Bayard first appears as the property of
Renaud de Montauban (Italian:
Rinaldo) in the
Old French twelfth century
chanson de geste The Four Sons of Aymon. The horse was capable of carrying Rinaldo and his three brothers ("the four sons of Aymon") all at the same time and of understanding human speech. Near the end of the work, Renaud is forced to cede Bayard to Charlemagne who, as punishment for the horse's exploits, has a large stone tied to Bayard's neck and has the horse pushed into the river; Bayard however smashes the stone with his hooves and escapes to live forever more in the woods. In subsequent chansons de geste, Bayard was said to have been initially won by Renaud's cousin, the magician
Maugris, before being given to Renaud. , Belgium In
Bulfinch's Mythology, Rinaldo's acquisition of Bayard is described as follows: a disguised Maugris (who had previously acquired Bayard) tells Rinaldo that a wild horse under an enchantment roams the woods, and that this horse belonged initially to
Amadis of Gaul and can only be won by a knight of Amadis' lineage. Rinaldo eventually subdues the horse by throwing it on the ground, breaking the enchantment. This episode where Rinaldo cooperates with another knight called Isolier, as well as providing the provenance of Bayard as formerly belonging to Amadis is actually attested in
Torquato Tasso's
Rinaldo (<1562) Bayard also appears in the
epic poems on
chivalrous subjects by
Luigi Pulci,
Matteo Maria Boiardo and
Ludovico Ariosto. Bayard, by the late 13th century, also acquired common usage as a name for any
bay-coloured horse (reddish-brown coat with black mane and tail) and lost some of his lustre as a magic heroic horse. The name "Bayard" became associated in English literature with a clownish, blind and foolish horse. Chaucer first used "Bayard" in a simile in the epic poem
Troilus and Criseyde. As Troilus had been scorning the power of love before seeing Criseyde and falling in love himself, so Bayard, proudly skipping "out of the wey" while he pranced, had to admit, "Yet am I but an hors". Chaucer also used "Bayard" in
The Canterbury Tales (c. 1387) to denote a randy stud in "
The Reeve's Tale" and a blind, foolish horse in "
The Canon's Yeoman's Tale": "Though ye prolle ay, ye shul it nevere fynde. Ye been as boold as is Bayard the blynde. That blondreth forth and peril casteth noon." ("Though you search afar, you shall never find it; Be you as bold as Bayard the blind, that blunders forth and perceives no peril.") ==Local==