Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-01-11
THE SWORD IN LITERATURE.

4
Writers and Actors Do Not Always Han
die 1t Well.
He tits
With piercing steel at bold Mcrcutio's breast.
Who, all as hot, turns deadly point to point
And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats
Cold death aside and with the other sends
1t back to Tybalt, whose dexterity
RetortS it.
-'Romeo and Juliet" Act 8, Scene l.
The introduction of rapier and dagger
at the Danish court during the middle
ages is, of course, no less an anachron-
ism than that of small sword bout In
the performance, but if the actors part
be to carry out the authors ideas it is
certainly wonder that greater care
should never have been bestowed on the
scene.
Actors who in every other case are
most particular about historical accu-
racy generally dispose of all questions
relative to fighting by referring them to
the first fencing master at hand, and,
accordingly one sees Laertes and Ham
let with the utmost sang froid going
through a Salute which, besides being
perfectly unmanageable with rapiers,
was only established in all it's details
deed less anachronism in uncorking
bottle of champagne to fill the kings
beaker than there is in Hamlet correctly
lunging, reversing his point, saluting
carte and fierce, etc., foil fencing, in
fact, in spite of the anticipation raised
by Osric's announcement that the bout
should be played with rapier and dag
ger. A single passage like this (many
such occur in the Elizabethan drama
tists) might have suggested the proba-
bility of rapier fight being very diff
ferent thing indeed from modern fenc-
ing bout. though not less exciting.
The difficulty of getting at the old
authors on sword play, and then to real
ize their meaning in the midst of their
philosophical depression, seems to have
prevented the investigation Of the SUBJ
ject. In dueling times more reliance
was placed on ability and inspiration
than on settled principles.
Most modern ideas of workmanship
should be dismissed in order to realize
what duel with rapiers in the six
teenth and early seventeenth centuries
really meant, and how unlikely and flu
tile are the picturesque descriptions of
historical novelists.
The antiquarian will find in, the study
of workmanship the explanation of all
the changes i'll the shapes of guards and
blades and the differentiation of the
sword, from the old plain, crop hilted
Teutonic 'schnert" through the compli-
Gated cut and thrust rapier into either
the right triangular small sword Or the
solid, fiat saber. Painters must often
wish to have some early means of ascer-
tanning the most usual method Of WELD
ing the rapier and the dagger, or small
sword. Were the old books of fencing
more often consulted, there would be
finer pictures even by celebrated artists
representing, for instance, cavalier
attempting to close fas hand around the
three inch grip of his rapier instead of
screening it under the guard by locking
two fingers around the quillons or Of
minions lunging in the most approved
modern style and grasping their daggers
like stilettos, thumb on pommel, in a
manner which would have deprived the
weapon of any value, defensive or often
sive.
The want must be felt of some his
torical account of the changes in the
management of ''the white arm" since
the days when something more than
brute strength became the requisite in
personal combat. The subject is full of
interest not only for the fencer, who
looks upon his favorite pastime as a
science, but also in a high degree for
the novelist, the painter, the actor and
the antiquarian.
The amount of misconception On the
subject Of ancient sword play often dis
played by some historical painters and
novelists is incredible. In the works of
such authors as Dumas, Ainsworth and
even Sir Walter Scott, very seldom
guilty of anachronism on any other sub
ject, one reads Of duels in the fourteenth
century details of which are evidently
borrowed from modern fencing school.
e. B. Beaumont in Detroit Free Press.