Welsh_hook

Welsh hook

Welsh hook

Medieval Welsh pole weapon

For the disused Great Western Railway station, see List of closed railway stations in Britain: W-Z.

A Welsh hook is a type of polearm, a halberd-like weapon with a hook on the back, and gained its name due to its prevalence among the Welsh soldiers during the medieval wars against the English.[1] It closely related to the agricultural implement known as a bill and is commonly classified as a type of poleaxe.[2]

In literature

  • "That no man presume to wear any weapons, especially Welsh-hooks and forest-bills" ("The History of Sir John Oldcastle", Folio 3, 1664, 60).[3]
  • Falstaff: "My own knee? ... and swore the devil his true liegeman upon the cross of a Welsh hook,—What, a plague, call you him?" (Shakespeare Henry IV Part 1, 290).[3]

Notes

  1. [1]
    Lublin 2013, p. 115.
  2. [2]
    Shakespeare & Rowe 1821, pp. 286–287.
  3. [3]
    Shakespeare & Rowe 1821, p. 286.

References

  • Lublin, Dr Robert I (2013), Costuming the Shakespearean Stage: Visual Codes of Representation in Early Modern Theatre and Culture, Ashgate Publishing, p. 115, ISBN 9781409479048
  • Shakespeare, William; Rowe, Nicholas; et al. (1821), The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare: Richard II. Henry IV, pt. I, F. C. and J. Rivington, pp. 286–287
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