Bab Bab 1 · How Sir Tristram at a tournament bare the shield that

. How Sir Tristram at a tournament bare the shield that

Morgan le Fay delivered to him.

GLOSSARY

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

The Morte D’Arthur was finished, as the epilogue tells us, in the ninth

year of Edward IV., i.e. between March 4, 1469 and the same date in

1470. It is thus, fitly enough, the last important English book written

before the introduction of printing into this country, and since no

manuscript of it has come down to us it is also the first English

classic for our knowledge of which we are entirely dependent on a

printed text. Caxton’s story of how the book was brought to him and he

was induced to print it may be read farther on in his own preface. From

this we learn also that he was not only the printer of the book, but to

some extent its editor also, dividing Malory’s work into twenty-one

books, splitting up the books into chapters, by no means skilfully, and

supplying the “Rubrish” or chapter-headings. It may be added that

Caxton’s preface contains, moreover, a brief criticism which, on the

points on which it touches, is still the soundest and most sympathetic

that has been written.

Caxton finished his edition the last day of July 1485, some fifteen or

sixteen years after Malory wrote his epilogue. It is clear that the

author was then dead, or the printer would not have acted as a clumsy

editor to the book, and recent discoveries (if bibliography may, for

the moment, enlarge its bounds to mention such matters) have revealed

with tolerable certainty when Malory died and who he was. In letters to

The Athenaeum in July 1896 Mr. T. Williams pointed out that the name of

a Sir Thomas Malorie occurred among those of a number of other

Lancastrians excluded from a general pardon granted by Edward IV. in

1468, and that a William Mallerye was mentioned in the same year as

taking part in a Lancastrian rising. In September 1897, again, in

another letter to the same paper, Mr. A. T. Martin reported the finding

of the will of a Thomas Malory of Papworth, a hundred partly in

Cambridgeshire, partly in Hunts. This will was made on September 16,

1469, and as it was proved the 27th of the next month the testator must

have been in immediate expectation of death. It contains the most

careful provision for the education and starting in life of a family of

three daughters and seven sons, of whom the youngest seems to have been

still an infant. We cannot say with certainty that this Thomas Malory,

whose last thoughts were so busy for his children, was our author, or

that the Lancastrian knight discovered by Mr. Williams was identical

with either or both, but such evidence as the Morte D’Arthur offers

favours such a belief. There is not only the epilogue with its

petition, “pray for me while I am alive that God send me good

deliverance and when I am dead pray you all for my soul,” but this very

request is foreshadowed at the end of chap. 37 of Book ix. in the

touching passage, surely inspired by personal experience, as to the

sickness “that is the greatest pain a prisoner may have”; and the

reflections on English fickleness in the first chapter of Book xxi.,

though the Wars of the Roses might have inspired them in any one, come

most naturally from an author who was a Lancastrian knight.

If the Morte D’Arthur was really written in prison and by a prisoner

distressed by ill-health as well as by lack of liberty, surely no task

was ever better devised to while away weary hours. Leaving abundant

scope for originality in selection, modification, and arrangement, as a

compilation and translation it had in it that mechanical element which

adds the touch of restfulness to literary work. No original, it is

said, has yet been found for Book vii., and it is possible that none

will ever be forthcoming for chap. 20 of Book xviii., which describes

the arrival of the body of the Fair Maiden of Astolat at Arthur’s

court, or vii for chap. 25 of the same book, with its discourse on true

love; but the great bulk of the work has been traced chapter by chapter

to the “Merlin” of Robert de Borron and his successors (Bks. i.-iv.),

the English metrical romance La Morte Arthur of the Thornton manuscript

(Bk. v.), the French romances of Tristan (Bks. viii.-x.) and of

Launcelot (Bks. vi., xi.-xix.), and lastly to the English prose Morte

Arthur of Harley MS. 2252 (Bks. xviii., xx., xxi.). As to Malory’s

choice of his authorities critics have not failed to point out that now

and again he gives a worse version where a better has come down to us,

and if he had been able to order a complete set of Arthurian

manuscripts from his bookseller, no doubt he would have done even

better than he did! But of the skill, approaching to original genius,

with which he used the books from which he worked there is little

dispute.

Malory died leaving his work obviously unrevised, and in this condition

it was brought to Caxton, who prepared it for the press with his usual

enthusiasm in the cause of good literature, and also, it must be added,

with his usual carelessness. New chapters are sometimes made to begin

in the middle of a sentence, and in addition to simple misprints there

are numerous passages in which it is impossible to believe that we have

the text as Malory intended it to stand. After Caxton’s edition

Malory’s manuscript must have disappeared, and subsequent editions are

differentiated only by the degree of closeness with which they follow

the first. Editions appeared printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1498 and

1529, by William Copland in 1559, by Thomas East about 1585, and by

Thomas Stansby in 1634, each printer apparently taking the text of his

immediate predecessor and reproducing it with modifications. Stansby’s

edition served for reprints in 1816 and 1856 (the latter edited by

Thomas Wright); but in 1817 an edition supervised by Robert Southey

went back to Caxton’s text, though to a copy (only two are extant, and

only one perfect!) in which eleven leaves were supplied from Wynkyn de

Worde’s reprint. In 1868 Sir Edward Strachey produced for the present

publishers a reprint of Southey’s text in modern spelling, with the

substitution of current words for those now obsolete, and the softening

of a handful of passages likely, he thought, to prevent the book being

placed in the hands of boys. In 1889 a boon was conferred on scholars

by the publication of Dr. H. Oskar Sommer’s page-for-page reprint of

Caxton’s text, with an elaborate discussion of Malory’s sources. Dr.

Sommer’s edition was used by Sir E. Strachey to revise his Globe text,

and in 1897 Mr. Israel Gollancz produced for the “Temple Classics” a

very pretty edition in which Sir Edward Strachey’s principles of

modernisation in spelling and punctuation were adopted, but with the

restoration of obsolete words and omitted phrases. As to the present

edition, Sir Edward Strachey altered with so sparing a hand that on

many pages differences between his version and that here printed will

be looked for in vain; but the most anxious care has been taken to

produce a text modernised as to its spelling, but in other respects in

accurate accordance with Caxton’s text, as represented by Dr Sommer’s

reprint. Obvious misprints have been silently corrected, but in a few

cases notes show where emendations have been introduced from Wynkyn de

Worde—not that Wynkyn had any more right to emend Caxton than we, but

because even a printer’s conjecture gains a little sanctity after four

centuries. The restoration of obsolete words has necessitated a much

fuller glossary, and the index of names has therefore been separated

from it and enlarged. In its present form the index is the work of Mr.

Henry Littlehales.

A. W. POLLARD.

PREFACE OF WILLIAM CAXTON

After that I had accomplished and finished divers histories, as well of

contemplation as of other historial and worldly acts of great

conquerors and princes, and also certain books of ensamples and

doctrine, many noble and divers gentlemen of this realm of England came

and demanded me many and oft times, wherefore that I have not do made

and imprint the noble history of the Saint Greal, and of the most

renowned Christian king, first and chief of the three best Christian,

and worthy, King Arthur, which ought most to be remembered among us

Englishmen to-fore all other Christian kings; for it is notoyrly known

through the universal world, that there be nine worthy and the best

that ever were, that is to wit, three Paynims, three Jews, and three

Christian men. As for the Paynims, they were to-fore the Incarnation of

Christ, which were named, the first Hector of Troy, of whom the history

is comen both in ballad and in prose, the second Alexander the Great,

and the third Julius Caesar, Emperor of Rome, of whom the histories be

well known and had. And as for the three Jews, which also were to-fore

the incarnation of our Lord, of whom the first was duke Joshua which

brought the children of Israel into the land of behest, the second

David king of Jerusalem, and the third Judas Machabeus, of these three

the Bible rehearseth all their noble histories and acts. And since the

said Incarnation have been three noble Christian men, stalled and

admitted through the universal world into the number of the nine best

and worthy. Of whom was first the noble Arthur, whose noble acts I

purpose to write in this present book here following. The second was

Charlemain, or Charles the Great, of whom the history is had in many

places, both in French and in English. And the third and last was

Godfrey of Boloine, of whose acts and life I made a book unto the

excellent prince and king of noble memory, King Edward the Fourth.

The said noble gentlemen instantly required me to imprint the history

of the said noble king and conqueror King Arthur, and of his knights,

with the history of the Saint Greal, and of the death and ending of the

said Arthur; affirming that I ought rather to imprint his acts and

noble feats, than of Godfrey of Boloine, or any of the other eight,

considering that he was a man born within this realm, and king and

emperor of the same: and that there be in French divers and many noble

volumes of his acts, and also of his knights. To whom I answered that

divers men hold opinion that there was no such Arthur, and that all

such books as been made of him be feigned and fables, because that some

chronicles make of him no mention, nor remember him nothing, nor of his

knights. Whereto they answered, and one in special said, that in him

that should say or think that there was never such a king called Arthur

might well be aretted great folly and blindness. For he said that there

were many evidences of the contrary. First ye may see his sepulchre in

the monastery of Glastonbury. And also in Policronicon, in the fifth

book the sixth chapter, and in the seventh book the twenty-third

chapter, where his body was buried, and after found, and translated

into the said monastery. Ye shall see also in the history of Bochas, in

his book De Casu Principum, part of his noble acts, and also of his

fall. Also Galfridus in his British book recounteth his life: and in

divers places of England many remembrances be yet of him, and shall

remain perpetually, and also of his knights. First in the abbey of

Westminster, at St. Edward’s shrine, remaineth the print of his seal in

red wax closed in beryl, in which is written, Patricius Arthurus

Britannie, Gallie, Germanie, Dacie, Imperator. Item in the castle of

Dover ye may see Gawaine’s skull, and Cradok’s mantle: at Winchester

the Round Table: in other places Launcelot’s sword and many other

things. Then all these things considered, there can no man reasonably

gainsay but there was a king of this land named Arthur. For in all

places, Christian and heathen, he is reputed and taken for one of the

nine worthy, and the first of the three Christian men. And also, he is

more spoken of beyond the sea, more books made of his noble acts, than

there be in England, as well in Dutch, Italian, Spanish, and Greekish,

as in French. And yet of record remain in witness of him in Wales, in

the town of Camelot, the great stones and the marvellous works of iron

lying under the ground, and royal vaults, which divers now living have

seen. Wherefore it is a marvel why he is no more renowned in his own

country, save only it accordeth to the Word of God, which saith that no

man is accepted for a prophet in his own country.

Then all these things aforesaid alleged, I could not well deny but that

there was such a noble king named Arthur, and reputed one of the nine

worthy, and first and chief of the Christian men. And many noble

volumes be made of him and of his noble knights in French, which I have

seen and read beyond the sea, which be not had in our maternal tongue.

But in Welsh be many and also in French, and some in English but

nowhere nigh all. Wherefore, such as have late been drawn out briefly

into English I have after the simple conning that God hath sent to me,

under the favour and correction of all noble lords and gentlemen,

enprised to imprint a book of the noble histories of the said King

Arthur, and of certain of his knights, after a copy unto me delivered,

which copy Sir Thomas Malorye did take out of certain books of French,

and reduced it into English. And I, according to my copy, have done set

it in imprint, to the intent that noble men may see and learn the noble

acts of chivalry, the gentle and virtuous deeds that some knights used

in those days, by which they came to honour, and how they that were

vicious were punished and oft put to shame and rebuke; humbly

beseeching all noble lords and ladies, with all other estates of what

estate or degree they been of, that shall see and read in this said

book and work, that they take the good and honest acts in their

remembrance, and to follow the same. Wherein they shall find many

joyous and pleasant histories, and noble and renowned acts of humanity,

gentleness, and chivalry. For herein may be seen noble chivalry,

courtesy, humanity, friendliness, hardiness, love, friendship,

cowardice, murder, hate, virtue, and sin. Do after the good and leave

the evil, and it shall bring you to good fame and renown. And for to

pass the time this book shall be pleasant to read in, but for to give

faith and belief that all is true that is contained herein, ye be at

your liberty: but all is written for our doctrine, and for to beware

that we fall not to vice nor sin, but to exercise and follow virtue, by

which we may come and attain to good fame and renown in this life, and

after this short and transitory life to come unto everlasting bliss in

heaven; the which He grant us that reigneth in heaven, the blessed

Trinity. Amen.

Then to proceed forth in this said book, which I direct unto all noble

princes, lords and ladies, gentlemen or gentlewomen, that desire to

read or hear read of the noble and joyous history of the great

conqueror and excellent king, King Arthur, sometime king of this noble

realm, then called Britain; I, William Caxton, simple person, present

this book following, which I have enprised to imprint: and treateth of

the noble acts, feats of arms of chivalry, prowess, hardiness,

humanity, love, courtesy, and very gentleness, with many wonderful

histories and adventures. And for to understand briefly the content of

this volume, I have divided it into XXI Books, and every book

chaptered, as hereafter shall by God’s grace follow. The First Book

shall treat how Uther Pendragon gat the noble conqueror King Arthur,

and containeth xxviii chapters. The Second Book treateth of Balin the

noble knight, and containeth xix chapters. The Third Book treateth of

the marriage of King Arthur to Queen Guenever, with other matters, and

containeth xv chapters. The Fourth Book, how Merlin was assotted, and

of war made to King Arthur, and containeth xxix chapters. The Fifth

Book treateth of the conquest of Lucius the emperor, and containeth xii

chapters. The Sixth Book treateth of Sir Launcelot and Sir Lionel, and

marvellous adventures, and containeth xviii chapters. The Seventh Book

treateth of a noble knight called Sir Gareth, and named by Sir Kay

Beaumains, and containeth xxxvi chapters. The Eighth Book treateth of

the birth of Sir Tristram the noble knight, and of his acts, and

containeth xli chapters. The Ninth Book treateth of a knight named by

Sir Kay Le Cote Male Taille, and also of Sir Tristram, and containeth

xliv chapters. The Tenth Book treateth of Sir Tristram, and other

marvellous adventures, and containeth lxxxviii chapters. The Eleventh

Book treateth of Sir Launcelot and Sir Galahad, and containeth xiv

chapters. The Twelfth Book treateth of Sir Launcelot and his madness,

and containeth xiv chapters. The Thirteenth Book treateth how Galahad

came first to king Arthur’s court, and the quest how the Sangreal was

begun, and containeth xx chapters. The Fourteenth Book treateth of the

quest of the Sangreal, and containeth x chapters. The Fifteenth Book

treateth of Sir Launcelot, and containeth vi chapters. The Sixteenth

Book treateth of Sir Bors and Sir Lionel his brother, and containeth

xvii chapters. The Seventeenth Book treateth of the Sangreal, and

containeth xxiii chapters. The Eighteenth Book treateth of Sir

Launcelot and the queen, and containeth xxv chapters. The Nineteenth

Book treateth of Queen Guenever and Launcelot, and containeth xiii

chapters. The Twentieth Book treateth of the piteous death of Arthur,

and containeth xxii chapters. The Twenty-first Book treateth of his

last departing, and how Sir Launcelot came to revenge his death, and

containeth xiii chapters. The sum is twenty-one books, which contain

the sum of five hundred and seven chapters, as more plainly shall

follow hereafter.

BOOK I.