Mezzo-Spada in Period Text
Please note this use of *mezzo spada* to mean *half-swording* in the 1516 Italian epic-poem Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533). The Italian text is by Ariosto (of course) and the English translation is by William Stewart Rose (Bobbs-Merrill Co; 1968):
XLVIII
Ma tarda è la sua giunta; che si trova
Marfisa incontra, e di tanta ira piena
(poi che s'ha vista alla seconda prova
cader sì facilmente su l'arena),
che pregar nulla, e nulla gridar giova
a Ruggier che di questo avea gran pena:
sì l'odio e l'ira le guerriere abbaglia,
che fan da disperate la battaglia.
XLIX
A mezzo spada vengono di botto;
e per la gran superbia che l'ha accese,
van pur inanzi, e si son già sì sotto,
ch'altro non puon che venire alle prese.
Le spade, il cui bisogno era interrotto,
lascian cadere, e cercan nuove offese.
Priega Ruggiero e supplica amendue,
ma poco frutto han le parole sue.
XLVIII
But is too slow withal; for on her feet
She finds Marphisa, with such fierce disdain
Inflamed, at being in that second heat
So easily reversed upon the plain,
She hears in vain exclaim, in vain entreat,
Rogero, who beholds their strife with pain.
So blinded are the pair with spite and rage,
That they with desperate fury battle wage.
XLIX
At half-sword's engage the struggling foes;
And -- such their stubborn mood -- with shortened brand
They still approach, and now so fiercely close,
They cannot choose but grapple, hand to hand.
Her sword, no longer needful, each foregoes;
And either now new means of mischief planned.
Rogero both implores with earnest suit:
But supplicates the twain with little fruit.
Italian-English speakers may differ with Rose over the exact wording, but I think it is quite clear that this period use of *mezzo spada* means not the middle area of the blade, but rather the way to use the sword itself by half-swording. That is the singular instance of the term in that entire work. Practically all other weaponry references in that work deal with sword and shield, or falchions, or spears and so forth. Alrighty then. <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />
 |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||