result that we find the hilt varying in its fashions, but always to meet some change in the science of sword-play. An additional side ring here or a counter-guard there was added from time to time as it was found necessary to protect the hand from some newly introduced thrust or coup. With so many good swords extant, it is comparatively easy to trace the different changes as they were made, although the rapier hilt in its most complicated form would seem to defy explanation. The swords of this transition period that we illustrate have the pommel, the grip, the straight quillons, and, in some cases, both the pas-d'âne and occasionally the knuckle-guard. Only slight alterations were necessary at first to furnish better protection. The bending of the quillons was the first step. Sometimes one branch of the quillon is seen curved towards the pommel so as to form a knuckle-guard; while the other was given a symmetrical curve downwards towards the blade. With the addition of a ring-guard attached to the quillon, then of another, though possibly of smaller dimensions, extending from the end of one pas-d'âne to the other, and finally of counter-guards connecting all three with, perhaps, a small shell, the final general form of the rapier hilt is reached. The derivation of the word "rapier" has been a subject of considerable controversy. By some it is suggested that it has its origin from the French raspière and Spanish raspar, to scrape or to scratch, while others derive it from the German rappen or raffen, to tear out.[1]
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Fig. 1327. Showing the correct grasp of a XVIth century sword or rapier hilt
The practice of grasping only the base of the grip and crossing the fingers over the quillons round the top of the blade through the pas-d'âne (see Vol. ii,
- ↑ Egerton Castle, "Schools and Masters of Fence," 1855, p. 234.
