1883.] Mr. F. PollocJc on the Forms and History of the Sword. 377 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, June 1, 1883. 



Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart. M.A. Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Frederick Pollock, Esq. M.A. LL.D. 

 The Forms and History of the Sword. 



There seems to be a culminating point not onlj in all human arts, 

 but in the fashion of particular instruments. And it so happens that 

 the pre-eminent and typical instruments of war and of music attained 

 their perfection at nearly the same time, in the first quarter of the 

 eighteenth century. Within that period the violin, chief minister of 

 the most captivating of the arts of peace, and the sword, the chosen 

 weapon of skilled single combat and the symbol of military honour, 

 assumed their final and absolute forms — forms on W'hich no imjirove- 

 ment has been found possible. Strangely enough, the parallel holds 

 a step further. In each case, although nothing more could be added 

 to the model or the workmanshij), it was yet to be long before the 

 full capacities of the instrument were developed. A quartet of 

 Beethoven hardly differs more from the formal suites and gavottes 

 of such composers as Eameau, than does the sword-play of the school of 

 Prevost or Cordelois from the nicely balanced movements and counter- 

 movements taught and figured in the works of De Liancour or Girard. 

 Nor has fencing been without its modern romantic school ; we may 

 even say that it has had its Berlioz in the brilliant and eccentric De 

 Bazancourt, a charming w'riter on the art, and — as he has been de- 

 scribed to me by competent authority — un tireur des plus fantaisistes. 

 And in both cases we may truly say that the jDeriod of academic 

 formality was the indispensable predecessor of the more free and 

 adventurous development of our own time. But before the modern 

 small-sword could even exist — the sword, as it is called eminently 

 and wdthout addition in its land of adoption, epee as oi^posed to sahre 

 — a long course of growth, variation, and experiment had to be run 

 through. To give some general notion of the forms and history of 

 the sword is what I shall now attempt ; I say some notion, for the 

 subject, narrow as it may seem at first sight, is one that marvellously 

 grows upon consideration ; and I can well understand that (if report 

 says true) Captain Burton has found three volumes none too many for 

 the compass of the exhaustive work which, after long preparation, he 

 is about to give us. And though there are perhaps not many of us 

 nowadays who would, like Claudio before he fell in love, walk ten 

 mile a-foot to see a good armour, I think we shall find the story not 

 without interest. 



