* * * * *

SIR THOMAS MALORY

Morte d’Arthur

Little is known of Sir Thomas Malory, who, according to Caxton, “did take out of certain French books a copy of the noble histories of King Arthur and reduced it to English.”  We learn from the text that “this book was finished in the ninth year of the reign of King Edward the Fourth, by Sir Thomas Malory, Knight.”  That would be in the year 1469.  Malory is said to have been a Welshman.  The origin of the Arthurian romance was probably Welsh.  Its first literary form was in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s prose, in 1147.  Translated into French verse, and brightened in the process, these legends appear to have come back to us, and to have received notable additions from Walter Map (1137-1209), another Welshman.  A second time they were worked on and embellished by the French romanticists, and from these later versions Malory appears to have collated the materials for his immortal translation.  The story of Arthur and Launcelot is the thread of interest followed in this epitome.

I.—­The Coming of Arthur

It befell in the days of the noble Utherpendragon, when he was King of England, there was a mighty and noble duke in Cornwall, named the Duke of Tintagil, that held long war against him.  And the duke’s wife was called a right fair lady, and a passing wise, and Igraine was her name.  And the duke, issuing out of the castle at a postern to distress the king’s host, was slain.  Then all the barons, by one assent, prayed the king of accord between the Lady Igraine and himself.  And the king gave them leave, for fain would he have accorded with her; and they were married in a morning with great mirth and joy.

When the Queen Igraine grew daily nearer the time when the child Arthur should be born, Merlin, by whose counsel the king had taken her to wife, came to the king and said:  “Sir, you must provide for the nourishing of your child.  I know a lord of yours that is a passing true man, and faithful, and he shall have the nourishing of your child.  His name is Sir Ector, and he is a lord of fair livelihood.”  “As thou wilt,” said the king, “be it.”  So the child was delivered unto Merlin, and he bare it forth unto Sir Ector, and made a holy man to christen him, and named him Arthur.

But, within two years, King Uther fell sick of a great malady, and therewith yielded up the ghost, and was interred as belonged unto a king; wherefore Igraine the queen made great sorrow, and all the barons.

Then stood the realm in great jeopardy a long while, for many weened to have been king.  And Merlin went to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and counselled him to send for all the lords of the realm, and all the gentlemen of arms, to London before Christmas, upon pain of cursing, that Jesus, of His great mercy, should show some miracle who should be rightwise king.  So in the greatest church of London there was seen against the high altar a great stone and in the midst thereof there was an anvil of steel, and therein stuck a fair sword, naked by the point, and letters of gold were written about the sword that said, “Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil is rightwise king born of England.”