Note 431 — Chapter VII · THE SWORD: WHAT IS IT?

‘Chape,’ derived from capa, and a congener of ‘cap’ and ‘cape,’ is differently used by authors. Some apply it to the mouthpiece or ring at the top of the sheath; others to the metal crampet, bouterolle, or ferule at the scabbard-tip, and others to the guard-plate. In Durfey (The Marriage-Hater Matched) we find ‘the hilt, the knot, the scabbard, the chape, the belt, and the buckles’ (of a Sword). Skinner explains it as vaginæ mucro ferreus. Mr. Fairholt defines chape to be the guard-plate or cross-bar at the junction of grip and hilt. Shakespeare, who knew the Sword, speaks of the ‘chape of his dagger’ (All’s Well &c. iv. 3) and ‘an old rusty Sword with a broken hilt and chapelesse’ (Taming of the Shrew, iii. 2). Commentators mostly explain this by ‘without a catch to hold it.’ Dr. Evans (Bronze, &c. chap. viii.) has exhaustively described the bronze chapes (bouterolles) in the British Islands.