The Catalan Facet is preserved in a unique manuscript of c. 1400.1 Although its author and date of composition are unknown, it was probably written in the fourteenth century, by an Eastern Catalan speaker from somewhere near the Pyrenees. Its I,743 lines of noves rimades constitute a kind of translation (with many amplifications) from the Facetus `Moribus et vita', also known as Aurigena's Facetus, a didactic Latin verse work written in the twelfth century, which attained some popularity even in schools: this Latin piece was known, it seems, in most of the countries of western Europe.2 The Facet was first edited by Alfred Morel-Fatio in 1886, and his edition gave rise to immediate commentaries from scholars such as Alfred Mussafia and Emil Levy. Since the Facet is the longest medieval translation of the Facetus, and given the European popularity of the latter, it was only natural that the Catalan version should arouse this sort of interest.3 I shall centre my paper on one of the several lexical questions raised by this work; a peculiar question which Morel-Fatio already sought to address: why the word destral, which in Catalan usually meant - and means - 'axe', occurs in it repeatedly in the sense of `go-between'. It should be remembered first of all that both the Facet and its Latin model contain important sections offering detailed advice about the seduction of women, especially virgins (Facetus lines 13I-;zo; Facet lines 352-I393). That is, both works include an ars amandi in the Ovidian style, which in certain respects is very similar to the erotic advice given in the Pamphilus, a contemporary of the Facetus.4 As in the Pamphilus, so in the Facetus and the Facet the role of a go-between is seen as an essential prerequisite to a man's success as a seducer. The Pamphilus presents its go-between as an old woman (anus). The Facetus says even less about the qualifications of a given person for the task of gobetween. It merely recommends that the young man 'Nuncia queratur in qua confidit uterque' (line i69).5 She never, in fact, receives another name in the original Latin version, where she is mentioned on four further occasions, lines I85, 195, 205, and 267, always as nuncia `female messenger'. So it is assumed, as also implicitly in the Pamphilus, that, following an Ovidian precedent (the Ars amandi I, 3 5 -86, recommends using of the lady's personal ancilla), the go-between should preferably be a woman.b The Latin line I69 quoted above, 'Nuncia queratur in qua confidit uterque', is translated as 'ab qualque fembra el es confia' in the Catalan Facet (line 470).' The choice of fembra (`woman, female human being'), a term with connotations of commonness and even contempt in medieval usage, rather than dona (`lady, honoured woman), clearly suggests the low social class to which the chosen nuncia is expected to belong.' Significantly the Catalan adapter does not seem to have any doubts about the willingness to act as a go-between on the part of any woman ('qualque fembra) the seducer can find. However, after she has been introduced in this vague way as 'qualque fembra', on all subsequent occasions when reference is made to the gobetween, she is called destral. This occurs six times: (a) 'E qualque la destral sia / I'anamorat grans dons profira' (line 478). (b) 'E les paraules son aytals / que deu dir la destrals / a la anamorada' (line 493) (c) `La destral sia tan aguda / a dos colps l'arbre se n'aduga' (line 570). (ca) 'E la destral deu procurar / loc on puxen abd6s parlar' (line 93 5). (e) 'Tremeta tost per la destral / per derrocar l'arbre fortal' (line i los). `si u vol o no u vol atretal, / no li cayla aver destral' (line i2i8).9 In the face of these passages, two questions arise: (I) where does this sense come from?, and (z) why does de.rtral mean `go-between'? This odd use of a word which always means 'axe' in Catalan led MorelFatio to remark: `le nom que porte la moyenneresse . …