Weapon of Choice

by Henry Farrell on October 29, 2003

From James Buchan’s _Frozen Desire: The Meaning of Money_ (as nice an example of limpid prose as you could ask for, by the way) comes the following.

bq. Sir William Petty, when challenged to a duel in Ireland by Sir Aleyn Brodrick, readily accepted, though he was so short-sighted as to be purblind. He merely asked for choice of weapons and selected, according to Evelyn and Aubrey, ‘an hatchet or Axe in a darke cellar.’

{ 2 comments }

1

Seth Gordon 10.29.03 at 2:36 pm

I thought that in general, duelling tradition grants the recipient of a challenge the privilege of selecting location and weapons….

2

fontana labs 10.29.03 at 4:05 pm

I heard once that Ben Franklin responded to a duel challenge by selecting “buckets of shit at dawn.” I hope this is true.

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