The Rapier Part Four: Sword and Dagger and Sword and Cape: The Rapier Workbooks, #4

By Guy Windsor

If you have two hands, and only one of them is holding the sword, you might as well have a second weapon. The most common companion weapon for the rapier is the dagger. Rapier and dagger fencing is fast, complex, and fun. In this workbook you will learn how to quickly develop the knack of parrying with the dagger while striking with the sword, using a series of games. You will then be taught a selection of rapier and dagger sequences from Capoferro's Gran Simulacro, and develop from these sequences into freeplay.

We also cover the use of the cape as a secondary weapon, drawing from Capoferro and Alfieri, teaching you how to use the cape to parry attacks, to weigh down your opponent's weapon before you attack, and even to blind them prior to running them through.

All technical exercises are shown in the videos for both right-handers and left-handers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Spada Press
• Release date: Jun 22, 2020
• ISBN: 9789527157817

Guy Windsor

Dr. Guy Windsor is a world-renowned instructor and a pioneering researcher of medieval and renaissance martial arts. He has been teaching the Art of Arms full-time since founding The School of European Swordsmanship in Helsinki, Finland, in 2001. His day job is finding and analysing historical swordsmanship treatises, figuring out the systems they represent, creating a syllabus from the treatises for his students to train with, and teaching the system to his students all over the world. Guy is the author of numerous classic books about the art of swordsmanship and has consulted on swordfighting game design and stage combat. He developed the card game, Audatia, based on Fiore dei Liberi's Art of Arms, his primary field of study. In 2018 Edinburgh University awarded him a PhD by Research Publications for his work recreating historical combat systems. When not studying medieval and renaissance swordsmanship or writing books Guy can be found in his shed woodworking or spending time with his family.

Book preview

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THE RAPIER

Part 4: Sword and Dagger, and Sword and Cape

— Workbook —

Guy Windsor

SnakeSword_logo_HIGH-gry.jpg

Published by Spada Press

© Guy Windsor and Spada Press 2019

ISBN 978-952-7157-81-7 The Rapier, Part One: Beginners Workbook, epub

ISBN 978-952-7157-82-4 The Rapier, Part One: Beginners Workbook, kindle

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

ADDING AN EXTRA WEAPON

THE THIRTEENTH CLASS: GETTING USED TO THE DAGGER

Holding the dagger

Guard Positions

The Dagger Parrying Game

Plate 22

THE FOURTEENTH CLASS: BROADEN YOUR BASE

Plate 23

Plate 24

Plate 25

Plate 38

Plate 39

THE FIFTEENTH CLASS: COMPLETE THE BASICS

Plate 26

Plate 27

Plate 28

What now?

THE SIXTEENTH CLASS: OTHER WEAPONS

Cape

Plate 36, part one

Plate 37

Throwing the Cape

CONCLUSION

THANKS

FURTHER READING

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ADDING AN EXTRA WEAPON

Wonderfully romantic, isn’t it? The flashing blades, the ting! ting! ting! of thrusts expertly set aside by a swift dagger parry….

Then the twitching corpse, blood pooling around it, and other matter, worse-smelling, as the body lets go in its final paroxysms.

Not so romantic now, is it?

I mention this because of all the weapons combinations commonly practiced in historical swordsmanship circles, the rapier and dagger is often most divorced from its reality.

Yes, we can train for display – stage combat is an excellent application of historical fencing skill. And we can train to be good at fencing our friends, or tournament opponents. Also time well spent.

But the root of this art is a bloody murderous past, where honour killings were common, and young men slaughtered each other in despite of the law, and to the despair of their kings. It’s simply amazing to me that so much beauty would grow out of so much horror.

Okay, moving on.

As this is part four of a series, I hope it’s obvious that you are supposed to be quite good at rapier by now. I strongly advise learning the rapier alone first, before adding