Morgan 18r (no Getty text)
The Morgan and Pisani Dossi's counterpart to the Getty's [1]–[2]: the same Master, the same guard, the same thrown weapons — but with a different substitute guard, an extra beat the Getty never mentions, and, in the Pisani Dossi, two masters where the prose has one. No Getty text here; the base is the Morgan.
I wait here in the Boar's Tooth (dente de zenghiar): all cuts and thrusts I know how to turn aside. Let whoever knows how throw spears and swords and darts, for I will know how to protect myself from them all. And whatever I do, the guard of the Long Tail (posta de coda longa) can do just the same. I step out of the way, crosswise, beating aside whatever comes thrown at me; and when I have beaten aside the point, I am wary of the remainder of the weapon (l'avanzo de l'arma), lest it strike my body — I must immediately beat it aside a second time.
- Wait in the Boar's Tooth (dente de zenghiar).
- The claim: all cuts and thrusts I know how to turn aside.
- The invitation, broader than the Getty's: let whoever knows how throw spears, swords, and darts — "I will know how to protect myself from them all."
- The substitute guard: the Long Tail (posta de coda longa) "can do just the same" — a different alternative from the two the Getty names.
- Step out of the way, crosswise, beating aside whatever comes thrown.
- Then the Morgan's own addition — the second beat. Once the point has been beaten aside, be wary of the remainder of the weapon (l'avanzo de l'arma): the shaft is still travelling behind the head.
- Beat it aside a second time, immediately, "lest it strike my body".
- The Pisani Dossi supplies what happens next, which the prose does not: come to the close (a le strete) and there use cuts and thrusts.
Step 6 is the only place in these three sections where anyone notices that a thrown spear is longer than its head. The Getty's [Sword-Spear 2] beats once and calls the defense complete.
The Getty gives this master's speech as plays [1]–[2]; the Morgan and Pisani Dossi carry this parallel version instead (the Pisani Dossi depicts two masters, and the Morgan adds the warning about the shaft that follows the parried point). Pulicane (pulicano) is the half-dog champion of the Buovo d'Antona romance, cited as a proverbial thrower; he returns alongside Roland in [Spear vs Other Weapons 17]. No Paris (Latin) text exists for this section.
Glossological analysis
- dente de zenghiar ([3]) — the Boar's Tooth again, in the Morgan's spelling (Getty: dente di zenghiaro). The guard is the one constant across both versions of this Master; nearly everything else about the plate varies by witness.
- posta de coda longa ([3]) — the Long Tail, the rear-hanging guard ([S2H 23]), offered as the interchangeable alternative — where the Getty's [2] offers the Woman's Guard and the Window Guard on the left. Both prose copies teach that the guard is substitutable; neither names the other's substitutes.
- l'avanzo de l'arma ([3]) — "the remainder of the weapon": the shaft behind the head, still coming after the point is displaced. The same avanzo — the surplus of shaft — that covers at [Spear 7] and counters at [Spear-Other 13]; here alone it is a threat rather than a tool.
- dubito ([3]) — "I am wary of", not "I doubt". In Fiore's Italian dubitare is to apprehend a danger; the modern cognate has drifted to uncertainty. The Master is not unsure about the shaft — he is watching for it.
- dardi ([3]) — darts: light throwing weapons, listed beside spears and swords among the things one may throw. The word occurs in these three sections only here and in this plate's verse.
- lançare ([3]) — to throw. The whole plate is organized around it: this Master's art is defined by what he can afford to let be thrown at him.
- a le strete (PD, [3]) — "at the close": the near measure, the longsword's zogho stretto ([S2H 48]–[S2H 68]). The verse alone says where the fight goes after the beat.
- pulicano (PD, [3]) — Pulicane, the half-dog champion of the Buovo d'Antona romance, cited as "a good thrower". Not an opponent but a benchmark: the verse names the best thrower it can imagine in order to claim the guard would hold even against him. He returns beside Roland at [Spear-Other 17], where the same device does the same work for the ghiavarina — the romances supply Fiore's upper bound whenever he wants to say "anyone at all".
Manuscript comparison
- [3] is the verse family's [2] — and it is not the same play. The Morgan and Pisani Dossi carry here what the Getty gives as [1]–[2]: one Master, the Boar's Tooth, thrown weapons, a step out of the way, a beat. But the witnesses fill in every detail differently, and none of them shares a plate number with the Getty. The Paris has nothing at all for this section (Manuscript comparison §4C), so the whole verse tradition for this Master is eight Pisani Dossi lines.
- Different substitute guards, same doctrine. The Getty's [2] says the Woman's Guard on the left and the Window Guard on the left would serve equally. The Morgan's [3] names the Long Tail instead. Neither list mentions the other's guards. Both prose copies teach that the guard is interchangeable — and then interchange it for something else.
- Two masters, not one. The Pisani Dossi speaks throughout in the plural: "We are two masters who await the throw", "the defense that we make with the swords", "against us he could gain no honor" — and Wiktenauer gives [3] two figures (16b-a, 16b-b) accordingly. The Getty and the Morgan have a single Master. The verse witness has doubled him, and its illustrations follow the verse.
- The Morgan alone warns about the shaft. Its closing sentence — beat the point aside, then beware l'avanzo de l'arma and beat a second time — has no counterpart in the Getty, the Pisani Dossi, or anywhere else in these three sections. It is the Morgan's one substantive contribution to the entire spear material, and it repairs a real omission: the Getty's [2] beats a thrown spear once and declares itself unable to fail.
- The verse adds the aftermath and the paladin. The Pisani Dossi gives two things the prose lacks: where the fight goes ("at the close we will use cuts and thrusts" — the plate's only named offense, as against the Getty's unfulfilled "immediately I make the offense"), and Pulicane as the standard the defense is measured against. Prose gives the mechanics; verse gives the aftermath and the boast.
- Illustrations. Both figures are the Pisani Dossi's (16b-a, 16b-b) — necessarily, since they are the two masters only the verse witness knows about. There is no Morgan figure here, despite the Morgan supplying the base text: the page shows one manuscript's picture over another manuscript's words.