C.2. Foil Actions from the 1877 Manuel d'Escrime

The authoritative definition of technique in the French School at the start of the classical period is the Manuel d'Escime, published in 1877 by Ministere de la Guerre (the French Ministry of War).  Chris Slee's translation, published by Long Edge Press, is the source for this discussion.  

The text is divided into two sections, one for the epee and one for the sabre, and Slee states that the foil is excluded.  I believe this is an error resulting from a misunderstanding of the near universal practice of the time of using the foil for training in place of the actual epee de terrain (sword of the dueling ground) or the military epee (the sword carried by officers and non-commissioned officers of the Army).  Arguing in favor of the use of the foil for training Pointe fencing (fencing conducted with thrust weapons) are the following factors:

(1)  the depictions of the technique in the Manuel are essentially of foil technique as described and pictured in works by a number of French trained Masters (Cordelois, Provost, Rondelle, and Senac as examples). 

(2)  the illustrations, although inexact in their depiction of the sabre, clearly show a Pointe weapon that lacks the enlarged, dome shaped guard characteristic of the epee de combat or the epee de terrain.  The pictures look like a side view of a lunette guard, or one of the square, lens shaped, or rectangular flat guards in use in the period.  This is confirmed by the text which describes the guard as a lunette guard.  It is dangerous to say that something in this period never happened, but the lunette guard was a foil guard and does not appear as part of an epee in any commonly available source. 

(3)  prior to the epee de salle revolution of the 1880s, the epee is not commonly addressed in general fencing texts.  Even in Rondelle's 1892 Foil and Sabre the two weapons described are foil and the sabre.  It is worth noting that prior to his emigration to the United States in 1881 Maitre Rondelle was a graduate of the military fencing academy of Joinville-le-Pont and a working Maitre d'Armes in the 8th Regiment of Chasseurs a Cheval at the time the 1877 Manuel was in force. 

Therefore, it seems reasonable to consider the description of Pointe technique in the Manuel to be applicable to the foil.  As a document that is at the start of the classical period time line, it is worth examining the range of technique it describes:

(1)  the manner of holding the sword

(2)  the guard

(3)  preparatory movements

(4)  taking the guard in seven steps

(5)  gathering, forward and backwards

(6)  stepping, forward and backwards

(7)  appels

(8)  deployment of the arm

(9)  lunge

(10)  salute in arms

(11)  engagement

(12)  change of engagement

(13)  double engagement

(14)  fingering

(15)  the attack, simple and compound strikes

(16)  straight strike (simple attack)

(17)  disengagement (simple attack) (lateral action)

(18)  feint (simple attack)

(19)  cut-over

(20)  glide

(21)  beat

(22)  pressing

(23)  expulsion

(24)  disengagement (from high to low line)

(25)  bind

(26)  remise

(27)  reprise

(28)  redoubling

(29)  timed strike

(30)  stop strike

(31)  parry

(32)  counter

(33)  the actual parry

(34)  varieties of parries

(35)  execution of prime

(36)  execution of seconde

(37)  execution of tierce
(38)  execution of quarte

(39)  execution of quinte

(40)  execution of sixte
(41)  execution of half-circle
(42)  execution of octave
(43)  riposte
(44)  counterriposte

This is predominantly a list of simple or one tempo actions.  The Manuel describes the simple actions and then uses them as building blocks to aggregate multiple tempo actions in the script for a series of lessons that progresses to as many as four part actions.  These are not defined or specifically described in the way that later fencing manuals do.  Rather the doctrinal approach appears to be that the key element is the simple action and that any simple action can be combined with others to create multiple tempo actions in reaction to the opponent's response.  The lessons include actions that require significant skill such as:

• beat, double, disengage
• feint a straight strike, feint below, one, two above 
• feint of cutover, one, two 
• glide, double

Although this is a relatively short text, it clearly demonstrates the variety of actions available to the fencer of the French School, sets the stage for the growth of the volume of technique, and provides a doctrinal approach of some flexibility in the assembly of complicated bladework.

Copyright 2019 by Walter G. Green III

Foil ACtions from the 1877 Manuel d'Escrime by Walter G. Green III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.