OF HONOUR AND HONOURABLE QUARRELS: A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO DUELLING

OF HONOUR AND HONOURABLE QUARRELS: A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO DUELLING This beautifully illustrated guide to the etiquette of settling quarrels in Elizabethan England was written by Vincentio Saviolo, one of the great Italian fencing masters-a contemporary and perhaps a colleague of William Shakespeare. In the early 1590s, Shakespeare and Saviolo were both based in Londons Blackfriars. It is almost certain that Saviolo would have come in contact with Shakespeare, and there is evidence that the playwright hired Saviolo as his bodyguard and that he was employed to train actors in stage combat. Shakespeare used Italian fencing terminology and refers to fencers frequently; in Mercutio calls Tybalt the very butcher of a silk button - a skill for which Saviolos colleague Bonetti was renowned. This book sets down the correct etiquette for fighting a duel - Saviolos guide was written in a time when rapier play was seen by the gentry as a great improvement to the old-fashioned sword-and-buckler fighting and much better suited to the requirements of a gentleman. ISBN: 1-84832-527-4 publish date: 11/30/2012