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Pseudo-Hans Döbringer/Michael Chidester In 2022
Here begins Master Liechtenauer's art of fencing with the sword, on horse and on foot, armored and unarmored. First and foremost, you should notice and remember that there's only one art of the sword, and it was discovered and developed hundreds of years ago, and it is the foundation and core of all fighting arts.
Master Liechtenauer understood and practiced this art completely and correctly; he did not discover or invent it himself (as has been written previously),[1] but rather traveled through many lands and searched for the true and correct art for the sake of experiencing and knowing it.
For this art is serious, correct, and complete, and everything that proceeds from it goes toward whatever is nearest by the shortest way, simply and directly.
When you want to cut or thrust at someone, it should be as if you tied a thread or a cord to the point or edge of your sword and pulled or drew it toward his nearest exposure, because you should cut or thrust in the shortest and surest manner, in the most decisive way. This is all you should want to do, because proper fencing doesn't have broad or elaborate parries, nor the wide fencing around by which people procrastinate and delay.
You will still find many dancing masters[2] claiming that they believe that the art of the sword grows better and richer from day to day, and that they have conceived and created a new art. But I would like to see anyone who could invent and perform a legitimate strike or play that falls outside of Liechtenauer's art. All they do is jumble and confuse the plays and then give them new names (each according to his own ideas), and they devise wide parries and often want to do two or three strikes in place of a single one. They do this to be praised by the ignorant for the sheer liveliness of it, as they stand fiendishly and perform elaborate parries and wide fencing around, and, having no moderation in their fencing, they bring long and far-reaching strikes, slowly and clumsily, and severely delay and overextend and expose themselves. This doesn't belong to earnest fencing, but only to play in the fencing schools for exercise and entertainment.
Earnest fencing goes swiftly and precisely, without hesitation or delay, as if measured and balanced by a cord (or something similar). When you cut or thrust at the man who stands in front of you, then clearly no strike backward or to the side can help you, nor any wide fencing with multiple strikes (nor any other way that you procrastinate and delay, and miss the chance to end it with him).
On the contrary, you must strike straight and directly toward him (toward his head or body, whatever is nearest and surest), so that you can reach and take him swiftly and rapidly. Furthermore, one strike is better than delivering four or six, delaying and waiting too long so your opponent wins the Leading Strike faster than you (because this strike is a great advantage in fencing).
It's written further on in the text how Liechtenauer only lists five strikes, along with other plays which are sufficient for earnest fencing, and he teaches how to perform them according to the true art, straight and direct, as closely and as certainly as possible. Moreover, he leaves aside all the new inventions and confusing work of the dancing masters, which don't come from this art.
- ↑ Here the author seems to be referring to (and disagreeing with) an earlier writing about Liechtenauer which stated that he invented the art of fencing. There’s no way to know what writing this is referring to, but the glosses of Sigmund Ainringck, Pseudo-Peter von Danzig, and Nicolaus all make this claim, and it is therefore likely to have come from the original ur-gloss of that tradition. If that is what the author is referring to, it is yet another sign that this gloss was written in the 15th century (and also evidence that the author had access to those teachings, even though he didn’t incorporate them into his gloss).
- ↑ Leichmeister is a pun that I can’t capture in English: leich means a dance or other rhythmic movement, and leiche means corpse. Leichmeister seem to be masters who teach fencing that is more like dancing than fighting, and get their students killed if they ever have to fight a duel. "Masters of the deadly dance" might capture the double meaning, but it makes them sound awesome which is hardly the intent. Alternatively, the pseudo-Danzig gloss makes reference to leichtfertigen schirmaister ("careless/frivolous fencing masters"), and leichmeister could be read as a shortening of that epithet.
