Swashbuckler

For the football team, see Louisiana Swashbucklers. For the thrash metal band, see Swashbuckle (band). For other uses, see Swashbuckler (disambiguation).
D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers.

A swashbuckler is a heroic archetype in European adventure literature that is typified by the use of a sword and chivalric ideals. The archetype also became common as a film genre.[1]

Archetype

A 'swashbuckler' is generally a protagonist who is heroic and idealistic and who rescues damsels in distress. Swashbucklers as an archetype are not pirates. His opponent is typically characterised as the dastardly villain. There is a long list of swashbucklers who combine outstanding courage, swordfighting skill, resourcefulness, and a distinctive sense of honor and justice, as for example Cyrano de Bergerac, The Three Musketeers, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Robin Hood,[2] and Zorro.[3]

The hero's activities are primarily chivalaric: rescuing fair maidens, saving the king, or defending the peasants from oppression. Even seventeenth and eighteenth century highwayman and pirate heroes were made to conform to this stereotype.[4]

Historical background

R.L. Stevenson - The Black Arrow

A possible explanation for the term is that it derives from a fighting style using a side-sword with a buckler in the off-hand, which was applied with much "swashing and making a noise on the buckler".[5]

Usually swashbuckling romances are set in Europe from the late Renaissance up through the Age of Reason and the Napoleonic Wars. Jeffrey Richards traces the swashbuckling novel to the rise of Romanticism, and an outgrowth of the historical novel, particularly those of Sir Walter Scott, "... medieval tales of chivalry, love and adventure rediscovered in the eighteenth century".[4] This type of historical novel was further developed by Alexandre Dumas.

John Galsworthy said of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1888 swashbuckling romance, The Black Arrow, that it was "a livelier picture of medieval times than I remember elsewhere in fiction."[6] Anthony Hope's 1894, the The Prisoner of Zenda initiated an additional subset of the swashbuckling novel, the Ruritanian romance.[7]

The perceived significant and widespread role of swordsmanship in civilian society as well as warfare in the renaissance and enlightenment periods led to fencing being performed on theatre stages as part of plays. Soon actors were taught to fence in an entertaining, dramatic manner. Eventually fencing became an established part of a classical formation for actors.

Consequently, when movie theatres mushroomed, ambitious actors took the chance to present their accordant skills on the screen. Since silent movies were no proper medium for long dialogues, the classic stories about heroes who would defend their honour with sword in hand were simplified and sheer action would gain priority. This was the birth of a new kind of film hero: the swashbuckler.[8]

Four of the most famous instructors for swashbuckling swordplay are William Hobbs, Anthony De Longis, Bob Anderson and Peter Diamond.

Film

Main article: Swashbuckler film

The genre has, apart from swordplay, always been characterized by influences that can be traced back to the chivalry tales of Medieval Europe, such as the legends of Robin Hood and the King Arthur. It soon created its own drafts based on classic examples like The Mark of Zorro (1920), The Three Musketeers (1921), Scaramouche (1923) and The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934). Some films did also use motifs of pirate stories.[9] Often these films were adaptations of classic historic novels published by well-known authors such as Alexandre Dumas, Rafael Sabatini, Baroness Emma Orczy, Sir Walter Scott, Johnston McCulley, and Edmond Rostand. Swashbucklers are one of the most flamboyant Hollywood film genres,[10] unlike cinema verite or modern realistic filmmaking. The genre attracted large audiences who relished the blend of escapist adventure, historic romance, and daring stunts in cinemas before it became a fixture on TV screens.

As a first variation of the classic swashbuckler there have also been female swashbucklers.[11] Maureen O'Hara in Against All Flags and Jean Peters in Anne of the Indies were very early action film heroines.

Eventually the typical swashbuckler motifs were used up because they had so often been shown on TV screens. Later films such as The Princess Bride, the Pirates of the Caribbean series and The Mask of Zorro include modern takes on the swashbuckler archetype.

Television

Television followed the films especially in the UK with The Adventures of Robin Hood, Sword of Freedom, The Buccaneers, and Willam Tell between 1955 and 1960. US TV produced two series of Zorro in 1957 and 1990. Following the 1998 film The Mask of Zorro, a TV series about a female swashbuckler, the Queen of Swords, aired in 2000.[11]

List of swashbucklers

Notable swashbuckler characters from literature and other media include the following:

Actors

Actors notable for their portrayals of swashbucklers include:

Writers who provided stories that were adapted for swashbuckler films

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Swashbuckler". TV Tropes. Retrieved March 28, 2015. The swashbuckler is the most rigidly conventionalized of all the subgenres of the Adventure genre
  2. ↑ "The Robin Hood Project at the University of Rochester". Robin Hood Project. University of Rochester. Retrieved 2011-05-10.
  3. ↑ "The University can lay claim to having its very own Zorro after a student won a prestigious national fencing competition". Retrieved 2011-05-10.
  4. 1 2 Richards, Jeffrey. Swordsmen of the Screen, Routledge, 2014, ISBN 9781317928638
  5. ↑ "The Buckler". The Sussex Rapier School. Retrieved 2007-05-13.
  6. ↑ Quoted in Edward Wagenknecht, Cavalcade of the English Novel (New York, 1943), 377
  7. ↑ Lancelyn Green, Roger. Introduction to Prisoner of Zenda & Rupert of Hentzau, Everyman's Library. J. M. Dent & Sons, 1966
  8. ↑ "At Sword's Point: Swashbuckling in the Movies". Retrieved 2011-05-10.
  9. ↑ "Swordplay and Sunken Treasures:The Great Swashbucklers and Pirate Movies". Retrieved 2011-05-10.
  10. ↑ "266 Swashbuckling Films". Retrieved 2011-04-12.
  11. 1 2 "Swashbuckling Women of Movies, TV, Theatre, etc.". Retrieved 2011-05-10.
  12. ↑ " Elder Coquelin Dies of Acute Embolism; Great French Actor Was Soon to Appear in Rostand's "Chanticler.", New York Times. January 28, 1909
  13. ↑ Holder, Heidi J. "Sothern, Edward Askew (1826–1881)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004

External links

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