Customer Reviews

Methods and Practice of Elizabethan Swordplay

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If you are interested in a first look at Elizabethan swordplay, this isn't a bad place to start. They have gone through the basics reasonably well, and tried to explain how to use them. Choreographers and fencers who wish to be shown what do do, rather than doing the research themselves, will find it an excellent resource.

But accept it for what it is - a basic explanation of Di Grassi, Saviolo, and Silver, not an advancement of the art. I came to Turner and Soper after many years of trying to work out these moves from the original manuals, and found a frustrating blend of careful analysis of the painfully obvious, further confusion of the already muddled, and utter silence on all my real questions. Serious researchers will be disappointed.

For a first place to begin, it's probably easier and quicker than trying to read the originals. A choreographer interested in pre-digested knowledge will find this book an excellent source.

Detailed and scholarly work about which the theorists can argue. Worth reading at least twice if you choreograph fights regularly for someone who is interested in "realistic" portrayal. From The Ring of Steel: www.deathstar.org/groups/ros/library.html

An excellent book describing three masters: Giacomo DiGrassi, Vincentio Saviolo; and George Silver. Showing both their methods and techniques as well as the differences between them. From Sovereign Rose, Companie of Lawe: home.earthlink.net/~sirgydion/books.html

Featuring period drawings and prints of swordplay, this book examines and compares, the only three existing Elizabethan fencing manuals written in English before 1600: Giacomo Di Grassi's His True Arte of Defense (1594), Vincentio Saviolo's His Practice in Two Bookes (1595), and George Silver's Paradoxes of Defence and Bref Instructions Upon my Paradoxes of Defence (1599). More than a technical manual on swordplay, this book explores the influence of a new form of violence introduced into Elizabethan culture by the invention of the rapier. The authors examine the rapier's influence on the various social classes, the clash between the traditional English fencing masters and those embracing the new style, the growing concern with unregulated dueling, and the frequent references to rapier play in the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. As producer Joseph Papp notes in his Foreword, this is a book that "makes a difference in performance"

"I feel honored to be asked to comment on this splendid and absorbing book. [It] is an invaluable reference book for fight directors and all those involved in staging exhibitions of historical swordplay. I recommend it wholeheartedly'--Patrick Crean, Fight Master of the Stratford, Ontario, Shakespeare Festival

There is also a fairly new book I would highly recommend to anyone recreating Elizabethan, or early 17th century fencing, entitled Methods and Practice of Elizabethan Swordplay [by Craig Turner and Tony Soper, Southern Illinois University Press, 1990]. It is a detailed look at the three main fencing manuals published in England and attempts to recreate some idea of the overall style of swordplay during this period. The authors' goal is to encourage stage combat styles that are much more historically based than many portrayals to-date. From The Fencing Field: members.aol.com/maist/fncfld2.htm

A great book for stage combatants focusing on the Shakespearean era. From Stage Combat 101 by Glen Kyle: www.armourarchive.com/choreosword.html

Now that the original manuals of DiGrassi and Saviolo are widely available on the Web, and Silver's Brief Instructions is likewise available, this work's shortcomings in presenting the actual stylings of Elizabethen swordplay are rather painfully evident. Most glaring is the way that "Methods and Practice" got Silver completely wrong, only referring to his "Paradoxes" and not once citing the in-depth, competent, incisive combat instruction available in Silver's "Brief Instructions on my Paradoxes of Defence".