Front matter
Reading edition
LONDON: PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET
THE BOOK OF THE SWORD
BY
RICHARD F. BURTON
MAÎTRE D’ARMES (BREVETÉ)
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS
London
CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY
1884
[All rights reserved]
‘He that hath no Sword (-knife = μάχαιρα), let him sell his garment and buy one.’ St. Luke xxii. 36.
‘Solo la spada vuol magnificarsi.’ (Nothing is high and awful save the Sword.) Lod. della Vernaccia, a.d. 1200.
‘But, above all, it is most conducive to the greatness of empire for a nation to profess the skill of arms as its principal glory and most honourable employ.’ Bacon’s Advancement of Learning, viii. 3.
‘The voice of every people is the Sword That guards them, or the Sword that beats them down.’ Tennyson’s Harold.
TO
THE MEMORY
OF
MY OLD AND DEAR COLLEGE FRIEND
ALFRED BATE RICHARDS
WHO
IN YEARS GONE BY
ACCEPTED THE DEDICATION OF THESE PAGES