Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Mars in his field, or, the exercise of arms, 1625






















No you fucking don't. He'll cut you so bad you'll wish he didn't cut you.

By the way, if you are presenting your drawn sword higher than your face (as appeareth) you are doing it totally wrong. Where did you take swashbuckling lessons, anyway? Just look at how intimidating you'd look if you knew how to exercise your arms properly.

3 comments:

Doug said...

Some people wonder whether de Gheyn (a.k.a Tha Gheyniac Killah) had enough street cred to write a book about how to fight. Let me put those concerns to rest right now:
From his Wikipedia page:
"In 1585, he moved to Haarlem..."
"...he was employed often by Dutch royalty, designing a garden...which featured the two first grottoes in the Netherlands."
Proof that de Gheyn not only knew about the tough streets of Haarlem, he practically taught the Netherlands everything it knows about the harsh realities of life in the grotto.

Sarah Redmond said...

Snap!

Oh, Doug, this is some of your finest work. The trifecta of obscure engraver + punning + the juxtaposition of rap and early modern cultures. It's all I could ever ask for.

(You know, sometimes I don't research anything because I hope you will. This proves that I do all of us a service. Big Daddy Gheyn would be proud you've revived this lost aspect of his past.)

Novak said...

well well well thanks to you i just discovered i'm not ready to read english' blogs cause i don't get the most part of them. but i'll keep trying.

hope you don't bother if a read and i make some stupid comments in the future.