George Silver Fencing
English fighting doctrine from the writings of George Silver of around 1600. It pits the short sword against the rapier and distinguishes true and false times.
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About George Silver Fencing
The fencing of George Silver is an English doctrine of fighting that George Silver described in Paradoxes of Defence, printed in London in 1599, and in the manuscript Bref Instructions. On the title page Silver styles himself a gentleman. The title of the book says that the true foundations of fighting lie in short old weapons and that the short sword has the advantage over the long sword or long rapier. The work is aimed against the Italian teachers of the rapier, who according to Silver taught at court, in London and in the country for seven or eight years. The Dictionary of National Biography states that Silver regarded the short sword as the national weapon of the English. In Silver's account, he and his brother Toby challenged the Italian masters to a contest in many weapons, and they did not appear. Silver distinguishes four true times and four false times, and in Bref Instructions he describes four foundations and four governors of combat. The manuscript was not printed until 1898, in an edition prepared by Cyril G. R. Matthey. The English Wikipedia lists several modern editions of Silver's writings from 1972 to 2008.
History
The treatise Paradoxes of Defence was published in 1599 in London, and its title page reads London, Printed for Edward Blount. 1599. The full title states that the true foundations of fighting lie in short old weapons and that the short sword has the advantage over the long sword or long rapier, and promises to show the weakness and imperfection of rapier fighting. The dedication is addressed to the Earl of Essex (Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex), who according to the Dictionary of National Biography was the patron of the Italian master Vincentio Saviolo. The editor Cyril G. R. Matthey described the book as a small quarto volume with three woodcuts.
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Silver writes that the Italians Vincentio and Ieronimo taught rapier fighting at court, in London and in the country for about seven or eight years. According to his account, he and his brother Toby Silver challenged them to a contest in many weapons on a scaffold at Bell Sauage, put up from Southwark to Westminster a hundred to a hundred and twenty challenges, and the Italians did not come. Among the weapons he names, among others, the single rapier, the rapier and dagger, the sword and buckler, the two-handed sword, the staff, the battle axe and the pike. He mentions an Italian he calls Signior Rocco, who taught in his house in Blackfriars. The DNB states that Silver regarded the short sword as the national weapon of the English and despised the popularity of the book Practice (1595), which Vincentio Saviolo wrote. The DNB says of his life that he was active around 1599, and quotes the marriage register of George Silver, gentleman, to Mary Heydon in the church of St. Clement Danes on 24 March 1580 (1579 by the then reckoning of the year). The second work, Bref Instructions vpo my Pradoxes of Defence, survives in the manuscript Sloane MS. 376 in the British Museum and was not published in Silver's lifetime. According to Matthey, the manuscript was discovered around 1890 by a Mr. W. London, and his copy was later taken over by Captain Alfred Hutton. It was first printed in 1898 in the book The Works of George Silver. Matthey dated it 1599 in square brackets. The text addresses the ever victorious nation of Great Britain, and the English Wikipedia infers from this a composition no earlier than the end of 1604.
Technique
Silver distinguishes eight times, four true and four false. The true ones are the time of the hand, of the hand and body, of the hand, body and foot, and of the hand, body and feet. The false ones begin with the foot: the time of the foot, of the foot and body, of the foot, body and hand, and of the feet, body and hand. In Bref Instructions he names four foundations of true fighting in all weapons, which he calls grounds: Judgment, Distance, Tyme and Place. By judgment, he says, distance is kept, by distance time is gained, and by time the opponent's place is safely won. He calls the governors Judgment, Measure and, as the third and fourth, twyfold mynd, that is, a mind that, when advancing on the opponent, also reckons with retreat. According to the title of the manuscript in Paradoxes, the governors are missing and without knowledge of them no one can fight safely.
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Silver claims that the rapier offers no sure defence and that the short sword has a great advantage against a long rapier of any length. Rapier teachers, he says, never fixed the correct length of weapons. A rapier that is too long cannot be extricated from the bind in time other than by retreating, and a step is always slower than the time of the hand. Everyone should have a weapon fitting his stature. The correct length of a two-handed sword is, he says, a blade as long as that of a one-handed sword. Tzouriadis and Deacon (Acta Periodica Duellatorum, 2020) cite Silver's sentence that true defence is to be sought in short swords, short staves, half pikes, partisans, glaives and similar weapons. They add that Silver preferred staff weapons such as the axe, halberd and bill to the two-handed sword, sword and buckler, sword and shield, sword and dagger, and rapier and dagger. Bref Instructions has a separate chapter on fighting with the backsword, to which the chapter on the sword and dagger refers. In 1898 Matthey judged it probably the oldest work, at least in English, that teaches the parry and riposte, and that Silver was the first to attach importance to the offensive use of the hilt. The English Wikipedia says that Silver did not recommend the lunge but a step into distance with an immediate spring back, and that he wanted both the cut and the thrust. It says he called the English ban on thrusting a bad order or custom.
Ranks and progression
In his writings Silver describes no grades, and the English Wikipedia describes him as a gentleman, not a professional fencing teacher. Green (Martial Arts of the World, 2001) states that the English fencing guilds had four grades, scholar, free-scholar, provost and master. According to him, pupils advanced through public trial bouts with blunt weapons, called Playing the Prize, usually with the long sword, backsword, staff and sword and buckler. According to Green, Silver and his brother Toby, like many masters of defence of their time, also taught wrestling, disarming, dagger fighting, the two-handed sword, the staff and staff weapons.
Today
Green states that no real school of masters of defence has survived and that there is no direct line to historical teaching. Enthusiasts who study the writings of the masters and train with replica weapons, however, are slowly reviving this heritage, according to him. Matthey published Bref Instructions in 1898 expressly as practical advice for swordsmen and infantry officers and judged that it could be used almost unchanged with the modern sword of the day. The English Wikipedia lists modern editions, among them Three Elizabethan Fencing Manuals (James Louis Jackson, 1972), English Swordsmanship: The True Fight of George Silver (Stephen Hand, 2006) and Master of Defence: The Works of George Silver (Paul Wagner, 2008).
Did you know
According to Matthey, Captain Alfred Hutton based the article Sword Fighting and Sword Play in the magazine The Indian Fencing Review of January 1897 on Bref Instructions, and on 25 September 1897 he demonstrated Silver's grips at the Whitton Park club. The DNB states that Silver's manuscript was sold in 1870 at the auction of a collection owned by Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick. The Paradoxes manuscript, probably a dedication copy for the Earl of Essex, was bought by the British Museum in 1892 at the auction of manuscripts owned by Edwin H. Laurence.
Frequently asked questions
Who was George Silver?
An English author of writings on fencing who is described as a gentleman on the title page of the book Paradoxes of Defence (1599). The Dictionary of National Biography states that he was active around 1599 and considered the short sword the national weapon of the English.
What are Silver's true and false times?
Silver distinguishes four true and four false times. True ones begin with the hand: time of the hand, hand and body, hand, body and foot, and hand, body and feet. False ones begin with the foot.
Why did Silver reject the rapier?
According to Paradoxes of Defence, there is no sure defence in the rapier. In Silver's view, a rapier that is too long cannot be extricated from the bind in time other than by retreating, and a step is always slower than the time of the hand. He sought true defence in short swords, short staves and staff weapons.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.