Methods and Practice of Elizabethan Swordplay

Rating:
Summary: Worth reading at least twice if you choreograph fights...
Review: Detailed and scholarly work about which the theorists can argue. Worth reading at least twice if you choreograph fights regularly for someone who is interested in "realistic" portrayal. From The Ring of Steel: www.deathstar.org/groups/ros/library.html

Rating:
Summary: A worthy explanation of the basics of Elizabethan fencing
Review: If you are interested in a first look at Elizabethan swordplay, this isn't a bad place to start. They have gone through the basics reasonably well, and tried to explain how to use them. Choreographers and fencers who wish to be shown what do do, rather than doing the research themselves, will find it an excellent resource.

But accept it for what it is - a basic explanation of Di Grassi, Saviolo, and Silver, not an advancement of the art. I came to Turner and Soper after many years of trying to work out these moves from the original manuals, and found a frustrating blend of careful analysis of the painfully obvious, further confusion of the already muddled, and utter silence on all my real questions. Serious researchers will be disappointed.

For a first place to begin, it's probably easier and quicker than trying to read the originals. A choreographer interested in pre-digested knowledge will find this book an excellent source.

Rating:
Summary: A worthy explanation of the basics of Elizabethan fencing
Review: If you are interested in a first look at Elizabethan swordplay, this isn't a bad place to start. They have gone through the basics reasonably well, and tried to explain how to use them. Choreographers and fencers who wish to be shown what do do, rather than doing the research themselves, will find it an excellent resource.

But accept it for what it is - a basic explanation of Di Grassi, Saviolo, and Silver, not an advancement of the art. I came to Turner and Soper after many years of trying to work out these moves from the original manuals, and found a frustrating blend of careful analysis of the painfully obvious, further confusion of the already muddled, and utter silence on all my real questions. Serious researchers will be disappointed.

For a first place to begin, it's probably easier and quicker than trying to read the originals. A choreographer interested in pre-digested knowledge will find this book an excellent source.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the originals
Review: Now that the original manuals of DiGrassi and Saviolo are widely available on the Web, and Silver's Brief Instructions is likewise available, this work's shortcomings in presenting the actual stylings of Elizabethen swordplay are rather painfully evident. Most glaring is the way that "Methods and Practice" got Silver completely wrong, only referring to his "Paradoxes" and not once citing the in-depth, competent, incisive combat instruction available in Silver's "Brief Instructions on my Paradoxes of Defence".