Le morte d'Arthur

PUBLIC LIBRARY THE BRANCH LIBRARIESNY 3 3333 18427 9251 H M?-5Ill o o -II will with and bethee,Everyman, go thy guide, In most need to side. thy go by thyThis is No. of A4^ Everyman's Library. list of authors and their works in this series will be found at the end ofthis volume. The will be to send to all publishers pleased freely a annotated list of theapplicants separate, Library. M. DENT & SONS LIMITED J. BEDFORD STREET LONDON W.C.210-13 E. P. DUTTON & CO. INC. FOURTH AVENUE286-302 NEW YORKEVERYMAN'S LIBRARY EDITED BY ERNEST RHYS ROMANCE LE MORTE D'ARTHUR BY SIR THOMAS MALORY INTRO- RHYSDUCTION BY PROFESSOR VOL, iIN 2 VOLS.All reserved rights Made in Great Britain at The Tress LetchworthTemple and decorated Eric Raviliousby M. Dent Sons&. Ltd.J. Aldine House St. LondonBedford First Published in this Edition 1906 Reprinted 1906, 1908, 1910, 1912, 1916, 1919 1923, 1926, 1928, 1930, 1935PREFACE SIR THOMAS MALORY has us no account of himself orgiven his but he has left his name and his work. The namefamily, is found connected with estates in Yorkshire in theMalory sixteenth and with estates in Leicestershire in thatcentury, which follows. As the of whomname the to we oweknight the Morte it is found written not orDarthur, only Malory but also Maleore. It occurred to me someMalorye, years ago that this fact lent countenance to the statement ascribed to Leland and that Sir Thomas was a Welshmanothers, Malory ; for Maleore reminded me of Maelawr orMaylawr, Maelor, the name of two districts on the confines of andEngland * 'Wales : a Welsh Maelor is included in the ofCounty and an Maelor' in that of Flint. How such'EnglishDenbigh, a name could become a surname be seen from thereadily may for of a lord of the two Maelors in thedesignation, instance, named Maelawr.twelfth century, Gruffud Literally rendered, ' this would mean Griffith of Maelor.' the name ofSimilarly, a Welsh of the fifteenth Edward abcentury, Rhys Maelor,poet * ofnow be rendered Edward Price Maelor.'might then Dr. in a to the secondSince Sommer, Supplement volume of his edition of the Morte has calledDarthur,great attention to the in Bale's Illustrium Maiorisfollowing passage Britannia fol. 208 verso :Scriptorum, "Thomas Britannus heroic! abMailorius, natione, homo,spiritus adolescentia uariis animi dotibus emicuit.ipsa corporisque insigniter Le-Est Mailoria in Dictionum(inquit Syllabo JoannesAntiquarum Deuse flumini uicina. etin finibus Cambrialandus) regio, Quam Inter multi-alibi a fertilitate armorum fabrefactura commendat.atque non intermisit hie literarum sed succisiuiscuras, studia,plices reipublicae horis uniuersas uetustatis sedulus Vndeperquisiuit.disparsse reliquias, in historiarum lectione diu ex uariis autoribusuersatus, undique selegit, de fortitudine ac uictoriis Arthurii."inclytissimi Brytannorum regis was at inThe first edition of Bale's work published Ipswich Darthur was himwhile s Morte1548, Malory only completed by in These dates are not so far that we must1469. apart suppose either Bale or Leland unable to obtain reliable information Bale'sand statement thathistory origin.concerning Malory's that is towas Britannus natione, say, Welsh, bringsMalory VUviii Preface with it solutionthe of what was to themy difficulty, wit, relation between the name and the formMalory dissyllabic Maleore for one can whilej that the latterhardly help seeing the Welsh the former morepostulates place-name Maelor, connects itself with the derived Latin Mailorius.naturally Thus far of nowname : we come to hisMalory's work, as was finished in Itwhich, already mentioned, 1469. was, not till when its washowever, under-printed 1485, publication taken Caxton. Then followed two editions deby by Wynkyn Worde in and and before the middle of the seven-1498 1529, teenth four more editions : all these sevencentury appeared were in black letter. The to haveeighteenth century appears been content with what the three ones had done forprevious the text of but the nineteenth hasMalory ; century already no less sixseen it edited than times, notably by Southey, Sir E. and H. Oskar Sommer. Dr. Sommer'sWright, Strachey, edition is in three incomprised stately volumes, published London David Nutt : the first of theby volume, consisting in then followed a volume of Introduction1889;Text, appeared in Thisin and one of Studies on the Sources1890, 1891. an era in the of the Morteedition marks history Darthur, that have been taken to make itseeing special pains reproduce Caxton which is not known to exist in more thanthe original, This latterone of which is nottwo perfect. copycopies, quite the theto the whileLibrary, other, perfectbelongs Althorp to the Harleian As itsonce belonged Library. regardscopy, we are told that it was the Earl oflater history, purchased by itfor his at and that inPark, 1885library OsterleyJersey the Mrs.the of a citizen of Unitedbecame States,property 1 I must add that no traceE. of Brooklyn. Lastly,Abby Pope has ever been found.of ownMalory's manuscript of the sources of work is no newThe Malory's one,question M. Gaston Parishad been to some extent discussedand it by editedin the introduction to theirand M. Merlin,Ulrich,J. andto Mr. Alfredfrom a Huth, London,manuscript belonging Societi des anciens Textesin Paris in 1888 thebypublished wastreatment of thebut the exhaustive subject franqaisj his thirdwho has devoted to itfor Dr.reserved Sommer, will allow ofatvolume. The disposal only myspace my in the briefest mannerhis conclusions possible.mentioning writtento have been romancesMost of proveMalory's originals 1 See ii.Sommer's Malory, 1-3.