other.
Being " above the arms" (Ic haut des armcs; II disopra delle armi) is when your hand and sword are more elevated than those of your opponent. It is necessary to remember this distinction, as some schools assign the victory, when both oppo- nents touch simultaneously, to the "higher line" of thrust.
By thus mastering first principles, the most complicated treatises will readily be understood, and the theory of managing the sword becomes self-evident. My royal road to learning, in fact, is the path of common sense. You are spared the list of subjects to which this rule may be applied.
Until late years, we prepared ourselves for the business and labours of life by giving, say, five hours a .day, between the ages of eight and eighteen an existence of ten years, and ten such years! to reading not speaking, to understanding uot mastering, a few books in Latin and Greek
" Please leave Greek and Latin alone," was heard faintly, and as if from afar.
But swimming, which might save a life, was unknown even to many sailors. Fencing, one of the most beneficial exercises *) to brain as well as muscle, the power of defence which may/ preserve us from the insults of the bully, and the dangerous attacks of the duellist in fact, the large class which the French sum up as les impertinents, les brouilleurs, les querellairx et les mechants, was considered an " accomplishment" like that piano so fatal to the feminine mind.
This was the opposite extreme, quite as uncommendable as that of Duguesclin, who would never learn to write; or of the Spartan-English mother of our day who declared thaj; no son of hers should ever know how to sign his name. In India not a few officers have actually gone into action without even wearing their swoids. Who can feel for them if they come to grief?
See, also, until the reign of Napoleon III. (who, as the courteous Scotch earl observed to him, made the English a military nation), how much we suffered in person and reputa- tion under the effeminacy arising from our neglect of manly weapons. But I need not press this point.
" Hear! Hear! " said the smoking-room, with quiet emphasis.
V. How to Teach Fencing
" You must not let your listeners suppose," remarked Lord B., " that you would make arms the business of every man's life."
Of course not, unless they are to be soldiers; we may leave that to their intelligence. A pleasant and useful exercise should not be turned into an absorbing pursuit. Some will be amateur fencing masters, like myself; others will take up a foil gymnastically, or to spend a pleasant hour amongst friends.
But I must again notice Charlie's remark that fencing, like riding, must be begun when the boy is breeched. This is a long subject
" Which will lead ue into the small hours," quoth Shughtie with intention.
" Bear with me till you finish your last pipe a ponderous meerschaum, by the by perfectly bien culottee. The average intellect, we may say, learns most during its first ten years, and after fifty it generally fails to assimilate a new idea. What the usual run of mankind want to master quickly, and thoroughly to retain, must, I own, be studied in youth; but there are many exceptions men with all the qualifications neces- sary to success save one, and that is opportunity. I remember two instances in particular. A. had passed thirty before touch- ing a foil; at thirty-five he was a first-rate fencer. B. was a " gunner," who had never mounted anything but a donkey, and that in his Ramsgate days. He slipped over the horse^s head at his first leap, his second trial threw him upon the pommel, and the third found him in the saddle. I did not witness the process, but I did see him win certain welter stakes, when he rode like a professional.
Then, again, there are degrees and degrees. The collegian, who wants only to understand the Pentateuch, does not read after the fashion of his neighbour who intends to become a Hebrew professor. If men refused to ride unless they could rival Lords Waterford and Cardigan, they would be doomed never to sit on pigskins. Fencers like the inimitable Cheva- lier de Saint-Georges (11), of Guadaloupe, called the phenix des armes of the last, and Lord Henry Seymour in the present century not to mention those now living spent long years in physical toil, in deep meditation, and in pure devotion to their art. But of what use would be such excellences hors ligne to anyone in this room? Rather a source of trouble than of pleasure and profit. I knew a Brazilian who laid out all his money in buying a diamond fabulous as to number of carats, and who was nearlly s'tarved because he could not sell it.
" You have forgotten to tell us," urged Shughtie, " that your inimitable Saint-Georges was twice buttoned and soundly beaten, once in London by an Englishman, Mr Goddart (in foreign books called ' Godart '), and again by an Italian, the celebrated Giuseppe Gianfaldoni, of Leghorn. The famous Creole was travelling from France to Italy, and at an academy
(11) A biographical sketch of Chevalier Saint-Georges, with his portrait, is given in Angelo'e Treatise on the Ability and Advantages of Fencing (Fol. 1817, London) and a "Notice Historique" by M. La Boessiere in his TraiU de I'Art des Armes (1818, pp. xvi.-xxii.), Saint Georges having been a pupil of the elder La Boessiere.
lie received two buttons to one. An account of the rencontre \vtis published at Leghorn by the victor's brother in 1825." I owned not to have heard of it before.
" Then we are to understand you," asked Claude, " that it is as easy to learn fencing as riding?"
The Cantab was thoroughly at home on horseback, and he had that slightly parenthetical form of leg which betrays infantine acquaintance with the eaddle; indeed, the length of body and the shortness of the extremities had suggested to his friends the sobriquet " Jock."
I should say fencing was as easy as riding for most men, whose sight is good and whose nerves can be depended upon. Of course, we must not push the comparison between fencing and riding too far.
The first point to try with the pupil is, to flash the sword before his eyes. If he winks nervously, and if no practice will cure him of winking, he will never be a perfect swordsman or a first-rate shot.
"I'm certain of that," interrupted Shughtie. "In Upper India a Sikh will swing his open hand across a stranger's face without touching it, and cry ' You are a soldier! ' if the eyes do not blink; if they do, ' Chi! you are a peasant,' or, worse still, a ' coolie.' "
What I mean is that the winker can never depend upon a simple parade and riposte, upon that " tic-tac," which is the height of good, clean fencing. But an old master