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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: one error or another, for all his mental brilliancy. He may
become rigidly formal in his practice, or, in a revolt from his
own formalism, be seduced into a display of showy, sensational
tricks that are all very well in the studio but dangerous to
their practitioner on the actual dueling ground.
The Italian, looser, freer, less formal, more individual in his
style, springing from a line of forbears who have preferred the
thrust to the cut, the point to the edge, for centuries, is a
more instinctive and less intellectual swordsman than the
Frenchman. It is in his blood; he uses his rapier with a wild
and angry grace that is feline.
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