Fencing, the art of attack and defence with any weapon but such as cut or break by sheer force. The word is, however, understood to allude especially to the management of the small sword or rapier, and when any other arm, such as broadsword, bayonet, or stick, is used, the kind of weapon is specified. Fencing was cultivated by the ancients, as shown by the Roman gladiators. During the period when suits of armor were worn by combatants, battle axes and other ponderous weapons were much adopted, and fencing fell into disuse. When, however, metal casing was abandoned, it came again into vogue. The peculiar state of society existing in Italy in the 16th century made such knowledge more needed there than elsewhere; consequently the Italians became the most expert fencers of that epoch, and were the teachers of the art to other nations. The next country which found the art to be a necessity was Spain, whither it was imported from Italy. There the art was improved, and the amendments were accepted by the Italians. From Italy fencing was also imported into France, where the court and gentry favored it so much that it quickly took a fresh development, and a new school was established.-Though the principal object in studying the art of fencing is to enable men to wield arms with advantage, it is also pursued by many as a recreation and an exercise.

While it demands no violent straining of the muscles, it develops in an extraordinary degree the whole physique, and imparts the most perfect delicacy of touch, with steadiness and lightness of hand.-The fundamental principle upon which is based the defence of the person by means of the small sword is a peculiar application of the power of the lever, whereby the fencer who parries an attack causes the point of his adversary's blade to deviate from the direct course, and throws it aside from his body through pressing or striking the faille (part near the point) of his adversary's weapon by the forte (part near the handle) of his own. The surface of the front of the body is, in fencing language, divided by an imaginary line, horizontal, and just below the breast, separating the upper from the lower portion; the upper part is again subdivided by a perpendicular line, the right of which is termed the outside, the left the inside. There were in the old school eight parries, distinguished by the Italian numerals primo, secondo, terzo, quarto, etc, from which are taken the modern terms prime, seconde, tierce, carte, etc.

The instrument adopted for exercise is called a foil; it has a handle similar to the small sword, which it is intended to represent; it has a guard of metal or leather between the handle and the blade, which blade is of pliant steel, having at the end a button in place of a point. The parries are made with the weapon itself; the upper part of the body to the right is defended by the parry termed tierce, the upper part to the left by that termed carte, and the lower line by seconde. Of the old parries these are the chief; indeed the others are nearly obsolete, or used only in certain exceptional cases. When the fencer is left-handed, the left of his person instead of the right is most exposed to his adversary, and the parries of carte and tierce are reversed. The fencer is expected to depend upon his sword hand for protection, rather than upon his agility of leg; nevertheless he must be quick and active on his legs to be able to advance, retreat, or lunge. Thrusts are directed solely at the body; a hit upon a limb can only be accidental, and in a fencing school will not be counted as a hit. An attack or a riposte may be made by the mere extension of the arm, or accompanied by a lunge, that is, by advancing the body, stepping forward with the right foot without moving the left one.

An engagement means the crossing of the blades. A riposte means the attack without pause by the fencer who has parried.-The early Italian and Spanish schools taught the management of the sword aided generally by the dagger or the mantlet; the shifting of the position of the fencer to the right or left was also called into requisition in avoiding an attack. But since the habit of wearing the dagger and mantlet has been abandoned, and the velocity of attack and riposte has become so great that the dagger and mantlet would be an encumbrance, and the shifting of the position would be fatal to him who relied upon it, the instruction in defence has been confined solely to the foil. The Italian foil is long, some 38 to 40 in,; the ancient was longer than the more modern.

The Italian is also much heavier and less pliant than the French foil, which is only 34 in. in length. The handle has just beneath the guard a ring in which the fencer inserts his fore and middle fingers to grasp firmly the weapon, which is further secured to the hand by a bandage: whereas the French use neither the ring nor the bandage. The guard to protect the hand is of metal in the Italian foil, and very large; in the French foil it is much smaller and lighter. The pure Italian school is in vogue only in lower Italy and Sicily, and the Neapolitan masters are justly celebrated for their adroitness in this particular method. The characteristic of the Neapolitan school (which more than any other partakes of the old Italian and Spanish) is to extend the arm so as constantly to present the point direct to the adversary's breast; the hand is kept in the centre of the person at nearly the elevation of the shoulder; the large guard between the handle and the blade serves somewhat the purpose of a little shield by causing the attacking point to glance off the hand of the fencer on the defensive, slightly bearing to the left or right {carte or tierce), according as he finds himself menaced.

The arm being already fully extended has the tendency to keep an adversary at a distance, and also facilitates the lunge of the attacker. The fencer can also defend himself by a circle parry, which the Neapolitan makes by describing with the point a small circle 8 to 12 in. in diameter, for the purpose of catching up an adversary's point which may glide away from the engagement under the blade, menacing the lower line, or the upper one if it complete the disengagement. The Venetian school, of those of upper Italy, resembles most the Neapolitan; the Piedmontese is mixed, partaking of the old French and the Neapolitan. The Spanish school is a modification of the Neapolitan, in which the attack is assisted by extraordinary gymnastics of the leg, the fencer at times throwing himself nearly on the ground and attacking much in the lower line. This, like every other peculiarity, when well executed, is very embarrassing to one not accustomed to it.-When the French established a method of their own, the deviation from the Italian model consisted in the fencer having a less ex-tended sword arm, the hand (medium guard) at the height of the breast, the elbow slightly bent, and the point of the sword at about the height of the eye.