18S3.] on the Fc-rmg and Hi^ory of tie Sircrd. 393 



Savinlo, '• I would not advise any firiend of mine, if lie were to ficrht 

 for his credit and Hfe, to strike neither maLndrittas nor riTersas " :2:e 

 technical names of direct and back-Landed cnts i. " beeause he puts 

 him&rlf in danger of his life ; for to use the r liii: is more ready, and 

 8p>€nds not the like time." In the bocfe of the seventeenth century 

 the instructions for mantirittas and riversas disappear accordingly, 

 and at the beginning of the eighteenth we find the small-sword in 

 existence and the rapier gradually giving place to it. Exj-erimen ts 

 had already been made with thrusting blades of triangular or quad- 

 rangular section ; at least, specimens of such, siscribed to the early 

 seventeenth or even the end of the sixteenth centurv. mav be seen in 

 museums. In some of these c-ases, however, one would like to ascer- 

 tain that a more rec-ent blade has not been mounted in a hilt of the 

 period attributed to the weapc»m Be that as it may. the small-s^ord 

 completely prevailed over the two-edged rapier some time abc'Ut 1715. 

 At the same time that the form of the blade was changed, its length, 

 which had been excessive, was reduced to a handier and not less 

 elective compass. A sword 36 inches long was reckoned short at 

 the beginning of the seventeenth century, and some rapiers extend to 

 four feet and more. The standard length of the modem small-sword 

 and its representative for fencing purposes, the foil, is from 32 

 to 34 inches onlv. Sir William Hope, of Edinburtrh. writincj in 

 1692, considers three-quarters of an ell to be ~ an indiiierent good 

 leneth." that is. " neither too lone, which would be unhandsome (i. e. 

 nnhandv or elumsv ). nor too short, which would be verv incon- 

 venient " : taking the ell at 45 inches, this comes verv near the 

 present measure. As regards the mounting and guard also, there was 

 a marked return to simplicity. The elaborate work of the Spanish 

 rapier-hilts disappears, to be replaced by a plain shell guard for the 

 duelling sword, and a very light hilt, capable, however, of much 

 decoration if desired, for the walking-sword which every gentleman 

 habituallv wore until near the end of the last centurv. Meanwhile 

 the art of fencing made rapid progress, and may be said to have been 

 fixed in substance upon its modem lints by 1750 or thereabouts, U'o 

 give an account of its development before and since that time would 

 require not a part of a discourse, nor a while discourse, but a book. 

 Such a book, strange to say, does not yet exist, not even in France, 

 the chief seat of the art ever since the firs: half of the seventeenth 

 century, when the supremacy passed to her from Italy. The luiige 

 haAi, indeed, been taught and figured by Italian masters : but tiie 

 riposte, which is the very life of modem fencing as a system of com- 

 bined defence and oflence, is undoubtedly a French invention. All 

 the modem authorities of much value are either French or openly 

 founded on the French school ; there exists, however, a distinct 

 Italian school, which still keeps up a shadow of the older rapier play. 

 One is tempted in the various forms and uses of the sword to see 

 a reflection of the general temj^er. and even the tastes and style of the 

 aije. The sword of each pericni seems fitted by no mere accident to 



