or bayard of ten toes, subs. (old).—Generic for a horse; spec. a bay horse. [Bayard was a horse famous in old romances.] Hence (proverbial), AS BOLD AS BLIND BAYARD (of those who act unthinkingly, and look not before they leap, whence generic for blindness, ignorance, recklessness; TO RIDE BAYARD OF TEN TOES = to go on foot: cf. SHANK’S MARE.

1

  c. 1337.  MANNING, Translation of a French Poem [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 21. The French words are (quash)… BAYARD (of a horse) …].

2

  1350.  The Turnament of Totenham [HAZLITT, Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, III. 87]. BAYARDE the blynde.

3

  1369.  CHAUCER, Troilus and Criseyde, i. 218. As proud BAYARD beginneth for the skippe.

4

  1393.  GOWER, M.S. Soc. Antic., 134, f. 185.

        Ther is no God, ther is no lawe
Of whom that he taketh eny hede,
But as BAYARDE THE BLYNDE stede,
Tille he falle in the diche amidde,
He goth ther no man wol him bidde.

5

  c. 1586.  CAVIL [Mirror for Magistrates]. Who is more bold then is the BAYARD BLIND?

6

  1599.  JOSEPH HALL, Virgil [CHALMERS, English Poets, V. 268], s.v.

7

  1606.  BRETON, The Good and the Badde, 14. [Breton says of the ‘honest poore man’] his trauell is the walke of the woful and his horse BAYARD OF TEN TOES.

8

  1614.  Letter [quoted by NARES]. But the BOLDEST BAYARD of all was Wentworth, who said that the just reward of the Spaniard’s imposition was the loss of the Low Countries.

9

  1633.  ROWLEY, A Match at Midnight, v. 1 [DODSLEY, Old Plays (REED) VII. 435]. Alex. Do you hear, Sir Bartholomew BAYARD, that leap before you look?

10

  1752.  BERNARD GILPIN, Sermon, in Life. I marvel not so much at BLIND BAYARDS, which never take God’s book in hand.

11