"There was a time when the mask was not worn for the assault. And I
remember reading some time ago in the _Encyclopaedia_, published about
the middle of last century (1755), under the word _mask_ the following
remarks:--
'In foil-play Fencers have sometimes carried precaution so far as to
wear a mask, to protect themselves from possible hits in the face. It
is true that those who have acquired little skill in the Art may chance
to wound their Adversary by a clumsy thrust, or cause themselves to be
wounded by throwing up the point with a bad parry. It is however never
worn at the present day.'
"This encyclopaedia evidently reflects the ideas which were generally
accepted at the time. To wear a mask in a bout with the foils was as
much as to say that you considered your opponent a duffer, and was not
far short of an insult.
"Fencing in those days was nothing but a formal series of attacks,
feints, parries and ripostes, well understood and defined by the
code; every movement led up to some other movement, which was rigidly
prescribed. If a fencer had ventured on a straight thrust while the
feints were in progress, instead of elaborately following the blade
through every turn of the labyrinth, he would have been considered an
unmannerly cub, and sent back to study his rudiments. It was only in
the last years of the period signalised by the famous Saint-Georges
that the mask came into general use. Even then the only masks used were
made of tin, and the professors' view was that such safeguards were
permissible for rough players. But it so happened that three professors
each lost an eye. And their respect for ancient tradition did not go
far enough to induce them to risk losing the one that remained. After
that the wire mask was generally adopted, but not without regret.