Meditations on Meyer

I've not really been inspired to swordblog over the past month or two. It's time to just sit myself down in front of my blog and wordvomit into a text box.

I haven't really been doing super-deep thinking about sword-stuff recently. My most recent cycle of reworking my style ended some time before Gulf Wars, and I haven't kicked myself into refining myself for tourney season yet.

There's a particular stance that I find bothersome, so I've been working on ways to deal with it. This has led me to read more Meyer - in particular the Left Plow stance. Then I fought and was impressed by a younger fencer at Mudthaw, who does a lot of Meyer Dussack things in his swording. As such, I decided to actually review Meyer rather than just reading through the Left Plow devices.

• Left Plow
• A position in which your quillons are horizontal, your hand is in seconda, and your hilt is in front of your left hip. Your tip should point to their belly. Your hand should be somewhat extended, as if part of the way through a thrust.

Spoilers: Turns out, there are only two devices in the Rapier section of Meyer which start in Left Plow. I *think* I understand both of them, after reviewing Chapter 5 of the Longsword Book.

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Chapter 5 of the Longsword Book is a list of generally-applicable techniques which can be used in both longsword and rapier, despite having been written for longsword. There is a similar section in the Rapier Book, but it's not as thorough. There are a couple of quick translations which are necessary for using the Longsword Book bits with rapier. In particular, using the longsword involves quite a bit of "crossing the hands".

When you hold a longsword, your right hand goes up by the quillons, and your left hand goes down by the pommel. This means that if you hold your arms in front of you, the blade of the sword will point to the right. If you point the blade to the left, you will probably do it by crossing your arms over each other. This is what Meyer means by "crossing the hands". This is very evident from the plates in the Longsword Book.

For a rapier, most techniques can be translated to longsword by replacing "crossed hands" with "fingernails down" in the Spanish tradition, or having your hand in seconda in the Italian tradition. Most of the time crossing and uncrossing hands is a way to store and release energy. Your forearm does a similar store-and-release thing when you move from seconda to quarta. If you feel the bones in your forearm, you can feel them crossing and uncrossing as you go from fingernails down to fingernails up. This lets you perform actions with a rapier which are similar to what one can do with a longsword.

This entire explanation has been building to this next part - an explanation of "Running Off", which I will copy here from my copy of the Jeffrey L. Forgeng translation of Meyer (available here and worth every penny).

Running Off [Ablauffen]

This is, from whichever side you bind your opponent's sword, then reverse your hands as soon as it touches and let it run off with the short edge down, and meanwhile pull your hilt up in the air for a stroke; and do this on both sides.

To me, this says that you cut into your opponent's sword with your true edge, then flip your sword over and pull their foible forward with your false edge, while maintaining defense with your guard. This "opens up" your opponent's guard, and creates room for you to do terrible things.

In the thrusting game of rapier, it seems like it would be possible to do this without a true-edge cut. In particular, it seems like one could extend one's sword, then sword of use the false edge of your tip to push their sword to the side, and then take advantage of the opening. In order to take advantage, you could perform a true-edge cut or you could "reverse your hands" again and thrust in, with your true edge applied to a weaker part of your opponent's sword.

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Just for fun, here's an example of the vocabulary defined above. The bold is mine, to emphasize usage of the term running off. There's some vocabulary in here that I will define after-the-fact, so read it once, read the definitions, then read it again. Again, this is from 2.96v1 of Forgeng's translation of Meyer, which I highly recommend you acquire.

Three thrusts, running one after another, with which you can practice to develop quickness

Do them thus: Position yourself in the Plow on the left, and take heed as soon as he sends his weapon into the Irongate or into Straight Parrying before him, and from the left Plow thrust the first straight up outside close to his weapon at his face. He will turn this thrust away to his right, therefore in thrusting in, as soon as you perceive his turning away, let it run off by his right side as you thrust in, and run through back toward your left, so that your blade snaps around beside your left into the High Guard; and as your blade snaps around, at the same time step well out to his left with a double step to the side; and with this stepping out, thrust the second from the left Ox inside his weapon at his chest. He will want to parry this thrust toward his left; therefore when you see this, then turn the short edge inward against his blade, and with this turning inwards, let it run through under his blade toward your left, and snap around again beside your left into the Ox again; in this running through and snapping around of your blade, spring well out toward his right side. Next, thrust thirdly from the left Ox outside his right arm at his face.

 Vocabulary time.

• Plow on the left
• A position in which your quillons are horizontal, your hand is in seconda, and your hilt is in front of your left hip. Your tip should point to their belly. Your hand should be somewhat extended, as if part of the way through a thrust.
• Irongate
• A standard Italian guard in terza, leaning forward
• Straight Parrying
• A guard in which your arm is extended and your tip is ambiguously pointed at their face or somewhere above their head.
• High Guard (left)
• A guard in which your hilt is in front of your left shoulder. When thrusting, your tip points toward their face. When preparing for a cut, your tip points backwards, over your shoulder. It is ambiguous here which Meyer is referring to.
• There is also the Right High Guard, which means your sword is in front of your right shoulder. the Right High Guard for Thrusting is similar to an Italian Prima

So, the flow here seems to be:

• Stab at their face on the outside line.
• Pull at their sword to the right with your false edge.
• This is "Running Off"
• Pull your sword away, flipping through the high guard and ending up at Left Plow.
• Despite using the word "Running", I don't think this is "Running Off"?
• While doing the above, take a large step forward and to the right.
• Thrust at their chest on the inside line.
• Pull at their sword to the left with your false edge.
• I think this is "Running Off"?
• Rotate back into Left Plow, disengaging to the outside line.
• Despite using the word "Running", I don't think this is "Running Off".
• Step forward and to the right again.
• Go back to the beginning.

So, this seems like something well-suited to drilling in order to gain speed at stabbing someone. Neat! I need to try working through this device with a partner, because I don't *really* understand the flipping-around-to-High-Guard thing. As well, the thrust to the face seems super dangerous. Is it intended to be a feint? I am unsure.

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When I originally read this device, I misinterpreted it as the following, which I like better? I'll just call it "Inspired by Meyer" and go from there:

• Begin in Left Plow, on the outside line.
• Stab at their face on the outside line, not quite entering measure for a counter-thrust.
• Lean forward here - do not lunge yet.
• Pull their sword with your false edge moving their tip to their right.
• This is "Running Off"
• Rotate your sword into the Right High Guard for Thrusting, placing your true edge against their weak.
• Thrust at their chest.
• Lunge forward!
• You will either hit, or they will drop their tip and raise their hilt to try to parry. If they do the latter, continue.
• Circle your tip under their hilt and pull from with the false edge, so that you move their tip to your left.
• You might want to step backwards at this step, so they can't thrust when you place their sword on your inside line.
• Reset into Left Plow, on the outside line.

So, in that radical misinterpretation, the thrust to the face isn't intended to actually connect - it's just there to put a greater degree of strength on your opponent's sword.

There are several places in which it seems natural to use a dagger - in particular, a dagger allows that first thrust to have real intent behind it, since you can hide under your dagger by holding it above your head horizontally. In the second thrust, a dagger could be used with your sword by placing it next to your hilt pointing downwards, to attempt to foil disengage-thrust by a suicidal opponent.

That said, this gives me a way to be offensive from the outside line in Left Plow, which will increase the effectiveness of being on both the inside and outside lines in Left Plow. Given that Left Plow on the inside line has been something I've been enjoying quite a bit, this pleases me.

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That's all for now. If you disagree with my interpretation, feel free to comment. I'm not perfect, and last time I read through the rapier section of Meyer, I didn't read through it super-thoroughly due to how much less organized the Rapier section is than the Longsword section.

Happy fencing!