1883.] on the Forms and History of the Sivord. 391 



scnrity about the local origin of the rapier and of fencing. A credible 

 tradition refers it to Spain, whence it was imported into Italy by the 

 Spanish armies early in the sixteenth century. The finest old rapiers 

 are Spanish, and there is mention of very early Sjianish books'^on the 

 subject, which, however, do not seem to be extint.* 



From Italy the fashion came into France and England, and spread 

 apace, not without grumbling from the older sort of gentlemen and 

 soldiers, of which the echoes are yet audible to us in sundry passages 

 of Shakespeare. At some time between 1570 and 1580 the rapier be- 

 came the favourite companion of the exquisites of London. " Shortly 

 after (the twelfth or thirteenth year of Queen Elizabeth)," says 

 Howes, the continuer of Stow's ' Annals,' " began long tucks, and 

 long ra]3iers, and he was held the greatest gallant, that had the deepest 

 ruff and longest rapier: the offence to the eye of the one, and the 

 hurt unto the life of the subject that came by the other, caused her 

 Majesty to make proclamation against them both, and to jilace selected 

 grave citizens at every gate to cut the ruffs and break tlie rapiers' 

 points of all passengers that exceeded a yard in length of their 

 rapiers, and a nail of a yard in depth of their rnffs." A later writer 

 fixes the date of this proclamation to 1586, and adds that it forbad 

 rapiers to be " carried, as they had been before, uj^wards in a hectoring 

 manner," but says nothing of the ruffs. j In 1594-5 two English 

 treatises appeared on the new arc of fence, one translated from the 

 Italian of Giacomo di Grassi, the other the work of Vinceutio Saviolo,J 

 an Italian master established in England. The translator of Grassi 

 tells us in his " Advertisement to the Eeader," that *' the sword and 

 buckler fight was long while allowed in England (and yet practice 

 in all sorts of weapons is praiseworthy), bat now being laid down, 

 the sword, but with serving-men, is not much regarded § and the 



* See Nicolao Antonio, ' Bibl. Hispana Vetus,' torn. 2, p. 305, and ' l>ibl. His- 

 pana Nova,' torn. 1, p. 408, and torn. 2. p. 57, wlio names two Spanish authors, 

 Jacobus or Jaume Pons (or Pona) of Perpiguan, and Petrns de Turri, as having 

 written in 1474. He does not profess to have f^een their books, but gives as his 

 authority a work of Luis Pacheco de Narvaez ("Engano y desengano de los 

 errores, que se an querido introtlucir en la destreza de las armas,' jMadrid, 1(335), 

 whicli I have not been able to consult. The same names are given by Morsicato 

 Pallavicini, a Sicilian author of the late seventeenth century, but witliout any 

 reference. 



t Stow, 'Annals,' continued by Edinond Howes, Lond. 1G14, p. SG9; 'Survey 

 of London,' ed. 1755, vol. ii. p. 543* (in Strypo's additional matter). Such a proela- 

 mation was, according to modern ideas, quite illegal: but much else of the same 

 kind was acquiesced in all through Elizabeth's reign. 



X There is a second book of this treatise with a separate title-page, 'Of 

 honor and honorable quarrels,' supposed by Warburton to bo alluded to in Toucli- 

 stone's exposition of the lie seven times removed. I cann(it think this at all 

 certain ; the coinciilence of matter is not very close, and it appears from Saviolo 

 that other books of the kind were in existence. 



§ Cf. Florio, 'First Fruits' (1573), cited by INLvlone on ' King Henry IV., 

 Parti., act i. sc. 3, where the buckler is called "a clownish, dastardly weapon, 

 and not fit for a gentleman." 



