Getty 14r
The Third Master's last page, and the section's other fixed reference. [Dagger 54] declares the lower lock and the strong key to be the same thing and calls it "the key of grappling"; like the middle lock at [Dagger 19], the rest of the book cites it by position — "the sixth play of the Third Master" — and, as with [Dagger 19], the count works out exactly on the Getty's own figures.
This is a grip which has neither counter nor defense. And here I can take the dagger from you; and to lock you is no effort for me; to dislocate your arm, no trouble. You cannot depart without my leave, and I can ruin you at my will.
- The claim comes first, and it is the strongest in the section: neither counter nor defense. Not merely "no counter" ([Dagger 23]) — no defense either.
- From the grip, three of [Dagger 8]'s five things, each rated free: take the dagger; lock him ("no effort"); dislocate his arm ("no trouble").
- The control: he cannot depart without your leave.
- The consequence: ruin him at your will. The choice is yours, and there is no clock on it.
- What the grip actually is, the Getty does not say.
The third counter-proof play in this stretch, after [Grappling 12] and [Dagger 23]. All three are holds already closed, and none of the three describes itself.
You lose the dagger by the way that I hold you. And once the dagger is taken from you, I can lock you, and in the lower lock (ligadura di sotto) I will make you suffer — that which is the key of grappling; in that I mean to lock you. And whoever enters it cannot get out; therefore he must suffer great pains and torments.
- He loses the dagger — by the way you are holding him, not by a separate act.
- Then the lock, and it is named: the lower lock (ligadura di sotto).
- And identified: it is "the key of grappling" (la chiave del abrazare) — the dagger's lock is grappling's lock, said outright.
- Whoever enters it cannot get out. Stated as a property, not as a boast.
- Therefore: great pains and torments.
- The order is fixed: disarm first, lock second. The lock is what you do once the dagger is gone.
"The key of grappling" is the sentence Tactical grouping §6 rests on. The dagger does not adapt a grappling lock — it says the lock is grappling's, and uses it unchanged.
This is called the lower lock (ligadura di sotto) and the strong key (chiave forte). For with such a lock, armored or unarmored, one can give death, since it can strike in all the dangerous places. And from such a lock one cannot get out; and whoever enters it stays there in trouble and in suffering, as is seen in the painted figure.
- Doctrine, not a play. This plate exists to fix a name, and it fixes two: the lower lock (ligadura di sotto) and the strong key (chiave forte) are the same thing.
- What it is worth: armored or unarmored, one can give death from it.
- Why: it can strike in all the dangerous places. The lock does not merely hold — it opens the targets.
- Its property: there is no getting out; whoever enters stays there in trouble and suffering.
- And the closing gesture: "as is seen in the painted figure." For the mechanics, look at the picture — the text does not describe the lock it is naming.
The section's second fixed reference and the more heavily cited of the two: [Dagger 75], [Dagger 97], [Dagger 98] and [Dagger 103] all route into it as "the sixth play of the Third Master". Note what the Getty ties the strong key to — the lower lock, not the middle (Technical grouping §5).
This is the counter of the third King, that is, of the one who plays with the backhand. I have made this lock against him; armored or unarmored, it is good and sure. And if I catch an unarmored man in this way, I ruin his hand, and I also unknot [and] dislocate it. And for pain I will make him kneel beneath my feet; if I want to strike him, that I will well be able to do.
- Answers the Third Master himself ([Dagger 47]) — "the one who plays with the backhand".
- The counter is itself a lock, made against him.
- Rated: armored or unarmored, good and sure.
- If he is unarmored, a branch opens: ruin the hand, and unknot [and] dislocate it.
- The pain makes him kneel beneath your feet.
- And from there strike him, if you want to. The kneeling is the position, not the finish.
- The Paris supplies the mechanism the Getty omits: the counter is made by turning the palm of the hand whichever way it must go.
The armored/unarmored branch again, and in its usual shape: the lock works either way, but the damage it can do depends on what the man is wearing (Tactical grouping §10). Compare [Grappling 21], which branches the same way on whether the face is covered.
The Getty writes both "la disnodo" and "dislogo" side by side — likely a scribal doublet; both verbs ("unknot," "dislocate") are kept in translation. ## 4th Master
Glossological analysis
- ligadura di sotto = chiave forte ([52], [54]) — the lower lock and the strong key: two names for one thing, equated by the text itself. Fiore ties "strong" to the lower lock, not the middle — the point Technical grouping §5 insists on against the received summaries.
- la chiave del abrazare ([52]) — "the key of grappling". The dagger's lower lock is grappling's own; this is the book's plainest statement that its sections share one grammar.
- disnodo / dislogo ([55]) — "I unknot [and] dislocate it": two verbs side by side for one action — disnodare to un-joint, dislogare to put out of place. A likely scribal doublet (Note at [55], Dagger translation); the translation keeps both.
- guasto / guastar ([51], [55]) — to ruin, spoil: "I ruin his hand", "I can ruin you at my will". Fiore's general word for damage he does not specify further — neither break nor dislocation nor cut.
- inzenochiare ([55]) — to make kneel. This counter's outcome is a posture, not an injury: the man is put on his knees under your feet, and the strike from there is optional.
- in tutti loghi pericolosi ([54]) — "in all the dangerous places": the openings where a strike kills. The phrase does the work "the gaps" does in the armored sections (Tactical grouping §10).
- stentare / stente ([52], [54]) — to suffer / sufferings, the lock's product. Both the middle lock's page ([Dagger 21]) and the lower lock's use it; it is what a ligadura is for.
Manuscript comparison
- The fixed reference checks out — and the check tells us something. Four later plays send the reader to "the sixth play of the Third Master" for the strong key ([Dagger 75], [Dagger 97], [Dagger 98], [Dagger 103]). Count the Getty's own figures from the Third Master: [47] first, [48] second, [49] third, [51] fourth, [52] fifth, [54] sixth. It lands exactly. The same test works on the middle lock — "the third play of the First Master" ([Dagger 75], [Dagger 82], [Dagger 90]) counts [17], [18], [19]. So the Getty's cross-references count figures on its own pages, counters included, and they are internally consistent. They also count straight past [Dagger 50] and [Dagger 53], as if those plates were not there — which, in the Getty, they are not. The Pisani Dossi's two extra plates were never in the prose family's reckoning.
- A scribal doublet at [55]. The Getty writes "la disnodo dislogo" — two verbs, no conjunction, for one action. No verse witness has anything corresponding; the Paris instead supplies the counter's mechanism ("Efficiens palma manuum quocunque reversa", turning the palm of the hand whichever way), which the Getty omits entirely. Each family fills a gap the other leaves.
- [54] gets four lines in the verse, as Masters do. The Pisani Dossi normally runs two lines a plate; it gives four to the First Master ([Dagger 17]), four to the Second ([Dagger 41]), four to the Third's opening ([Dagger 45]) — and four here, to a plate that is not a Master at all but a name. The Paris does the same, giving [54] three lines against its usual two. Both verse witnesses treat the strong key as though it were a Master.
- The Paris expands [55]. Pisani Dossi two lines, Paris three, and the extra one is technical — the palm-turn. As at [Dagger 25], where the Latin ran to three lines and specified the kidneys, the Paris is not a line-for-line Latinization; it expands where the metre allows (the same habit as [Grappling 11]).
- Illustrations. [51], [52] and [54] are the Pisani Dossi's (09a-a, 09a-b, 09a-d); [55] shows the Paris's figure (31v-c) beside the Pisani Dossi's (09a-e). No Getty picture on this folio — the last of them was [Dagger 40].
- Coverage. Getty, Pisani Dossi, Paris all four. Morgan none.