Note 956 — The Romaunce of the Sowdone of Babylone and of Ferumbras his Sone who Conquerede Rome: ◊

p. 27, l. 940. Baye never means “sword,” as the editor of the Roxburghe Club ed. renders it, nor does this translation make any sense here at all; baye signifies “a wide, open room or space in a building.” See Mätzner’s Wörterbuch, p. 164. Morris, in the Glossary to the Alliterative Poems, has “bay = recess. The original meaning seems to be opening of any kind. Cf. bay, space in a building between two main beams.” Halliwell, s. v. bay, has: “A principal compartment or division in the architectural arrangement of a building.” It appears to be etymologically the same word as Ital. baja, French baie, “bay, gulf, harbour,” the French baie being equally used for “opening of any kind.” The Catalan form for baie is badia, which corresponds to the verb badar, meaning “to open.” See Diez, Etym. Wörterb. I. 46. Bay is retained in the Mod. E. compound “bay-window.” Cf. also the French “la bée d’une fenestre,” cited by Carpentier-Ducange, s. v. beare. With regard to the signification of trende, the editor of the Roxb. Club ed. wrongly guessed again in explaining it as “drawn” or “trenchant, cutting.” Trende means “turned, bent, vaulted in the form of an arch.” See Halliwell, p. 887, and Stratmann, p. 572, s. v. trenden (= “volvere”). But I am at a loss how to explain why Mars is said to have put up his throne in an arched recess, or compartment, of a building.