The Quarter is a cut and blow from a high side, to the opposite low side, Top Left to Bottom Right, or Top Right to Bottom left. All preferably going from one lying/guard to another lying guard regardless of success of damage.
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The following is the proof of why I believe the Quarter is what it is, feel free to formulate your own opinions with this or other research;
Jason Bright offers some evidence from the University of Michigan;
"One of four parts of divisions of a thing; also a one fourth proportional part of a mixture quot.: a1398; (b) one of four parts into which a chicken or other edible animal is cut, each including a leg or wing; fore ~, a front quarter; (c) a quarter of the human body; also, a part of the body, a thigh, a hip, a shoulder, am mi quarteres, my whole body; (d) one of the four quadrants of earth or heavens; ~ of the firmament (welken,world)" (UoM Middle English Dictionary).
Additionally Etymonline says;
c. 1300, "one-fourth of anything; one of four equal parts or divisions into which anything is or may be divided;" often in reference to the four parts into which a slaughtered animal is cut, from Old French quartier, cartier (12c.), from Latin quartarius "fourth part," from quartus "the fourth, fourth part" (related to quattuor "four," from PIE root *kwetwer- "four"). One of the earliest dated references in English is to "parts of the body as dismembered during execution" (c. 1300).
This is put in context, says essentially the human body is split into 4 parts or quarters, whether Left or Right or Upper half or Lower Half. A strike following the diagonal path from quarter to quarter would be the said strike, Quarter.
Ledall has the Quarter as a principle and common strike in his work, this means it has to be a basic and natural strike.
"........A Quarter fair before you, delivered with one hand. Voiding back the right foot with another Quarter with both hands......."
(Ledall.1st Flourish, S.Thurston Modernization)
"...........A Double Round, with a Back-thrust, and a Quarter lightly delivered. And it be twice played it will bring you again to your ground."
(Ledall, 2nd Chase, S.Thurston Modernization)
Related, Silver speaks of the Quarter as the first thing to teach for swordsmanship in Paradoxes of Defense;
"There is no manner of teaching comparable to the old ancient teaching, that is, first their quarters, then their wards, blows, thrusts, and breaking of thrusts, then their closes and grips, striking with the hilts, daggers, bucklers, wrestlings, striking with the foot or knee in the cods, and all these are safely defended in learning perfectly of the grips.14 And this is the ancient teaching, and without this teaching, there shall never scholar be made able, do his uttermost, nor fight safe."
(Silver, Paradoxes of defense, Ground 15)
Working off of this educated guess, it has to be a simple strike, if we take in account another strike, the downright stroke which is usually assumed to be just vertical, this eliminates this direction, and using the aforementioned 4 separations of the body, it is a likely guess the Quarter is in fact a diagonal strike.
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Contrary-Quarter:
The Contrary-Quarter is a bit more difficult to discuss.
My opinion is it is a lower quarter lying/guard cut up to a higher lying/guard, ie Bottom left to Top Right.
ARS ENSIS theorizes;
"Back, contrary (direction or edge) “Back” and “contrary” may mean the direction of thrusts and strikes, but the latter may mean that the strike should be performed with the false edge." (AE-Analysis, pg 61)
Etymonline says;
mid-14c., "opposite, opposed, at the opposite point or in the opposite direction; extremely unlike, most unlike," from Anglo-French contrarie, Old French contrarie, and directly from Latin contrarius "opposite, opposed; contrary, reverse," from contra "against" (see contra). Meaning "given to contradiction, perverse, intractable" is from late 14c.; sense of "adverse, unfavorable" is from late 14c. Related: Contrarily.
As a noun from late 13c., "one of a pair of characters, propositions, terms, etc., the most different possible within the same class." The phrase on the contrary "in precise or extreme opposition to what has been said" is attested from c. 1400 as in the contrary.
It appears Contrary in this context could mean the most opposite, I don't believe this means that a contrary-quarter could just be a horizontally flipped quarter, such as coming from the left instead of the more natural right, as both "high" quarters are relatively natural actions, with little difference.
I'm more in favor of the contrary quarter being a rising cut from lower quarter to higher quarter which is the exact opposite action of the Quarter.
I don't believe "Contrary" is explicitly meaning a false-edge backwards cut, due to my interpretation of the role of the "back quarter" discussed next. However it isn't excluded as a way to perform said contrary cut.
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Fore and Back:
Regarding both Fore and Back, some modern interpretations see them as footwork or body movement directions, going forwards and backwards when executing the technique.
I don't quite like this interpretation because Ledall tells you often when to move your legs, or infers it earlier, than expects you to follow the standard like with his encounters' common Proffer, Rake, Quarter.
My interpretation for “Fore” and “Back” regards the variations as the relation of the blade to the center line of yourself, i.e. the true edge or false edge respectively facing the center line.
….A Full-stroke, a Fore-thrust, with a Quarter lightly delivered, and if it be twice played it will bring you to your ground...... (Ledall.1st Chase, S.Thurston Modernization)
The set up of this play has the blade come down, setting up the thrust to have the edge facing the ground, other blade’s edge or center line.
Silver uses Fore-hand when talking about the Fore-hand Ward where you block with the fore/true edge, the most structured way to block a strike it makes sense the fore-thrust could relate to blade direction, which leads credence to the back-thrust, in turn, aiding the Back-Quarter.
……A Double Round forward, an other backward. A Down-right stroke voiding back the left leg, a Back-thrust voiding back the right leg, following in with the left leg smite a Quarter backward. And if it be twice played it bring you to your ground.......
(Ledall.3rd Chase, S.Thurston Modernization)
There is also the other theory that these words could have dual meanings, a fore and back thrust could mean direction of the true/false edge while forwards and backwards can mean movement.
The above quote seems to infer backwards and forwards involving footwork with stepping forward and stepping back.
However the 6th chase has some interesting words;
…Two Double Rounds forward, with as many backward; all upon the left foot lithely delivered. Then tumble forward………..and so on and so on.
(Ledall.6th Chase, S.Thurston Modernization)
There’s more to the chase but this section says the rounds forwards and backwards are all done with the left foot as the main front which in my opinion leads more credence to the blade-direction theory in my opinion.
Throwing a Quarter;
To describe the action, you hold your blade in Open Fight, hilt on your shoulder or by your head, blade pointing up, push with the top hand and pull with the bottom all while extending forward your arms enough to reach the target with the front half of the blade but rarely fully extended.
Move your hands from high right to bottom left, casting and pushing the tip of the blade in an arc or semi-circle trying to ensure the edge of the blade follows the angle and momentum of movement and aiming for the upper-to middle of the weak of the blade to hit the target.
When doing a cut, unless it's interrupted or you have a plan, always fully pass and complete through the cut, don't stop halfway. This ensures you are in another lying ready as best you can for another action. The same mechanics of the Quarter work from High Left to Bottom Right.
You're essentially passing from lying to lying when you enact a cut.
To structure a proper cut, you use footwork, a passing step to twist the hips and generate a lot of power.
In a longsword stance, left leg pointing forward in the front and right leg pointing 90* to 45* and in the back. The balls of the feet should be about under your shoulders creating an L shape. It also helps to imagine around a 4 foot by 8 inch plank between your feet, and standing on either side of it.
You start the cut, and then step with the back foot to the front, essentially swapping positions, impacting with the sword as or just before you land with the foot. It’s essential to then be in the proper position on landing, with the new front pointing towards the enemy and the back at the 90* to 40* angle.
Next is the Contrary-Quarter where you go from high to low. The two ways to achieve this are either Fore-edge or Back-edge.
The Back-edge action is for the most part reversed, pulling with the fore-hand and pushing with the back hand while the fore-edge has you cross your arms as you pull up.
Drills:
Quarters-Drill:
A good drill to help practice the Quarter is to do a flow drill of doing an X shape. First you throw an Outside/Right Quarter then wheel the blade back up into an Inside/Left Quarter, repeat and cut back and forth.
You can do a Contrary Quarter similarly, just cutting from below and cutting from bottom right to top left and bottom left to top right. This action is actually easier flowing than the normal way.
Finally you can sync these together, cutti ,,.mng down right, down left, up right, up left and so on and on.
You can stand in place, do passing steps, or walk.
Once you feel confident, walk while flowing cuts together till a certain distance then turn and smoothly switch to the other drill, and back and forth the distances. The mere action of turning 180* will switch the orientation of the flow, though practice helps the transition.
The Ward/Strike drill
This is a modern invention, intending two folks to learn both striking and warding quarters. It's intended for especially beginner fencers to get used to the feeling of striking and blocking, and getting proper form. It is entirely possible if not probable they did something akin to this in history but this is not guaranteed.
Use common sense with this drill, you can still very much injure someone with a fake sword, regardless of material. Use the proper level of safety equipment.
If needed, review chapter 3 on warding before working on this drill.
Foam boffers are acceptable with no gear, slow to medium speed, but need gloves/gauntlets with higher intensity.
Synthetics need minimum gauntlets at medium speed, and preferably masks at high speed.
Steel unless safely controlled by members who trust each other, need gauntlets and masksfor any speed.
Step I.
To begin, have two folks both with sword analogues in measure with each other in Time of the foot.
Agent:
Decide one to be the agent and lead, and have them cut and use a passing step to make a quarter, controlled and accurate and slow to medium speed, focusing on correct form and moving the hand before the foot. Have the cut move towards where the other person, the patient, was before the action.
Patient:
The patient on first seeing the sword move, voids back the lead foot, going into a forehand ward to block the strike. This patient should focus on proper structure of the ward, moving the hand before or at the same time as the foot, and keeping the distance to give them more time to block.
Step II.
Agent:
The agent after their blade has gotten blocked by the patient, then cuts and passing steps to the non-dominant, other side.
Patient:
The patient then voids the now-leading foot and blocks with a fore-hand ward on their dominant side.
Repeat step I. and then step II. till both persons pass an agreed upon distance, or number of strike/blocks. Then switch who is Agent and who is Patient, switching who's attacking and who's defending. The persons will then travel back the same distance or number of strikes/blocks.
Repeat this back and forth as many times as wanted, switching Agent and Patient with each completion of said distance/number.
Both members should be comfortable with the other in this drill, and in agreeance on the mutual speed and intensity of the strikes. I recommend going slow to begin, really focusing on correct form, preferably with a more experienced folk nearby to give tips and then ramping up over time, whether that session or over a few weeks.
Huge thanks to the Guild of Knightly Arts and Fianna Historical Fencing for helping with this, I'm rarely if never creating anything for this essay or curriculum in a vacuum,
This drill is DEFINITELY not first originating from us, though I do not know who first developed this drill.
Sources:
ARS ENSIS Lovagi Kör és Kardvívó Iskola Egyesület Free Scholler SZAKDOLGOZAT Medieval English Longsword Manuscripts: An Analysis (Can't link, apologies)
Jason Bright's English Longsword Curriculum (Can't link, hopefully will publish eventually)
Ledall Roll - https://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Ledall_Roll_(Additional_MS_39564)
Harley - https://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Man_yt_Wol_(MS_Harley_3542)
Silver - https://wiktenauer.com/wiki/George_Silver
Etymonline -https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=Quarter
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=Contrary
Michigan Library - https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/dictionary/MED5742/track?counter=2&search_id=1843930
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