Le Morte Darthur: The Winchester Manuscript (Oxford World's Classics)

by Malory, Thomas

  he took an oblay … fleshly man: this is transubstantiation made visible: the substance of the Mass wafer is seen to change into the Body of Christ. The doctrine, first defined in the ninth century but made official dogma only in 1215, shortly before the writing of the French Queste del Saint Graal, caused recurrent difficulties during the Middle Ages, and was rejected by a number of heretical movements (and at the Reformation); miracle stories such as this were designed to promote acceptance of the doctrine.

  I ate the lamb on Easter Day: in fact, the day of the Passover, the ‘last supper’ that is re-enacted in the Eucharist (Matthew 26:17–30).

  so will I: it is Malory’s innovation, in keeping with the focus of his whole compilation on Lancelot, to re-introduce him here at the end of the Grail.

  through His might: the last thirteen words are written in larger letters, and may be intended to be read as a rhyming tag:

  By Sir Thomas Malory, knight.

  O blessed Jesu, help him through His might.

  THE TALE OF SIR LANCELOT AND QUEEN GUENIVERE

  In the conclusion to Book XIX, Malory refers to this whole section as ‘the tale of Sir Lancelot’. I have added Guenivere both as giving a fair idea of its contents and to distinguish it from the earlier ‘tales of Sir Lancelot’. Malory is here using two sources concurrently: the French prose Mart le Roi Artu, and its English adaptation, the stanzaic Morte Arthur. Malory disentangles the various episodes from the interlacing found in both sources, but he largely follows the English in his selection of incidents (the main exception being Lancelot’s wounding by a hunter, XVIII.21–2, which appears in the French but not the English). The only surviving manuscript of the English poem was copied around Malory’s own time; the original is likely to have been composed at the beginning of the fifteenth century. This romance, in common with the whole English Arthurian tradition before Malory himself, offers a much more favourable reading of Gawain than do Malory’s French sources.

  There is one major interpolation from a different source, and that is the story of Guenivere’s abduction by Meliagaunt. This is first found in one of the earliest French Arthurian romances, the Chevalier de la Charrette of Chrétien de Troyes, and was retold in the prose Lancelot, but Malory’s precise source here is uncertain. The introduction of this episode here is both an indication of his originality in shaping his vision of the Arthurian legends, and crucial for defining the part played by the lovers’ adultery in the destruction of Arthur’s realm (see Introduction, p. xv).

  Two further episodes, the tournament in which Gareth changes sides in order to fight with Lancelot (XVIII.23–4, with its concluding encomium on love, 25), and the healing of Sir Urry (XIX. 10–13), have no known sources.

  fruit … a passing hot knight of nature: medieval nutrition theory recommended certain foods to counterbalance predominant physical humours or temperaments: fruit was cooling, therefore appropriate for a ‘hot’ choleric nature such as Gawain’s.

  I must be a rightful judge: the first duty of a king, undertaken in his coronation oath, was to uphold the law. Arthur’s obligation to enforce justice has to take precedence over support for his wife, just as later he has to support Gawain in a legally correct quarrel against Lancelot.

  such custom was used … another poor lady: there is a strong contrast implied here with the system of justice in Malory’s own day, when association with an affinity—the power group assembled by a great magnate—was particularly important in obtaining a favourable verdict, as the lord could often pack the jury with other members of his affinity.

  that day my lady … shamed among all knights: the episode is recounted in the French Prose Lancelot.

  thither came many good knights: a short list of the knights is omitted.

  Ascolat: the more familiar ‘Astolat’ is Caxton’s spelling. The manuscript initially most often reads ‘Ascolot’, but later settles into ‘Ascolat’ as its preferred form.

  the parties smote together: the following account of the tournament is slightly abbreviated.

  Not so … send ye for that shield: a caring medieval father will not allow his daughter to take a knight up to her bedchamber, and especially not one with the reputation of Sir Gawain. (In the French, Gawain propositions her.)

  a thing: presumably a herb of some kind, to act like smelling salts.

  many knights of divers countries: a list of participating knights is omitted.

  mass-penny: the mass-penny is the offering given to the priest to perform requiem masses for the soul of the dead; the sum given was often considerably more than a penny.

  a great tournament and jousts: details of the parties are omitted here and from the course of the tournament.

  at the stalk and at the trist: i.e. by stalking them or when the deer were driven out by beaters. In the French Mort le Roi Artu, the hunter is the king’s huntsman, and there is no mention of women; presumably the all-women team of huntresses is derived from some version of the story of Diana, though Malory’s precise source is unknown. Ovid, the obvious ultimate source for such matters, was the Classical author best known in the Middle Ages, and there were abundant retellings of and allusions to the myths contained in the Metamorphoses in both English and French. Some of those concerning Diana are summarized, for instance, in Chaucer’s description of the goddess’s temple in The Knight’s Tale.

  abaited her dog for the bow at a barren hind: the huntress sets her dog on the trail of a female deer so that it can drive the animal out to where it can be shot with the bow; when the deer retreats into the water beside the well, the hound loses the scent.

  he rideth unto hanging: condemned felons were taken to be hanged in a cart; it was unheard of for a knight to adopt such a mode of transport.

  they were laid in withdraughts: a ‘withdraught’ is a small corner room or recess off a larger chamber; an example is still extant in Magdalene College, Cambridge, where the master occupied the larger chamber and his pupils the satellite recesses.

  to touch a queen’s bed … and she lying therein: the private space in a medieval household was not the bedroom but the curtained bed.

  Lessez les aller: this is the heralds’ cry to the knights to let their horses run; as a traditional phrase of chivalric etiquette, it kept its original French form.

  as the French book maketh mention: there is in fact no known source for this section, and it would be unlikely that a French version, if any existed, would have placed the story of Sir Urry here: Malory’s interjection at this point of Lancelot’s own personal miracle, immediately after his one explicit act of adultery in the whole work, makes it very clear that in his version God is not displeased with Lancelot. The Vulgate Cycle offers a much simpler moral cause-and-effect relationship between the shortcomings of earthly chivalry (as embodied in Lancelot’s adultery and shown up in the Grail Quest) and the downfall of the Round Table. Malory reshapes his narrative towards the much more tragic structure of the destruction of the good.

  there were but a hundred and ten … that time away: the magnificent roll-call that follows offers in miniature a portrait of the knights of the Round Table and their deeds. Many of the knights have been heard of before in the course of the work, and their stories told; others have their deeds recounted only here; some are never mentioned elsewhere. One major incident, the death of Sir Tristram, receives its fullest narration here. The passage summarizes the histories of the individual members of the fellowship, and gives a glimpse of a hinterland of further adventures that could also have been recounted—an abundance of further unwritten romances. There is a sense in which this passage, far more than the tournament before the Grail Quest, gives a last sight of the fellowship ‘all whole together’, despite the absentees—or because of them, since they are away fulfilling their knightly function of adventure. (Two duplicated names are removed.)

  corpse: both Caxton and Winchester read ‘cross’; it seems more plausible that Malory wrote ‘cors’, corpse. This is certainly how she meets her death in th
e French, where Tristram’s final mighty embrace of her as he dies ends her own life too.

  Sir Degrevant: Sir Degrevant is the hero of an independent Middle English romance, in which he is described as a knight of the Round Table. He does not figure in the mainstream Arthurian stories, and presumably Malory includes him because of his own acquaintance with the romance.

  as the French book saith … came on horseback: Malory here summarizes the prose version of the story. In the original Chevalier de la Charette by Chrétien de Troyes, Lancelot’s ride in the cart is a single incident, undertaken after his horse has been killed.

  that caused Sir Agravain: this uncompromising ascription of the blame for Arthur’s death to Agravain, rather than to any failing on the part of earthly chivalry in general or of Lancelot in particular, is a recurrent theme in the rest of the work (only with the name of Mordred frequently coupled with his brother), and again is Malory’s own. The change in emphasis suggests that the previous remark, on losing the rest of the story of Lancelot, may be disingenuous. It might be true; it could be no more than a variant on Malory’s frequent remarks on abridging his sources (the effect is certainly the same, to produce a much tighter narrative structure); or Malory may have wished to avoid a further digression on the way to his conclusion, so that Lancelot’s miracle remains in the forefront of his readers’ minds.

  the most piteous tale … votre bonne merci: ‘the most piteous tale of the death of Arthur without redress, by the knight Sir Thomas Malory. Jesus of Your mercy help him.’ The colophon is the only indication of a section break.

  THE DEATH OF ARTHUR

  The title adopted for this section is that given at the end of the work rather than the French ‘Morte Arthur’ given at the close of the preceding section. The Mort le Roi Artu is very much the minor partner to the English source for this final part of the work: the two cover much the same material, but the stanzaic English version provides Malory with a much tighter narrative structure, the inspiration for some of his best phrasing (concerning, for instance, the responses to the death of Gareth, the final battle, and the throwing of Excalibur into the water), and also the entire episode of Lancelot and Guenivere’s final meeting in the nunnery.

  he rescued me from King Carados … from Sir Tarquin: see The Book of Sir Tristram, VIII.28, for the rescue of Gawain from Sir Carados, and The Tale of Sir Lancelot, VI.7–9, for the rescue of Agravain from Sir Tarquin, Carados’ brother. The reminder of Lancelot’s previous adventures is typical of the way Malory brings the whole history of the Round Table to bear on its destruction.

  Sir Gromore Somer Jour: this knight makes an appearance as the opponent of Arthur in The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell, where he is the brother of Dame Ragnell (and therefore in due course the brother-in-law of Gawain and uncle of Gingalin, who is there identified as Gawain’s son by Ragnell). The work is a late-fifteenth-century rhyming romance, the author of which describes himself at the end as being a prisoner. On the basis of that, and the reappearance of the name Gromore Somer Jour in Malory’s known work, P. J. C. Field has suggested that Malory may have been the author of The Wedding too. Sir Gromore is presumably intended to be the same character as the Grummor Grummorson mentioned at the healing of Sir Urry.

  all they were of Scotland: knights of Scotland would be likely to support the sons of Lot of Lothian and Orkney, the leading Scottish king of the work.

  wit thou well … after thy days: this is the one occasion in the work when the Queen slips into the intimate thou with Lancelot (as distinct from her angry usage of the word in her quarrel over Elaine the mother of Galahad); it contrasts strikingly with the insulting thou being shouted at Lancelot from outside the door. He invariably addresses her with the respectful you.

  in my default: this is the most ambiguous of several instances where ‘default’ may mean either ‘fault’ or ‘lack’: Guenivere may be destroyed because of Lancelot’s past actions (’for my sake’), or if he fails to rescue her. Malory may have intended both meanings to be present.

  treason: treason was a very fluid term at the time when the Arthurian romances were taking shape, but any kind of betrayal of one’s overlord could fall within the definition. Guenivere’s adultery amounts to both a betrayal of Arthur and a risk to the succession, itself defined as high treason; under the Statute of Treasons of 1352, anyone who violated the wife or eldest daughter of the king committed treason. This is the basis of Arthur’s charge of treason against Lancelot in chapter 11, but presumably not Gawain’s in chapter 20: see note to p. 501 below.

  as they were unarmed, he … wist not whom that he smote: knights normally identify each other by the coats of arms on their shields; as Gaheris and Gareth are unarmed, Lancelot fails to recognize them.

  My king … assay your friends: the formulations Gawain uses—‘my king, my lord, and mine uncle … as ye will have my service and my love’—allow Arthur no room for manoeuvre. It is not that despite being king he is ordered about by a subject, but because he is king (and therefore bound to uphold both the law and feudal obligations) that Gawain can compel him to do what he wishes. As king, he has to uphold a legally just quarrel (Gareth and Gaheris were unlawfully killed while they were acting under Arthur’s orders); as Gawain’s lord, he has to uphold Gawain in his quarrels just as Gawain has given him his own ‘service and love’; and as his uncle, it is his blood-feud as much as it is Gawain’s. Arthur must ‘assay his friends’, test his followers to see who will support him rather than Lancelot, in preparation for the war that is to follow.

  ye slew him not yourself: i.e. by yourself: it needed the combined efforts of Gawain, Gaheris, Agravain, and Mordred to overcome Sir Lamorak—see X.58.

  interdicting of all England: an interdiction is the laying of a whole country under excommunication, so that no ecclesiastical functions may be performed, from the regular church services to christenings or the last rites.

  thus he said full knightly: the extent of Lancelot’s speeches here is Malory’s own—one of the few places in the work where he generously extends the French (the stanzaic English Morte, typically, is very laconic). Everywhere else in the work Lancelot has been able to fight in his own defence; here, he has to rely on eloquence—though it is an eloquence backed with reminders of what he can do by way of prowess.

  God grant mercy: the phrase is balanced between piety and threat—between thanks to God (the common Anglo-Norman grand merci) and ‘God have mercy upon them’.

  fortune is so variant … they alighted passing low: the turning of the wheel of Fortune, to cast down by an inescapable process those who climbed highest, was a commonplace of medieval thought. In the alliterative Morte Arthure, used by Malory as his source for his account of Arthur’s conquest of the Roman Empire, Arthur himself has a dream that shows those of the Nine Worthies who precede him, including Hector and Alexander, falling from the wheel (cf. XXI-3). On the Worthies, see Caxton’s Preface, pp. 528–9.

  he departed his lands and advanced all his noble knights: there is the barest hint for this episode in the sources, with no general distribution of lands. The places listed are all genuine, and show some knowledge of the detailed geography of central and southern France. Attempts have been made to construct elements of a biography for Malory from this, but he could as easily have derived knowledge of the names of some of the more obscure places from acquaintances or other sources as from first-hand experience. The English had been involved in active military campaigns in France throughout the earlier decades of the century, and links through trade, travel, and ecclesiastical connections were commonplace.

  Then said Sir Lionel … land upon our lands: this whole series of speeches is derived from the English stanzaic Morte Arthur, where each occupies one stanza. The closeness of Malory’s borrowing shows up particularly strongly in Lionel’s speech:

  Lionel speaks in that tide,

  That was of war wise and bold:

  ‘Lordings, yet I rede we bide

  And our worthy
walls hold:

  Let them prick [spur] with all their pride

  Till they have caught both hunger and cold,

  Then we shall out upon them ride,

  And shred them down as sheep in fold.’

  treason: Gawain’s accusation of treason against Lancelot is presumably not based on his adultery with the Queen, since he refuses to countenance such charges. The Statute of Treasons included among its definitions the levying of war on the king in his own kingdom; Gawain may be taking Lancelot’s attack on the party accompanying the Queen to the stake as such an act. He does not, however, specify any particular act as treasonable; it is the accusation itself that matters, not the detail of the charge.