Now have good day … my knights out bring: the rhythm, inversion of word order and rhyme are a relic of the stanzaic Morte Arthur:
But have good day, my lord the king,
And your doughty knightes all;
Wendeth home and leave your warring;
Ye win no worship at this wall.
And I would my knights out bring,
I wot full sore rue it ye shall.
shot great guns: the guns are Malory’s addition. Cannon were first used in siege warfare in the early fourteenth century, a hundred years after the writing of the prose Mart le Roi Artu.
book, bell, and candle: these were the chief instruments in the ritual of excommunication.
men say that we of this land … please us no term: the reference is presumably to the fluctuating loyalties accorded to the Lancastrian and Yorkist claimants to the English throne during the Wars of the Roses.
I must needs be dead by the hour of noon: given that Gawain’s strength normally increases until the hour of noon, its ebbing is doubled in effect by this prophecy of the hour of his death (a prophecy which also enables him to give the timing of his letter, below).
What sawest thou there? … waves wan: the whole passage is closely based on the stanzaic Morte; compare here:
‘What saw thou there?’ then said the King,
‘Tell me now, if thou can.’
‘Certes, sir,’ he said, ‘no thing
But waters deep and waves wan.’
Comfort thyself … pray for my soul: this passage inspires one of Tennyson’s closest adaptations of Malory, in his own Passing of Arthur:
Comfort thyself; what comfort is in me?
I have lived my life, and that which I have done
May He within Himself make pure! but thou,
If thou shouldst never see my face again,
Pray for my soul…
I am going a long way
With these thou seest—if indeed I go—
For all my mind is clouded with a doubt—
To the island-valley of Avilion …
Where I will heal me of my grievous wound.
It is symptomatic of the different emphasis Tennyson gives to the Arthurian legends that he should find the most detailed inspiration in a speech of loss and nostalgia rather than in the scenes of action.
he shall win the Holy Cross: presumably, to recover for Christianity the scene of the Crucifixion and the rest of the Holy Land by the ultimate successful crusade. The Cross itself was believed to have been found by St Helena in the fourth century, and fragments of it had been distributed across Christendom.
Hie iacet Arthurus, rex quondam rexquefuturus: ‘Here lies Arthur, king once, king to be.’ The line forms a leonine hexameter, i.e. a line with a medial rhyme of the kind common in medieval Latin poetry. Epitaphs for Arthur exist in many variants; the one said to have been found on a cross above Arthur’s tomb in Glastonbury (where Malory locates the hermitage) when it was excavated in 1191 read ‘Hic iacet sepultus inclitus rex Arturius in insula Avalonia’, ‘Here lies buried the renowned King Arthur in the isle of Avalon’. Modern research has tended to confirm that the Glastonbury monks did indeed find an early princely burial. The wording Malory gives for the epitaph is found at the end of the sole surviving copy of the alliterative Morte Arthure in the Lincoln Thornton manuscript and as a gloss to Arthur’s English epitaph in Lydgate’s Fall of Princes (see John Withrington in Arthurian Literature 7 (1987), 103–44).
Amesbury: there was a Benedictine nunnery at Amesbury in Malory’s time.
except Sir Galahad: the Winchester manuscript has lost its final leaves, its last words being the catchwords for the next leaf, ‘except Sir’. The rest of the text is taken from Caxton’s print.
grey or white: the terms were most commonly used about the Franciscan (grey) and Carmelite (white) friars; ‘white monks’ were Cistercians, as in the Book of the Grail.
dirge: this is part of the Office of the Dead, so called from the opening word of the antiphon: ‘Dirige, Domine, deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam’, ‘O Lord my God, direct my way in Thy sight’.
I have warning more than now I will say: those close to sanctity were often represented as knowing the time of their deaths.
the sweetest savour about him that ever they felt: the ‘odour of sanctity’ that distinguishes the corpse of the saint.
the miscreants or Turks: ‘miscreants’ means literally ‘misbelievers’—Moslems. The advance of the Turks represented the greatest danger to Christian Europe in Malory’s lifetime: Constantinople had fallen in 1453, and Belgrade, Rhodes, and the eastern Mediterranean were all threatened.
the ninth year of the reign of King Edward the Fourth: i.e. 4 March 1469 to 4 March 1470. In the course of this year, Malory was excluded for the second time from a general pardon.
as Jesu help him … both day and night: the last two clauses again look like a doggerel couplet, as at the end of the Sangrail. Caxton’s own colophon follows, and reads: ‘Thus endeth this noble and joyous book entitled Le Morte Darthur. Notwithstanding it treateth of the birth, life, and acts of the said King Arthur, of his noble knights of the Round Table, their marvellous quests and adventures, the achieving of the Sangrail, and in the end the dolorous death and departing out of this world of them all. Which book was reduced into English by Sir Thomas Malory, knight, as before is said, and by me divided into twenty-one books, chaptered and imprinted, and finished in the abbey Westminster the last day of July the year of Our Lord 1485. Caxton me fieri fecit [Caxton had me made].’
APPENDIX: CAXTON’S PREFACE
This preface, prefixed by Caxton to his edition of the Morte, gives an invaluable insight into how Malory’s work might have been understood in the late fifteenth century, both as to its historicity and its moral value (literature was supposed to instruct and to entertain, and to entertain primarily in order to make its moral teaching palatable—a problematic demand here given the nature of much of the material). Also notable is Caxton’s promotion of England and the English language through the printing of an Arthuriad in English to match that in French. It is not known whether the ‘many noble and divers gentlemen’ who he claims urged him to print such a work actually existed, or if they are an advertiser’s fiction; Earl Rivers, brother-in-law to Edward IV, who had a close relationship with Caxton, has been suggested as a possibility.
there be nine worthy … three Christian men: the tradition of the ‘nine worthies’ that Caxton rehearses here was especially popular in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It is referred to in numerous romances, provided the subject of many pageants (including one in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost), and spawned various offspring, such as the nine female worthies and the nine worthies of the City of London.
Godfrey of Bouillon … King Edward the Fourth: Godfrey of Bouillon was one of the leaders of the First Crusade, which captured Jerusalem from the Saracens in 1099, and he became its first ruler. Caxton printed not only his history but also one of Charlemagne; his Arthur completes the trio of Christian worthies. Edward IV died in 1483, two years before the printing of the Morte.
divers men hold opinion … nor of his knights: Arthur was generally (though not universally) accepted within Britain as having had a historical existence. Scepticism was much more widespread in continental Europe, where the lack of evidence to corroborate his supposed conquests, in particular over the Emperor Lucius, was frequently pointed out.
Glastonbury: Geoffrey of Monmouth had stated that Arthur was buried at Avalon, which was commonly identified with Glastonbury. The supposed grave of Arthur was found there in 1191. Malory makes the same identification of Arthur’s burial place.
Polychronicon: a mid-fourteenth-century universal history written in Latin by the monk Ranulph Higden, and translated into English in 1387 by John Trevisa. Higden is one of the historians who expresses reservations as to the historicity of Arthur’s foreign conquests.
Boccaccio, in his book ‘De
casu principum’: Boccaccio’s De casibus virorum illustrium, ‘On the falls of great men’ (c.1360), was widely known throughout Europe and had been translated into English by John Lydgate. He too was something of a sceptic as to Arthur’s exploits, and offered them as a moral example to be avoided.
Galfridus in his Brutish book: Geoffrey (Galfridus) of Monmouth was the first to give shape and coherence to the earlier legends of Arthur, in his History of the Kings of Britain (see Introduction). Histories that followed the same model were known as ‘Brutus books’ or Bruts, after the legendary founder of Britain.
Patricius Arthurus, Britannie, Gallic, Germanie, Dacie, Imperator: ‘Lord Arthur, emperor of Britain, Gaul, Germany, and Denmark’ (Dacia being a common term in medieval Latin for Denmark—not, as in classical Latin, Transylvania, which would make the territorial claims excessive even by the most jingoistic standards). The seal does not survive.
Gawain’s skull and Craddock’s mantle: Malory recounts Gawain’s death from head wounds at Dover in Book XXI. The story of the chastity-testing mantle, which only Craddock’s wife was able to wear, survives in a number of medieval versions in various European languages; the earliest English text, The Boy and the Mantle, is contained in the Percy Folio Manuscript, a seventeenth-century compilation that contains a number of ballads and romances of fifteenth-century origins. In an earlier English reference to the story in the fourteenth-century Scalachronicon, the mantle is said to have been made into a chasuble preserved at Glastonbury. As the ballad claims that the mantle fitted ‘between two nut-shells’, its loss is hardly surprising.
at Winchester, the Round Table: the Round Table, still on display in Winchester Great Hall, was probably made by Edward I in the late thirteenth century. The present decoration, with place-names for twenty-four knights, post-dates Malory by some forty years.
in Wales, in the town of Camelot … now living hath seen: Caxton’s placing of Camelot in Wales conflicts with Malory’s identification of it with Winchester. He may be thinking of Caerleon, where Geoffrey of Monmouth has Arthur hold a plenary court, and where there are substantial archaeological ruins (actually Roman, though they had no way of knowing that), including an amphitheatre. Still impressive, the remains would have been even more massive in the fifteenth century.
all is written for our doctrine: based on Romans 15:4, which could be taken as giving biblical approval to all literature regardless of the topic.
Amen: Caxton follows this preface with an outline of his book and chapter divisions.
INDEX OF CHARACTERS
Roman numerals indicate discussion in the Introduction; significant entries in the commentary are marked with an asterisk.
Accolon of Gaul, lover of Morgan le Fay 41, 63–4
hunts 61–2
combat with Arthur 64–9
death 70
Adtherp, Sir, aids Isode 199–200
Agloval, Sir, son of Pellinore 240, 290, 301, 463
on Grail quest 328
other adventures *549
killed 480
Agravain, Sir, son of Lot of Orkney and brother of Gawain 21, 139, 156, 435
marries 167–8
tournaments 180, 418, 439–41
encounter with Breunis 242–3
kills Dinadan 243
kills Lamorak 253, 258–9, *560
accusations of Guenivere 401, 403–4
hatred of Lancelot 433, 466, 482
A. and Meliagaunt 445, 447
and Sir Urry 462
causes downfall of Arthur xv, 467, 468–70, *559
takes Lancelot in Guenivere’s chamber 471–3, 492
killed 473, 475
and Tarquin *559
Alexander le Orphelin, Sir, nephew of Mark 463, 475, *543, *547
Aliduke, Sir 106, 405
Alpheus, Sir, wounds Sir Urry 460
Amant, Sir, quarrel with Mark 234–5, *547
Andret, Sir, enemy of Tristram 202, 204–5, 214, 217
death 463
Angwish, king of Ireland: at tournaments 161, 417, 439
demands tribute from Mark 172–3
his wife, xviii, 178, 183–4
Tristram at his court 179–85
charged with treason 189–94, 218
and Isode’s marriage 194–5
and Sir Urry 462
Aniause, King 358, 360, 366
Aries the cowherd 52–3, 463
his wife, mother of Tor 240, 463, *536
Aristance, Earl 462
Arnold le Breuse, Sir (unnamed) 126–7, 139, 156
Arrok, Sir 464
Arthur, King: earlier history viii–ix
conception and birth xiii, 5–7, 23–4, *532
and sword in stone 9–11
consolidates kingdom 12–20
begets Mordred 21
encounter with Pellinore 22, 27–8, 30
and Griflet 25–6
and Roman envoys 26, 82–4, *538
and Excalibur 29–30, 41, 58, 72, 514–15
war with Roince, Nero, and Lot 30–1, 39–41
and damosel with sword 33–7
wedding 50–5, 56
Round Table oath xiii, 57, *536
hunts 61–2
combats with Out-lake and Accolon 62–3, 65–70, *537
and damosel with mantle 73–4
invasion plans 85–6
dream of dragon 86–7
and giant of St Michael’s Mount 87–91
defeat of Emperor 91–4, 95, *540
hope for Crusade 93, *539
and Beaumains 120–3, 139
sent knights 132, 134, 146, 164–5, 167–8
seeks Gareth 154–9, 165–6
at Lyonesse’s tournament 159–61, 163
and King Angwish 189–90
sent horn and shield by Morgan 203–4, *546
praises Tristram 223–4
welcomes Tristram to court 231–2
and King Mark 235–6, 238–9, 243–5
and Lamorak 236–8, 247, 259
anger over Morgause’s death 242
suspects Guenivere 245
tournament at Lonazep 250, 260–5
visits Isode 270–2, *548
Elaine of Corbin comes to court 285–6, 289
and Lancelot’s absence 290, 292, 300, 302, 303
Palomides comes to court 308–9
Galahad comes to court 309, 311–17, *550
A.’s response to Grail vows 317–20
return of Grail knights 394, 402, 403
response to accusation of Guenivere of poisoning 406–13, *557
tournament at Camelot 414–23
and Elaine of Ascolat 425, 434–6
tournament at Winchester 429–31
tournament at Westminster 437, 439–42
praise of Gareth 443
A. and Meliagaunt 455, 456–60
and Sir Urry 461–2
revelation of Guenivere’s adultery xv, 468–81, *560
Gawain’s revenge xii, 481–3
siege of Joyous Gard 483–9
reconciliation with Guenivere 489–95
siege of Benwick 498–505
war with Mordred 505–10, 517–18
dreams of wheel and Gawain 510–11, 514
final battle 511–13
departure and death 515–17, 522–4
epitaph 517, *562–3
in Caxton 528–30, *564
Ascamore, Sir 405, 462, 470
Bagdemagus, King, and Round Table 60
daughter 99, 101, 118
tournaments 101–3, 118, 247, 248
killed on Grail quest 321–2, 394
supports Lancelot 498
Balan, Sir, brother of Balin 21, 37–9, 40
death 46–9, 315
Balin, Sir 21, 32
and Lady of the Lake 34–7
captures King Roince 38–9
in battle 40, 241
adventures with damosel 41–4
strikes dolorous stroke 44–5, *535, *553
Ban, king of Benwick, brother of King Bors: aids Arthur 15–19
father of Lancelot 58
lands 93
and Claudas 499
Barnard, Sir, of Ascolat, father of Elaine 415–17, 423–5, 432–4
Barrant le Apres, Sir, see Hundred Knights, King with the
Bartelot, Sir, brother of Breunis 294–5
Baudwin of Britain, Sir 11–14, 158
co-governor of realm 85, 86, *538
hermit 421–2, 430
Beaumains, see Gareth; also *541, *542
Bedivere, Sir: at St Michael’s Mount 88, 91
at tournaments 418, 440–1
and Sir Urry 463
final battle 511, 512–13
and Excalibur 514–15
becomes hermit 517, 521–2
name *539
Bellenger le Beau, Sir, son of Alexander le Orphelin 463, 475, 487, 496, 498
Belleus, Sir: Lancelot in his bed 100–1, 119
Belliance le Orgulous, Sir 463, 480
Bersules, Sir, killed by Mark 234–5
Black Launds, Knight of the, see Perard
Blamor de Ganis, Sir (brother of Bleoberis): excellence as knight 138
at tournaments 161, 419
and combat with Tristram 189–94, 218
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