Are named, _Curtana_, or the Sword of Mercy; the Sword of Justice to the
Spirituality; the Sword of Justice to the Temporality; and the Sword of
State. Of these the last alone is actually used in the coronation, being
that with which the king is girded after his anointing; the rest are
only carried before him by certain great officers. But Curtana has been
honoured with a proper name since the reign of Henry III., at whose
coronation it was carried by the Earl of Chester[22]. It is a flat
sword, without a point; looking to which circumstance, and to its being
also entitled the Sword of Mercy, some etymologists have traced it to
the Latin _curto_, to cut short; while other writers, among whom is the
learned Mr. Taylor, would transfer our researches to the scenes of
ancient chivalry, and the exploits of Oger the Dane, or Orlando, as
affording the title to this appendage of the monarchy, "The sword of
Tristan," says this writer, "is found (ubi lapsus!) among the regalia of
king John; and that of Charlemagne, _Joyeuse_, was preserved to grace
the coronations of the kings of France. The adoption of these titles
was, indeed, perfectly consonant with the taste and feeling of those
ages, in which the gests of chivalry were the favourite theme of oral
and historical celebration; and when the names of _Durlindana_, of
_Curtein_, or _Escalibere_, would nerve the warrior's arm with a new and
nobler energy[23]."
The Sword of Justice to the Spirituality is _obtuse_, that of Justice to
the Temporality _sharp_ at the point. "Henry VIII.," says a writer in a
respectable periodical publication for July, "seems to have exercised
his taste in endeavouring to abolish this discrepancy."