The Use of the Broad Sword (Thomas Page, 1746)

The Use of the Broad Sword is an English printed treatise by Thomas Page of Norwich, published in Norwich in 1746. The full title promises to show “the true method of fighting with that weapon, as it is now in use among the highlanders”, that is, broadsword fighting as the Scottish Highlanders then practised it. According to the digitised text, the dedication signed T. Page is addressed to John Lord Hobart, lord lieutenant of the county of Norfolk. The book is written as a textbook. It first explains technical terms, then leads the reader through five lessons from plain play with the basic guards to further guards and movements. After the lessons come separate sections on the lunge, timing, the cut at the leg and the disarm, four examples of free practice (loose playing) and the so-called finesses, including a procedure called Gormon's Throw. The treatise closes with a section headed The Highlanders Method, which returns to the title's promise to describe the Highlanders' fighting. According to the digitised copy, the printed work has 51 pages.

Martial arts in this work

Contents

The introductory glossary explains the terms Guard, To Change the Guards, The Outside, The Inside, The Line, A Throw, To Cover, To Swob, To Advance, Retreating, To Recover, To Lunge, To Spring Off, To Judge a Distance, To Time, To Bear, The Fort, The Foible, An Opening, To Circulate a The Bout. The first lesson (Lesson the First) teaches plain play with the basic guards. The second adds the guard Hanging and St. George's Guard. After it comes the evasion The Slip, followed by the third, fourth and fifth lessons. Further parts are titled Lunge, Bearing, Battering, Timing, Cutting the Leg and The Disarm. Free practice (Loose Playing) is demonstrated in four examples, followed by Finesses, Gormon's Throw and The Highlanders Method.

Origin

The treatise was printed in Norwich in 1746, the year MDCCXLVI appearing on the title leaf. The author is given on the title as Thomas Page of Norwich and signs the dedication T. Page. According to the digitised text, the dedication is addressed to Lord Hobart, lord lieutenant of the county of Norfolk. In it Page writes that he wants to make the broadsword useful to his fellow citizens and the Artillery Company, in his words “Useful as well as Ornamental”. The surviving copy is available as a digitisation from microfilm in the collection The Eighteenth Century. We have not been able to establish which library holds the original.

People and martial arts

• John Lord HobartPatron

Details

Form

Printed book

Library digitisation

archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-use-of-the-broad-swo_…

Editions

• 1746 · EN · The Use of the Broad Sword · 51 pp.