"You'll have your daughter cover'd with a Barbary horse."
Merry Wives of Windsor, A. II. Sc. 2.
Barberries brought, [258].
Barde, for a, [9].
Or Barbe, explained by Dr. Johnson to be the trapping of a horse, also dressed in a warlike manner, caparisoned:
"If the barded horses ran fiercely."
Hollingshed.
That citation as well as those by Arch. Nares, tend to prove that it was "a general name for the several pieces of defensive armour with which the horses of knights were covered in war." Little light is thrown upon the word by the manner in which it is used in this instance, excepting that it is spoken of in the singular number, and that it was for the king's use; but as Copeland is mentioned in another place, p. [18], as a mercer, it may be inferred that "the bard" was of cloth or silk, and which, if it was for a horse, renders it almost certain that it was a trapping or ornament, rather than a piece of armour. This idea is confirmed by the following passage in Hall: "The king kept a solempne justes at his manour of Grenewiche, he himself and xi wer on the one part and the marques of Exsceter with xi wer on the other parte. The kynges barde and base and all his bend wer of cloth of gold and silver richely embraudered, with a mannes harte," &c. p. 707. Dr. Meyrick observes, "The barde was the complete armour for the horse, though sometimes confined to the poitrail, which when made to reach up to the pomel of the saddle, was called haute barde." This horse armour was often covered with silk or cloth of gold.
Baret, ——, [252].
Barge, the king's, Johnson the master of, [7], [8], [10], [125], [182], [192], [230].