Folio 26 / 31
Pisani Dossi 11b (no Getty text)
A second counter to the Sixth Master
A single plate carried by the Pisani Dossi alone. It sits among the Sixth Master's counters on 11b and works, like [Dagger 88], with the left hand — but with no prose anywhere, whether it is a variant of that counter or a distinct play cannot be settled.
[89] Counter with the left hand
Pisani Dossi · 11b-c
Illustration: Pisani Dossi 11b-c · Text: Pisani Dossi 11b-c
Pisani Dossi · verse translation
I have set my left hand to such a defense
that this counter will at once do you harm.
Flow of actions
- Set your left hand to the defense.
- The counter does him harm at once.
- Nothing further is recoverable. The couplet does not say what the left hand does — push, seize, or cover — nor whom it answers, nor where the harm lands. [Dagger 88] is also a left-hand counter to the Sixth Master, works at the elbow, and stands immediately after this plate in the Pisani Dossi; but no text confirms that the two are the same action.
Glossological analysis
- "my left hand" ([89]) — the counter-hand of the Sixth Master's material. At [Dagger 88] the left hand pushes the elbow; at [Dagger 86] the left arm turns a man into the lower lock; at [Dagger 84] the left arm goes over his right. This family is left-handed work throughout, and the couplet takes for granted that you already know which action is meant.
- "such a defense" ([89]) — a pointing phrase. Such refers to the picture, not to anything the words have said. It is the clearest case in the section of a verse that is unusable without its plate.
- "this counter" ([89]) — the plate declares itself a counter in the standard Fiorean formula (cf. [Grappling 11], [Dagger 65]) but without naming its target. Nearly every other counter in the section says what it answers — "the Fourth King and Master", "the Sixth King", "these two plays that stand before me". This one does not.
- "at once" ([89]) — the section's tempo word, doing its familiar work: the counter is justified by speed in place of mechanics. Compare [Dagger 63], [Dagger 84], and [Dagger 88], where "suddenly" and "very quickly" carry the same argumentative load.
Manuscript comparison
- Pisani Dossi only — no Getty prose, no Paris verse, no Morgan. [89] joins [Dagger 57], [Dagger 60], [Dagger 64], and [Dagger 68] as a Pisani Dossi singleton, and it is the least recoverable of the five: where [Dagger 64] at least names a hand, a weapon, and a target, this couplet names a hand and nothing else.
- Its position is suggestive. In the Pisani Dossi, 11b runs [Dagger 83] (11b-a), [Dagger 84] (11b-b), [89] (11b-c), [Dagger 88] (11b-d), [Dagger 90] (11b-e), [Dagger 91] (11b-f). The plate sits exactly between the Sixth Master's scholars and his counter — the place a second counter would belong. Once again the Pisani Dossi page carries six plays where the corresponding Getty folio carries four.
- Two left-hand counters, one explanation between them. [Dagger 88], which both Getty and Pisani Dossi carry, is also a left-hand counter and stands immediately after this plate. Whether [89] is a variant of it, its preparation, or a separate answer altogether cannot be settled from the text — and the reason is structural: the Getty is the witness that explains things, and the Getty is not here.
- Illustration. Pisani Dossi 11b-c, its own. No other witness depicts it.