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Pisani Dossi 13b (no Getty text)
The second plate the prose lacks
The second and last of the section's verse-only plates, and the twin of [Sword1H 3]: both are scholar's plays, both are cover-and-strike, and both credit the cover's speed for the outcome. Together they are the two plays the Pisani Dossi has and the Getty does not.
[5] Strike to the head after a swift cover
Pisani Dossi · 13b-b
Illustration: Pisani Dossi 13b-b · Text: Pisani Dossi 13b-b · Paris 11r-a
Pisani Dossi · translation
Here I have struck you in your head, because of the cover I made so quickly.
Flow of actions
- Make the cover — and the couplet's single condition on it is that it was made promptly (presta).
- Strike him in the head.
- The causal claim is the whole play: the head was struck because of the speed of the cover. Not the placement, not the step, not the line — the speed.
- Nothing further is given: no hand, no foot, no guard. As at [Sword1H 3], the couplet reports an outcome and credits one cause.
The Paris supplies the wound the Italian leaves abstract — the forehead, and blood — but no more mechanics than the Italian has.
Glossological analysis
- presta ([5]) — prompt, quick. The couplet makes speed the cause of the hit, not a quality of it: "I struck your head because of the cover I made so quickly." The root is presteza — celerity, the tiger, the second of the four virtues of the segno (Glossary) — so the verse is crediting a named virtue, not just moving fast.
- coverta ([5]) — the cover, once more the only action named. Across [3] and [5] the verse family's account of the sword in one hand is: cover, and the strike follows. The mechanics of covering are the Master's business at [Sword1H 2]; the scholars only report results.
- frontem (Paris, [5]) — the forehead: the Latin specifies where the Italian says "head", as it specifies the kidneys where the Italian says the back ([Dagger-Sword 4]).
- volucri cum tegmine (Paris, [5]) — "with a winged cover" (volucer, winged/flying): the Latin renders presta as flight. The Italian's plain adverb becomes an image.
- dantem (Paris, [5]) — "the giver", i.e. the man delivering the blow. The Latin's habit of naming the opponent by his action, as with furentj at [Sword1H 3] and mestum at [Sword1H 4].
Manuscript comparison
- Coverage. Pisani Dossi and Paris only; no Getty, no Morgan. With [Sword1H 3], the verse family carries two plays the prose family never had — which is why the Pisani Dossi ends with 14 plays to the Getty's 13 (Manuscript comparison §2), despite being a fraction of the length.
- The Paris heightens, as it does throughout. The Pisani Dossi says the head was struck; the Paris says the forehead was struck with a bloody wound (sanguineo … vulnere) and calls the cover winged where the Italian calls it merely prompt. Same play, raised register — the same relation the grappling shows, where "kiss the ground with your mouth" becomes "lick the foul earth".
- The Latin names the opponent by his act, and the Italian does not. dantem ("the giver [of the blow]") here, furentj ("the raging one") at [Sword1H 3], mestum ("the sorrowing one") at [Sword1H 4]. The Pisani Dossi says only "you". The Paris is not merely translating the couplets; it is re-characterizing the man they are addressed to.
- Illustration. Pisani Dossi 13b-b, necessarily.