Trick wrote:So I’m pondering on the phrases ‘noble art of boxing’ and ‘noble art of self defense’....
When these phrases were coined it seem “Boxing” was compared to other methods of “artfully” boxing and self defence methods...which where those methods?]
Boxing seems to have been synonumous with 'fist fighting', but with rules obviously. No grabbing, wrestling, or kicking allowed. In Europe, this form of fighting has a history of at least 2500 years. In earlier rules, going down to the floor meant a loss.
Maybe the phrases ‘noble art of boxing/self defense’ came around with the introduction of Queensberry rules ?
This is the historical mark of the modern rules where gloves became standard. Maybe boxing as "the noble art of self defense" was coined around the raise of popularity of boxing at the end of the 19th century. "The Noble Art of Boxing" was coined in the early 18th. But "noble" might have referred to not boxing as noble, but that in this time it was a sport practiced by "nobles", or gentlemen that belonged to the upper class.
However my suggested martial arts/sports here may not be valid since the year 1720 is mentioned...so in short which were the un noble arts
Before the 1700s boxing was not a popular sport. I know about records of organised fist fighting from the early 14th century, but mostly different types of wrestling was used. And boxing was in fact often regarded as type of wrestling, or an off-shot of wrestling. This might indicate that in some early types of wrestling matches things as fist punching was allowed.