Here’s the full video of my rapier & dagger lesson with Maestro David Coblentz, from RASP last weekend.

David has been doing a lot of work with Francesco Antonio Marcelli’s rapier & dagger the past few years. Marcelli was a Southern Italian (Neapolitan) fencing master and, I feel like, still a relative unknown fencing master and system in the larger HEMA/SCA Rapier world. So this lesson was a treat. We covered a lot in a half hour.

Enjoy. Huge thanks again to Maestro Coblentz for the fantastic lesson!

Apologies for the poor/noisy sound; we were sharing the room with another lesson. Hopefully between what audio is heard and seeing the techniques in action, it’s possible to piece together what’s happening in the lesson. It’s really interesting stuff.
Covered in this lesson:
  • 00:15 – Getting into Marcelli’s rapier & dagger posture, plus lunge mechanics
  • 01:28 – Simple attack overview
  • 02:00 – Dagger placement in 1st Intention vs. 2nd Intention Attacks
  • 03:40 – Straight Thrust with Opposition Against the Low Sword & Parry/Riposte Against Afterblow Attack
  • 04:20 – Attack via Disengagement (cavazione) Against the Low Sword
  • 06:00 – Straight Thrust with Dagger Cover Against a High, Extended Sword
  • 06:25 – Beat Attack Against the Low, Extended Sword
  • 08:00 – Approaching with half-advance, complete advance (or gaining step) & lunge with straight thrust
  • 09:45 – OPTION: Complete straight thrust OR Reset on guard
  • 10:15 – “1, 2-3” Advance-lunge
  • 14:40 – Feinting from the Low Guard
  • 17:00 – OPTION: Complete Feint Attack OR Reset on guard
  • 18:25 – Dagger Parry against the Arrest in Counter-Time
  • 19:00 – OPTION: Complete Feint Attack OR Reset on guard OR Dagger Parry
  • 21:20 – How to change/alter the option drill plays (straight thrusts, beats, disengagements, dagger takes, feints; adding in coordinated steps; adding in afterblows or late-parry & ripostes)
  • 23:25 – Dagger Parry & Riposte Direct
  • 26:20 – Dagger Parry & Riposte Direct OR Indirect (around the dagger)
  • 28:15 – Dagger Parry & Riposte by Feint
  • 29:40 – Three Straight Thrusts
  • 30:00 – Post-lesson Shop Talk

If you’re interested in diving into Marcelli more yourself, you should look into Christopher Holzman’s translation of Marcelli’s fencing treatise.