2.2. Grandiere's Feint for the Straight Thrust

In 1906 Maurice Grandiere authored a small fencing manual titled How to Fence: A new and original treatise on the art of the Foil and Epee as studied and practiced in France.  Grandiere has so far escaped our efforts to identify his status, but the quality and scope of the manual suggests either a very experienced amateur, or more likely a Maitre d'Armes.  Incidentally, for those puzzled by the (2/6) on the cover, it is the price 2 Shillings and 6 Pence, approximately $15 in today's money for a leather bound book, with a photograph of the author inset in the cover.

The prevailing definitions of the feint in the French School at this time can be found in Rondelle (1892) and the French Ministry of War manuals of 1877 (Slee translation) and 1908 (Amateur Fencer's League of America translation).  These leave the clear impression that the feint is a simulation of an actual attack executed from the guard to cause the opponent to move his or her blade, creating an opening that the fencer immediately exploits to hit.  The feint is described in a context that suggests it is part of an integrated series of blade and footwork actions that form the attack in the moment.

Grandiere's description of the feint for the simple attack is very different, and is more tactical than technical in its character.  He emphasizes that every attack by straight thrust or disengage must be preceded by a feint.  These feints are of two types: 

• The Large Feint - made to force the opponent to parry, creating the opportunity for a disengage, or
• The Feint near the opponent's guard.

The difference in these two categories appears to be primarily in defining the parry the opponent must take, an opposition parry for the large feint and a circle parry for the feint near the guard.

Grandiere's description of the feint for the straight thrust immediately attracts the reader's attention, first because we are not used to thinking about preparing the straight thrust with a feint, and second because the method is novel (this being the first example encountered). 

1. The feint for the straight thrust is delivered in a manner resembling an actual attack as possible, with a very rapid extension of the arm with the hand high, the blade downward, and with a slight forward movement of the body "to command more freedom and vivacity in making the feint."    
2. If parried, the arm must be recovered very rapidly to a half extension and covering the line of the original engagement.
3. The feint should be delivered several times.
4. When the opponent starts to lessen his or her response to the feint, the fencer should execute one more feint followed immediately by the lunge to deliver the hit.

The feint for the disengage is executed as a feint of straight thrust above to draw the parry and open the line, followed by the disengage and lunge.

In effect Grandiere's straight thrust is a multiple tempo compound action intended to score when the opponent's defenses start to not take the feint seriously; the disengage is what we might consider in later years to be a compound attack.

Copyright 2019 by Walter G. Green III


Grandiere's Feint for the Straight Thrust by Walter G. Green III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.