"gun play"?

[Robin Hamilton]

From: "Dave Wilton" <dave at WILTON.NET>

> The MED has many examples of the martial sense of play in Middle English,
> plei(e sense 4. Ex. from Lydgate's "Siege of Thebes" (a. 1450): "This was
> the play and the mortal game Atwen Thebans and the Grekys."
>
> Most of the Middle English cites continue this trope of conflating warfare
> and sport. I can't find any examples of compounds like "swordplay" or
> "shieldplay" (lindplegan) though.

Most of the LEME cites seem to relate to writers like Cicero who would be
better known in the Renaissance than in the Middle Ages, and predominantly
relate to gladiators and gladiatorial games.  Is it possible that "sword
play" and "sword player" are re-introduced to English at this point, and
thus independent of the earlier forms?  With "swordplayer" initially being a
term specifically applied to gladiators, and later extending its meaning to
take in swordsmen in general?

It might be possible to run a search for "lamista" and "gladiator" through a
corpus of Latin texts (in Perseus, say), identify the works and places where
these occur, then search out English translations from 1500-1650 and see how
the Latin terms are translated.  Then, ideally, compare these with pre-1500
English translations, if such exist.

Whether any result would justify the effort involved is another question ...

Robin Hamilton

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