(Title shamelessly riffed off of from Jim Emmon’s paper linked here)
So one of the myriad “joys” of researching and recreating systems based on old manuals is the issue of translation.
“But Alex!” I hear all two of you shouting, “Don’t you study sources written in English?”
Why yes, yes I do. But given we are talking about sources from the 18th century, non-standard spelling, and linguistic drift make this already tough. Then throw in an author who is turning French terms into English, again with non-standard spelling and if one can only assume this transcription is happening by ear, and it gets even more complicated.
This is all my preamble to trying to decode one term from Wylde’s smallsword – coopee.
Start at the Very Beginning
Reading through Wylde’s Smallsword section most of it is relatively straightforward. He presents a bunch of different types of parries (most of which he claims to have invented), then a bunch of different attacks. Most of this is fine, if a bit confusing at times because he will describe several things that only bear minor differences. When he gets to his sample lesson you start to realize what you glossed over in the reading. You thought you understood and now you have to actually *DO* and you realize you have no clue what to do.
It starts easy enough:
- Take the position of Cart (Inside) and thrust in Ters (Outside).
- Take the position of Ters and thrust in Cart
But the 5th step is where the my brain hit the brakes:
- “Lie in Cart or Coopee, Cart in Ters Agee, or Cart over shell”
Coopee? Coopee is listed as an attack so how is it also a position? It’s not a huge jump, as Wylde uses Cart as both the name of the position and the name of the thrust that comes from that position. Okay, so Coopee is a position and an attack. So let’s see how Wylde defines Coopee.
Its first mentioned in the thirteenth entry for the attacks:
“13ly. A Stockata, is made thus, Lean back with your Body, and by a sudden shoot, put in your Pass in Cart; or you may Coopee, which is Reversing, and ‘twill prove a Cheating thrust.”
Oh. Okay. So a Coopee is also called Reversing. Well let’s see how Wylde defines Reversing.
“5ly. A Reverse is made, when a Man pushes to you in Cart, Parr and bring your Point round his Shell, and conclude you Pass Cart in Ters a Gee.”
Alright. So it’s an action after a successful parry in Cart. You bring your point over their shell (a key component because Wylde says that in smallsword you should always go under the shell), then bring their blade and yours from your inside to your outside before thrusting.
That is the key action that I think can be called Wylde’s Coopee. In more modern terms I think you could call it a transport from the inside low line to the outside low line.
Here’s where it gets fun – if you look up coopee, or rather its actual French term coupé, that is not at all a match.
A Rose by Any Other Name
The coupé is also called the cut-over. It is usually defined as a disengagement where one raises the point of their sword so that it passes over the point of their opponent’s blade, re-establishing the line and thrusting.
Indeed, in several contemporaneous sources to Wylde this is proven true.
- Girard: “[…] I withdraw the arm a little, and raise the blade straight up so that it passes over the point to the outside of the sword, then subtly raise the wrist, while lowering the point, & thrust thoroughly in tierce, nails downward, with a well-supported wrist…”
- Olivier: “In order to cut over the point from inside carte over the arm, engage your sword in carte[…] If your adversary holds his hand low and the point of his sword high, raise your wrist without moving the arm at all […] Afterwords throw your sword’s point over that of your adversary; but form well your extension when you plunge your point, and then push.”
Okay….okay…. So a coupé is a disengage by cut-over, while Wylde’s coopee is a disengage over the shell into a transport.
This is like a game of Telephone. Someone, instructing in French, says the word “Coupé. Is a cut-over” and Wylde (or whomever trained Wylde) just caught the word “over” and rolled with it. As with so much of Wylde’s Anglicized French you kind of have to squint and slur your way through making connections.
But wait! There’s more!
This is all well and good but Wylde also uses the term Coopee to define a position one can lie in. So what could that be? Let’s start with the positions we do know.
- Cart: Cart is the position where you cover your Inside line. For a right handed fencer that means I stand my line, as per Wylde’s instructions, and then shift my sword just a bit towards my left, nails pointed up (supinated). Cart is Wylde’s spelling of the French “quarte” or “fourth”. Wylde is specific that this position is the same as the Inside guard in broadsword.
- Ters: Ters is the position where you cover your outside line. For a right handed fencer that means I stand my line and then shift my sword just a bit towards my left, nails pointed down (pronated). Ters is Wylde’s spelling of the French “tierce” or “third” and he says is the same as the broadsword guard of Outside.
- Cart in Ters: less of a true position and more of a change in hand position. As the name implies, your sword is in Ters, but your hand is nails up (supinated).
- Sacoon: technically the attack is called Sacoon and the position is Sacoonways. This could also be called a low Ters – from the position of Ters or Cart in Ters just drop the point so that it is aimed at their flank. Though technically Wylde calls Sacoon with the nails up Cart in Ters a Gee. Seriously my man, get a grip on your terminology. Anyways, Sacoon is Second. Yes it’s trying to reproduce the French “seconde” but Wylde also openly calls it Second.
This covers both Inside and Outside high lines and the Outside low line. So the only one left is (drumroll please……) the Inside low line.
So let’s test this hypothesis that the position of Coopee is one that covers the Inside low line. The first place to look is what does a coopee look like? We know from the above definition that it is from a parry in Cart, where you bring your point over their shell, but then finish in Cart in Ters a Gee (“a gee” having a definition at the time of essentially “way out in the fields”). So the ending position, Cart in Ters a Gee, is NOT the position of Coopee. The position of Coopee is also not the parry in Cart but that position after you have put your point over theirs but BEFORE you transport their blade to your outside line. This is good! We have a solid setting for the position of Coopee!
What’s that? Wylde has two other terms he uses for your sword being in that low inside line?
F&*K!
Okay.
Now what?
To be fair to myself, both of the other terms (maybe only one term; more on that later) for the sword on the low inside line refer to attacks only, not positioning. The easiest to parse is the oh so simple “Why the hell didn’t he keep this one?” Low Cart. It’s Cart, but low.
“[…] low Cart, is made when your Opponent lies advanc’t [advanced] with his Weapon, then shoot your Pass in, in a direct Line, quick as an Arrow out of a Bow Cartways, to the Bottom of the Belly.”
Clear enough right? It even gives a target in the bottom of the stomach. Sweet! Oh that little ellipses at the beginning of the quote? That’s nothing you need to worry about. No need to look behind the curta….
Fine, here is the full quote:
“A clear free Flancanade or low Cart, is made when your Opponent lies advanc’t with his Weapon, then shoot your Pass in, in a direct Line, quick as an Arrow out of a Bow Cartways, to the Bottom of the Belly.” emphasis added
Okay so we now have the term “Flancanade”. This is another Anglicized French word, “flanconnade”, which is an attack to the side of the body underneath the arm (known as the flank) on the sword arm side. And that’s what we see in the above quote. The other two ways Wylde talks about flanacande back this up too. To avoid taking up too much attention with quotes folks probably skim anyways, Wylde presents three options for the flancanade:
- As an attack – the “clear free” or low Cart
- As a parry – parry in Cart, then flancanade
- As an engagement – specified as “flancanadeways”
So the Flancanade and the low Cart are the same attack. That’s nice and pretty par for the course with Wylde. The man would have LOVED the thesaurus. We can also see then that Flancanadeways and Coopee are the same position, which still leaves us two different options for the name of the low inside position.
Me? Make a decision? In this economy?
Which name do we give the low inside position of the sword – flancanadeways or coopee? This is honestly a toss up. Both are used to describe the position of the sword EXACTLY ONCE in the text.
Coopee
- 5ly. Lie in Cart or Coopee, Cart in Ters a Gee, or Cart over Shell.
Flancanadeways
- 5ly. Join or engage Flancanadeways in Cart, then step in with your left Foot, and with your left Arm in the bent of it, seize the Fort of his Weapon, pluck your left Arm strongly to you, and put your right Hand stiffly from you, so Disarm.
The Coopee reference happens in the Simple Lesson and the Flancanadeways is in his description of disarms. Because Coopee is in the lesson I am more inclined to use that as the term for the low inside positon.
So to sum up and give names to things he really doesn’t, the six guards/positions in Wylde’s smallsword are:
- Medium/Unicorn (middle)
- Cart (high inside)
- Ters (high outside)
- Saccon/Second (low outside)
- Coopee (low inside)
- Faloon/Hanging
Of course, I could just start calling Coopee “Prime” and watch people who care about these things brains explode. But that also would fall a lot more in-line with French contre-pointe. At the end of the day, because Wylde wants all your actions with the smallsword to take place within an 8 inch diameter circle, with the exception of Faloon, all of these positions are just slight variations on Unicorn.
Jim
Excellent piece Alex!