PUBLIC LIBRARY THE BRANCH LIBRARIESNY3 3333 18427 9251HM?-5Illoo-II will with and bethee,Everyman, go thy guide,In most need to side.thy go by thyThis is No. of A4^ Everyman's Library.list of authors and their works in this serieswill be found at the end ofthis volume. Thewill be to send to allpublishers pleased freelya annotated list of theapplicants separate,Library.M. DENT & SONS LIMITEDJ.BEDFORD STREET LONDON W.C.210-13E. P. DUTTON & CO. INC.FOURTH AVENUE286-302NEW YORKEVERYMAN'S LIBRARYEDITED BY ERNEST RHYSROMANCELE MORTE D'ARTHURBY SIR THOMAS MALORY INTRO-RHYSDUCTION BY PROFESSORVOL, iIN 2 VOLS.All reservedrightsMade in Great Britainat The Tress LetchworthTempleand decorated Eric RaviliousbyM. Dent Sons&. Ltd.J.Aldine House St. LondonBedfordFirst Published in this Edition 1906Reprinted 1906, 1908, 1910, 1912, 1916,19191923, 1926, 1928, 1930, 1935PREFACESIR THOMAS MALORY has us no account of himself orgivenhis but he has left his name and his work. The namefamily,is found connected with estates in Yorkshire in theMalorysixteenth and with estates in Leicestershire in thatcentury,which follows. As the of whomname the to we oweknightthe Morte it is found written not orDarthur, only Malorybut also Maleore. It occurred to me someMalorye, years agothat this fact lent countenance to the statement ascribed toLeland and that Sir Thomas was a Welshmanothers, Malory ;for Maleore reminded me of Maelawr orMaylawr, Maelor,the ...
PUBLIC LIBRARY THE BRANCH LIBRARIESNY
3 3333 18427 9251
H
M?-5Ill
o
o
-II will with and bethee,Everyman, go thy guide,
In most need to side.
thy go by thyThis 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 YORKEVERYMAN'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, 1935PREFACE
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
VUviii 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.