p. 322 Degagements. André Wernesson, Sieur de Liancour, in chap. v of Le Maistre d’ Armes (1686), treats ‘des Dégagements’ in some detail. Hope defines ‘Caveating or Dis-engaging’ as ‘the slipping of your Adversaries’ sword when it is going to bind or secure yours’.
p. 322 Advancements. Advancings. ‘A man is said to Approach or Advance when being out of his adversaries’ reach or at a pretty distance from him he cometh nearer to him’.—Hope, Compleat Fencing Master.
p. 322 Eloynements. To elonge ‘is to Streatch forward one’s right Arm and Legg and to keep a close left Foot. This a Man doth when he giveth a Thrust, and when he doth it he is said to make an Elogne’ (Eloynements).—Hope, New Method of Fencing, chap. iv, XI (2nd edition, 1714), deals in detail with ‘Elonging, or making an Elonge’.
p. 322 Retierments. Retreats or Retirings are very fully described in Liancour’s Le Maistre d’ Armes, chap. iv. ‘A Man is said to Retire when being within his Adversaries’ reach he goeth out of it either by stepping or jumping backwards from his Adversary upon a Straight Line’.—Hope, Compleat Fencing Master (2nd edition, 1692).
p. 322 St. George’s Guard. ‘A guard of the broadsword or sabre used in warding off blows directed against the head’.—C. James, Military Dictionary (1802).
p. 322 Flurette. or Fluret. A fencing foil. Hope, New Method of Fencing (1714), chap, vii says: ‘[The Fencing-Master] ought to … begin his Scholars with Fleurets’.
p. 323 Ajax and Ulysses contending for Achilles his armour?
Bella mouet clypeus: deque armis anna feruntur.
Non ea Tydides, non audet Oïleos Aiax,
Non minor Atrides, non bello maior et aeuo
Poscere non alii: soli Telamone creato
Läertaque fuit tantae fiducia laudis.—Ovid: Metamorphoscon.
xii, 621-5. Book xiii commences with a description of the contest of Ajax (Telamonis) and Ulysses for the arms of the dead Achilles. They were awarded to the prince of Ithaca.
p. 324 Clouterlest. Clumsiest. E. Phillips, Theatrum Poetarum, speaks of Spenser’s ‘rough hewn clouterly verses’. cf. Pamela, Vol. I, p. 112 (1741), ‘some clouterly ploughboy’.