Downright Blows

As part of my learning backsword, I've been reading George Silver's work for myself, which is a bit tricky seeing as it's written in what looks like very old English shorthand at a time before the dictionary was invented! It's interesting though, and it's given me a great new respect for my backsword teacher, and helped me understand his reasons for teaching things the way he does.

Something I've seen interpreted differently by other people who have studied Silver's works has been the "down right blow". Some people interpret this as a blow from Open Fight that comes down and from the right. I've even seen evedence for it presented in the form of another source that was translated from another language. In this source a description for a blow coming down and from the right was translated into English as "down right blow". Now my teacher interprets a down right blow, to be a "downright blow", so soemthing that is strong and forcefull. I've agreed with him because it makes sense to me, but I personally always attach a level of doubt to something until I've prooved it for myself.

Well last night I did. I was reading through Silver's Brief Instructions, and came across a section where he mentions facing Open Fight with Variable Fight. In that section he says to be wary when facing Open Fight as you don't know which side of your sword his blows will come from. Pretty definitive to me.

For me thats proof enough, but I do wonder why Silver says both "down right blow" and "downright blow". I've a theory for why this is, but I need to read more to see if it could be true or not.

The thing is, that all through Paradoxes of Defence I think Silver says "down right", and so far in Brief Instructions, the only mention I've found is "downright". I've a feeling that Silver meant "downright" to be the case in both, but that Paradoxes was edited and as this was a time before dictionaries the word "downright" was changed to be printed as "down right". Thats my theory at least, and I've no idea if people at the time would have actually seen a difference between the two. I'd find it odd if he was using two different terms that sound identical when said allowed though, would just cause confusion if it was the case.

I'll be more firm in my resoning if Silver never uses "down right" in his Brief Instructions, and only ever uses "downright". We shall see!

It does make me feel great noticing these things though!


P.S. Got a lovely new sword just after Christmas! I'll be sure to pop a nice review up as soon as I've taken a few pretty pictures.