Joachim Meyer
Contents of the premiere Book on Fencing with the Sword / and its Ordered Descriptions of such to behold / and on which this Knightly Art's foundations can be laid.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, I'm divulging the Art of Fencing with these Knightly and Manly Weapons, which at the current time for us Germans is of greatest necessity, to which my best understanding and abilities are well and truly described for uptaking, and although the lesson given is obvious, that fencing with the sword is not the sole origin and wellspring for all other fencing arts, it is celebrated among other weapons for artfulness and manlyness, and because of it I have what's needed for good understanding from which to make progress, and thus quickly, so onward I see with clarity how with wise handling all this can be applied in other arts and disciplines.
Firstly attain your target for comprehension and skill to present, then from Mastering this art move with diligence to seek on, that one balances habit thus with curiousity to learn more shortly the fighting one wishes to understand.
Then thirdly, achieve the ability to extend the art in your own right, and from your clarity attain and exude the proper judgement in Stance and Strikes so that Youth will not have to learn this art unguided and, because of your unspoken word, ill is wrought and they thus learn wrongly to the detriment of the art. Once achieved, we need your words and thoughts in this art, first from notes you would clarify, then onto subjects important to read in training, then to other subjects you want to develop further, so that the discipline of fencing grows on properly understood principles you have contributed to, rather than relying on mindless juggling, thus greater the difference between juggling and fencing will become, and the Knightly art of Fencing will grow from Warriors far and wide, particularly to Citizens at large, but beware the Juggler, to whom the unseemliest losses are and who is found everywhere in the world, until all are put away.
Fencing with the Sword is nothing other than a discipline, wherein your force strives together with your sword in placement so that one with the other, using care and agility, artfulness, delicacy and manlyness, are at need the same both in strikes and in other handwork one is obliged to, excepting when one is not in a serious situation, thus by such discipline one will be more dangerous and more skillful, and when needing to protect one's body be more effective.
This can be advanced in three stages and be organized thus, namely as the Start, the Middle and the End, where the three stages each have one aim which you shall fence through, and must do one by one to advance, that you thereby know with which strikes or stances you will engage your counterpart and then frontally attack as you would in the Middle stage's handwork, letting fly to work against the openings, keeping the initiative such that his attacks are preempted.
The Last is as you are fulfilled and will, with harm neither inflicted nor received, withdraw.
Page 2
I call the Start pre-fencing, where one standing against another and he standing against you, have begun to fence. The Middle is the work or handwork, when one of the participants shall endure longer in the handwork than his opponent fencer, and displace in all withdrawals. The End is the resolution, where one fencer shall withdraw without damage from his opponent and strike away if desired.
The initial pre-fencing is the face off from the Stances to the strikes, which are of two kinds, namely the Lead Stances and the Secondary Stances, we start with the Lead Stances.
There are four Lead Stances, the Roof or Upper Guard, the Ox, the Fool, and the Plough. There are eight Secondary Stances, Wrathful Guard, Window Breaker, Long Point, Barrier Guard, Unicorn, Key, Iron Door, Changer. The strikes with the Sword are many, belonging to two groups, which are common to both the direct and indirect strikes which we shall name. The first group is named the Lead or Principal strikes, on which all other strikes are based, and which are four, Over, Under, Middle, and Wrathful strikes. The others are named the secondary or derivative strikes, which are twelve in number, namely the Glance, Curve, Short, Slide, Bounce: Single and Double, Blind, Wound, Crown, Knee Hollow, Plunge, and Change Strike. Beyond these strikes come the proper Master Strikes, which we shall also name, from which all masterful and artful moves with the Sword are made and accomplished with varying grips, these are Wrath, Arc, Traverser, Glancer and Vertex which are all used when wanting to conclude and complete, and which I will describe to you. Just as I introduced pre-fencing, so I have clearly spoken and introduced the Strikes to you.
The second or Handwork in the Middle Stage involves the greatest art, where all your withdrawals in the fight can be advances. Look not only to how one can use the sword in binding, Winding, Changing, Enticing, Following After, Cutting, Doubling, Flowing off to leave be or in whatever shape you've cut, Hewing, Advancing, Twitching and Jerking, Adjusting, Grappling, Charging In, Throwing, and End Wrestling. An important concept is Targetting, through which one must come to understand Man and Sword, and through which one comes to understand proper stance and footwork, and from which how one shall handle one's point.
That brings us to the end, which flows from the Middle, and has the greatest Practical use, by which one ends each case, from thereof Withdraw soundly, in order to report what happened, and so arrange it all in the first chapter of Sword Fighting, from the Master Principles onward, so on to officially profess more skill in this Weapon, and by using this Book you shall Teach the initiates, and so after shall this art drive on to become more useful at need, and shall from others range farther to be sufficiently retold.
Such input I have seen fit to make for purposes of clearer understanding, so that with this Book each onward going shall become easier to understand, thus easier to modify, and thus initially to learn, and thus I shall see such Knightly arts grow onward, and will now with the first Letter of this chapter, whose first purpose is to teach usefulness, instruct by moving on to present the Four Targets.
Page 3
Of Man and His Divisions Chapt. 1
From One's divisions one shall come to understand the Openings and Stances, to and from which one will fence, ongoing to grasping the Middle or Handwork which will be described in the course of this Book, even though at first I was willing to sit and describe this subject alone without any other considerations. Then we move on to examine Fencing in all its components and arts, to be at first known from lessons, then from there to be shown, and then onward to be handled, and you shall at first want to take care to demonstrate how it's properly done, so that not only the Middle or Handwork is attained, but that the Openings shall be minded, from lessons thereon to note taking, and going forward I shall not leave my written lessons behind me to be forgotten.
Now we will visualise a man in four quarters or parts, Above and Below and on both the Right and the Left. Beyond this and how you view yourself, I dare not describe further, but if you care to look, you see that humans are arranged in high and low and right and left parts. In order to better understand my meaning, examine the figure on the right side of the picture above.
And if these four parts weren't already addressed enough for one, against them the Ancient German Fencer will need to strike with the various strikes as they are known among us Germans at this time, so special in their Handywork with the Winding, these will fight the furthest and against the Greatest since all of humanity in common is divided in the above named four parts. We see how the the Upper Vertices meet, and Below how the Chin and Throat are relevant. Onward we see the Right and Left parts which are joined across the Ears, both sides are relevant, both right and Left ears will be addressed.
Page 4
Be however you are, but don't think that such divisions are too Childish to think about, like all things they can be improved upon, and so you must therefore respect their proper place, that while they can be furthered and presented alone, through these divisions all concepts to be learned in fencing can be grouped, and from one well and fountain they spring forth to flow. At the same time, Fencing is shown to be like nothing else, in that two persons with similar weapons can thus fight one another, whereby one can hurt the other through his skill or both will persevere to protect and defend themselves at need. In addition my need is to know then how in all weapons such concepts can be understood in the short term and be shown and explained, and if not to be returned to, until the Person can explain the sections, so by them if the opposing fencer tries to mark one or another part, one knows with proper displacement how to smoothly move to secure themselves. Or if one or another intends to aim for an opening, he can also strive to undertake this strike correctly. Then each one shall probe to hit the four points, be met there, and have to guard against same, and thus must always be on Guard, ready to displace.
The means to learn what follows from the Stances, Strikes, and Targets is undertaken here more easily, in that these descriptions and presentations are enough for one to flow on.
Of the Sword and its Divisions Chapt. 2
Now we will clarify this and why it is done in fencing, namely how one or another are like the parts of one's body which one strikes away from in knightly fashion or accordingly defend them at need. Just like the parts of the human are quickly understood, so it's again apparent from noting why and how certain relative parts of the sword work against others to bring success, and similarly how you should know these labels or overviews before you try yourself likewise, so thus onward from nothing else than your Sword shall you cause communication, and meanwhile have wisdom not in only one device, but also shortly know cuts with the short edge, then with the long, then with the strong, and with the weak, then will you charge on to success from the Sword's necessities and from heeding this Art's known elements also have something to say.
We define the form and figure of the Sword's parts as its Pommel, Point, Cross or Hilt, Haft or Grip, and the Blade, about which, though without evaluation, we will now say several words.
The Blade has basically two underlying divisions, where the first is the Strong and Weak, the other the Short and Long edges, those being the forward and trailing edges.
The Strong of the Sword is the name for the part running from the Cross or Hilt to the middle of the blade, the Weak is from the middle to and with the point or end itself, from which the Long and Short edges grow.
The Long Edge is the full length of edge from the fingers onward, directed against your opponent, the Short or half edge is the one nearest the thumb, between the thumb and index finger, first finger pointing at the fencer's self, as if it is imitating the other's weapon. We will speak as well of the spine of the sword, as shown in the previous illustration.
From the overlying parts of the sword springs forths the correct total view, which is very useful in fencing, namely that the Sword is outwardly grouped in four parts and divisions, as is seen in the previous illustration.
The first to be named is the Bind or Haft, including Pommel and Cross, for charging, Wrenching, Grappling, Throwing, and of service in other work.
The second is the Strong, as was counted, used in Cutting, Winding, Impacting, and otherwise where the Strong is useful in fencing.
The third part is the Middle, which lies between strong and weak on the halfway part and is used when needing to close in the changeful work, where it will be resorted to at every opportunity when needed.
The fourth is the Weak, through which Changing, Rushing, Slinging, and similar such will duly be used in fencing, of which in what follows there will be many examples and pieces.
Of the Stances or Guards Chapt. 3
At all times and in all fencing, when wanting more ability and understanding, and in furthering and learning more of this Knightly art, the proper and basic elements are required in order to advance. Basically this is done because in fencing, one must fence such that One becomes one with one's Sword, and although this was already stated correctly and sufficiently in the two previous chapters, so here in the third chapter, in order to clarify, it will be examined further, from which onward all fencing shall be fully known and further examined in three parts: the Start, Middle, and End as above was already stated. Onward from the Start, two basic underlying principles shall and must be attained, namely how from the Stances one shall execute the strikes, which will be named and counted, and how one thus comes to success will be clarified. Though the Guards or Stances are delicate, they are still advantageous positions forwarding one's entire body with the Sword, in which the fencer, as is often seen, will come before his opponent with proper placement, position, and stance, and so be unfound and last through the rushing by waiting through to advance onward, and immediately react to what's coming and with advantage and wisened speed attack and strike against your opponent's own stances, that he can go on striking without harming you, yet must give away his openings as he works against yours, and so he must either withdraw or strike away from his intended target, and so have his advantage minimised, his blade withdrawn and retreating, and you can then strike in your own efforts. Since the Stances or Guards have the four sections of one’s body as their obvious origin, in that one is divided into four quarters, Over, Under, Left and Right, so also one's opponent is divided and thus shall be encountered, as four Targets, and relative to them there are the four Primary Stances or Guards, from which all others originate and spring forth, which are the Ox, Plough, Roof and Fool, from which one comes to understand the secondaries which, in due order, one comes to deploy, which are the Wrathful Guard, Long Point, Changer, Close Guard, Iron Door, Hanging Point, Key, and Unicorn.
Ox
The high parts are guarded with the Ox, which is two moded, Right and Left, thus one can stand in the Ox in two modes, namely the Right and Left modes. The right Ox will first be described, stand with your Left Foot forward, holding the Sword with the hilt next to your head, high and on the right side, so that your forward point is directed against your opponent's face. For the Left Ox reverse this, namely stand with your Right Foot forward, hold your hilt near your head on its Left Side as said above. Thus you have been told of both Ox Guards or Stances, which is being shown by the Left Figure of illustration B above
Plough
The low parts are guarded with the Plough, whose two modes are similar figures for two sides, the Right and the Left, and so are named the Right and Left Plough, and both will become for you nothing else than stabs outward from below. The Right Plough is described as follows, stand with your right foot forward, hold your weapon with the hilt near your forward knee and your point pointing in your opponent's face, as if you intend to stab him from below. While you are in the Right Plough, step forward with the Left foot and stand similarly to be in the Left Plough. The Right Plough is shown by the figure on the Right of the above illustration.
Page 7
Roof
The Guard of the Roof, which is also known as the High Guard, is explained as follows. Stand with your Left Foot forward, hold your Sword high over your head so its point is directly above, consider the figure on the left of the image above, illustration C, which indicates how one can operate from above, that all strikes can be fenced from the Roof or High Guard, which is why this Guard is named the Roof.
Fool
Fool is my adaptation of the word Jester, a name which leaves so much to be desired, in that from this Stance no successful finishing strikes can be made, one just uses them to gain an opening against the opponent through displacements to block strikes, which can be used to measure a Foolish and naive person who is not ready for counterstrikes to be struck against them. This will now be described. Stand with the Left leg forward, hold your Sword with the Point stretched out in front of you aimed at the ground in front of your forward foot, with the short edge above, the long edge below. Thus you stand in this Guard rightly, as you can see in the illustrated figure above on the right.
Wrathful Guard
The Wrathful Guard is known as such since the stance has a wrathful bearing, as will be shown. Stand with your left foot forward, hold your sword out from your right shoulder, so that the blade hangs behind you to threaten forward strikes, and mark this well, that all strikes out from the Guard of the Ox can be intercepted from the Wrathful stance, indeed leading from this stance shows unequal bearing from which One can entice onward, whereupon one can move quickly against the other as needed, as is shown by the Figure in illustration E (on the left).
Long Point
Stand with your Left foot forward, hold your Weapon with outstretched arms out in front of your face, so that you stand and point forward at your opponent's face, and thus you stand in the Guard of the Long Point, which you can see in the picture in illustration A (Page 3, right side figure).
Changer
This Guard shall now be fully described, stand with your Right foot forward, hold your weapon with the point or Weak stretched out from close at your side aimed at the ground, so that the short edge stands toward your opponent, such as can be seen from the right figure in illustration D above.
Close Guard
To put yourself into this guard, stand with your Left foot forward, hold your sword close to your right with the point to the ground and the pommel above, and with the short edge against you.
Iron Door
What the right Iron Door is, which you will find out should you go farther onto Rapier Fencing, that while it is used in stabbing with the Sword as by us Germans, this guard is also easily deflected and sent to the ground. Although at this time it is used by the Italians and other nations, it covers like the Barrier Guard, and so of the Iron Door no further report is therefore required.
There is a basic underlying division, and here I will shortly clarify both, and so will now describe the Iron Door. Stand with your right foot forward, hold your sword with the grip in front of the knee, with straightly hanging arms, that your point stands upward out at your opponent's face. In addition, keep your Sword in front of you to shut like an iron door, and when you stand with feet wide and so come to lower your body, you can clear all strikes and stabs out and away from you.
However, the Barrier Guard is when you hold your Sword with crossed hands in front of you with the point at the ground, which is seen from the figure in illustration F.
Hanging Point
Since you'll need to be in the correct Hanging Point during the work, look at the figure to the right of the above illustration. Even if the arms needn't be as stretched as here will be shown, still put yourself into the named Guard. Stand with the right foot forward, hold your weapon with outstretched arms before you, so that the blade hangs somewhat toward the earth, this stance is very close to the Ox in similar form, only different in that in the Ox your arms are strongly held in high mode, but here shall be directly outstretched before your face, letting the Sword hang toward the Earth, therefore it is named Hanging Point.
Key
The Key is shown by the left figure in illustration D, stand with your Left foot forward, and hold your Sword with the haft and crossed arms in front of your chest, so that the short edge lies on your Left Arm, and the point is aimed at your opponent's face. Thus is this stance or guard rightly made.
Unicorn
Come into pre-fencing with your Left foot forward, wings out from both sides, as if you would stand in the forenamed Key guard, drive with crossed hands overhead on your Right, so that the point is aimed high above and outward, thus it is named Unicorn, and stand as shown by the figure on the Right of illustration E.
And thus are named the count of the Stances or Guards, and now all in the work phase will be fully and shortly examined. After this point in all fencing, you will Strike, Strive, Displace, or float to work for what you wish, and not remain in a stance, but always drive from one to the other, as one or the other must soon become afflicted, thus you especially must move on to keep the working initiative, and will lead out from one to another of the above cited stances, which I will clarify with a few words about the strikes through the lines or pathways.
Firstly if you will execute the high or Vertex Strike, you will find yourself in three Stances, first in the start you will stand in the Roof, in the Middle in the Long Point, and end up in the Fool, so you have moved directly from above through the Line from A to E via three Guards or Stances. If you then drive farther on upward from below to displace with crossed hands, you will find yourself in three more Stances, at the start in the Iron Door, in the Middle the Hanging Point, and in the end full above you in the Unicorn, then grip your Sword with the haft before your chest, so that the half edge lies on your left arm. Now you stand in the Key, and thus you come have onward and drove on along Line A and E from one stance into the other.
The other lines to consider are on the right where we will now examine two strikes. One is from the right Ox striking the high quarter, with the H - D line being addressed, the other is from the Left high part going to the right lower part, along the B - F line. How you will strike through these will be further described here, and then I will soon take you farther through all Strikes and Stances on both sides, both Right and Left, which will be fully described, and of this I will disclose all favourable methods shortly but will start by describing only one method. Firstly or initially move into the Wrathful Guard, from which also comes the strike's name, that is the Wrathful Strike, which is named for its wrathful bearing and intent, then midway through the strike move into the Long Point, and at the end move into the Changer. Should you strike onward from here with the Long edge, you will then go farther through three more Stances, which start with the Low Guard, onward through the middle with the Long Point, and end above you in the Unicorn, striking through the Line cited above. Thus from either side as you wish, you will start from the Changer and go through the Long Point into the Wrathful Guard. You can similarly strike out with your Sword from the Hanging Point, from which you drive over in front of you to move into the Guard of the Ox. Thus you find always, when taking the indicated Lines, one moves through them via at least three stances.
However it shall be a good Fencer who does not rush and who waits longer in his Stances, so that as soon as he can reach his opponent to attack, he can Fence onward to take the pre-named paths, as waiting longer allows many displacements from which one eventually can come to strike, as will be described below.
The Stances are also very useful towards the divisions and openings, thus if one comes into a Stance without danger before Striking, he can soon be mindful of what path to take from pre-fencing. These then serve not just for careful and sensible changes from one Stance to the other, but also to entice the opponent, such that he will be made unable to know what you shall Fence with. Lastly this is also good and useful for all from here on, in that you will easily know and recognize your opponent's part, and what he can safely fence with, and so thus oppose him more sensibly.
Now much has been said about this art's start, namely the pre-fencing against your opponent, which faces off through the Stances to the Strikes. Now the rest of the art will follow and we will move onto other parts, and in due form onto the next chapter, which is Of The Strikes.
Of The Strikes Chapter 4
Now I come to write of the artful and free Knightly exercise, namely to the Strikes, which is a major Heading in Fencing in that the basics are given here, the number is told, each is described, and how they are executed to the full, will here be noted and told, and from here alone the friendly reader will afterward be reminded, that between the Sword Fighting times, when it was in custom for our forefathers and the ancients, and our time there is a great difference, in that not only was the point used, which is not the custom today, but of old much more of the Sword was used in the strikes, and they fenced sharply with both strikes and stabs, and thus shall I present this and other points of knowledge.
However, as of now the Strikes with the Sword belong to two underlying principles, as in the direct and inverted strikes. The Direct strikes are named such as they strike against the opponent with the long edge and outstretched arms. There are four, the Over, Wrathful, Middle and Under Strikes, and from these all the others come forth, and in the world will still be found none conceived as such, and of them not one of these will be feebly grasped and deployed by you. These are named the Lead or Principal Strikes.
The inverted strikes are those where in the strike you turn your sword hand around so that you hit the opponent, not with the full or long edge, but somewhat with the short edge, flat, or engage at an angle. Face this with the Slide, Short, Crown, Glance, Arc, Traverse, Bounce, Blind, Wind, Knee Hollow, Plunge, and Changer Strikes. Thus you come to the four above cited Strikes, and from there the various strikes are named.
Now from these both come five for further reading, as the Master Strikes will be named, not that one can thus fully use the weapon Rightly, and Master this art so soon, but that from them one can Master all proper artful elements which will be acted on from knowing them here, and thus you can Fence properly at need, and become an artfully striking Fencer, who retains all Master principles at the same time, and against whom nothing can be borne. These Strikes are Wrathful, Arc, Thwart, Glancer, and Vertex.
Over Strike
The Over Strike is a strong strike directly from Above, against your opponent's head or scalp, therefore it is also called Vertex Strike.
Wrathful Strike
The Wrathful Strike is a serious strike from your Right Shoulder, against your opponent's left ear, or through his face or chest, consider how it's done through two lines, with the lines drawn through the upper right and crosswise overtop one another. This is the strongest beyond all others in that all one's strength and manliness is laid against one's opponent in fighting and fencing, therefore the ancients also named it Straight Strike or Father Strike. Along the considered lines you can move onwards, etc.
...
szermierkadawna