The Boys King Arthur

Ho w Sir T ur ui ne bare Sir Ector c ean out of his Saddle. q l THE ’ Boy s KING ART HUR Eh s mm y u r an d/i -1m l ing A rfi i: E ng of fie m y 441}?d po 45 l NEWYORK CHAR LE S S C R I B NE R ’ S SONS 1 900 FEB 1 2 1901 ' Cowm c n r , 1 880, ’ BY CHARLES SCRIB NER S SONS. NTR DU CT ION I O . ' WILL tim Ham ldl the e come when wi l be a boys tale ? Since the youn g readers of King Ar thur — and their young readers after them — are of all persons in the world the very oracles who must one day answer this ques tion ; and since its curi ous face will be thrusting its elf upon us from all manner of odd corn ers as we n ow go on to tra ce the ris e and spread of the stories whi ch Sir Thomas Malory us ed in making this beautiful old book : I wished in i n t n i to state it at the beg n g, so hat it might at o ce w den and intensify our thoughts as we look upon t hose changes ’ in in t he r at u in language, life, gene al st re of man s spirit, whereby the great cycle of Ar thurian romances which en. chanted the grown men of all Europe durin g the mi ddle s arr ni n e n t n u ages finds it elf ived, in the et e h ce t ry, at the ’ i n B s i n A r t/t a r form of th s prese t oy K g . A bo ut the ti me when Engli shmen first began to hear “ ” n lan ta m is ta il the name Plantage et, from the p g or w d ’ II s i broom of A njou which Henry . father l ked to wear by way of a plume ; when Thomas a Becket was begi nni ng i ri n i K n that br ght f e dship w th this same ing He ry II. which presen tly darkened into their desperate struggle ; when a st ranger was allowed to st0p over in an English bo rough but one night un less he could fetch good and ffi a bad al u su cient security ag inst behavior ; when, tho gh a ll o uc ion iv I n tr d t . crimin al could clear himself of his accusation by holdin g n in n n n n hot iro his hand or by si ki g whe cast i to water, n evertheless those bodies of men which have sin ce become “ ” what we call the jury —the most admirable provision n du u ever made by our race for perfect reason a p re j stice n m an m an r n in u betwee and we e taki g form s ch a time, which we may roughly cen tre at the middle of the twelfth n u n K n A r u ce t ry, the ame of i g th r first appeared in Eng u n i n f lish literat re . For it was the that a certa Geo frey ’ ' n u ut r L Hzstor za B ri tonum of Mo mo th p fo th his atin , ” n — in History of the Brito s, which for the first time the story of A rthur as an an cien t British king was fairly set before the world. — n Geoffrey told it for true, not as a mere fictio . Here un n n is his acco t of the way he happe ed to k ow it, and of his reason for publishin g it as matter belon gi n g to the real n T n history of the Brito s . his is a translatio of part of his first chapter. “ u u Whilst occ pied on many and various st dies, I hap n u n K n pe ed to light po the History of the i gs of Britain, n in un and wo dered that the acco t which Gildas and Bede, in v I un their elegant treatises , had gi en of them , fo d n n C nothi g said of those ki gs who lived here before hrist , n or A r u an d n of th r, ma y others who s ucceeded after Christ ; though their action s both deserved immortal fame, and were also celebrated by man y people in a ant n n ma er, and by heart , as if they had been wri tten: I n n n u u Whilst was i te t upo these and s ch like tho ghts , A n — Walter, rchdeaco of Oxford whom we suppose to be the Walter Map presen tly figurin g in this account “ u n an dn ~ a man of great eloq e ce, lear ed in foreign histo t ies f , o fered me a very an cien t book in the British to n gue ’ — r “ n ou Geoffrey s British here mea s Welsh which , n n t he in a co tinued regular story and elega t style, related n r u i n actio s of them all , f om Brut s the first k g of the n adw so C all A Briton s down to Cadwallader the of o. t u I n ot his request, therefore, tho gh had made fine lan u g u n fl r x n g a e my st dy, by collecti g o id e pressio s from u n n own other a thors , yet co te ted with my homely style ” n t I un der took the translatio of that book into Latin. a ’ It must be con fessed that our historian s ideas of proba~V bility seem very un satisfactory to the m odern view of r n o u historic dignity . Pe haps more striking proof co ld ’ be given of the en orm ous growth in men s con scien ce and reason ablen ess sin ce that time than by the followin g ’ co uple of stories which I have taken out of Geoffrey s “ on e n un History , the purporti g to be a true acco t of the way in which the island of Britain was first peopled n n n and amed, the other setti g forth the strange adve t n u n of Merli as prophet and co nsellor to the British ki gs . A ft er relati n g how !E n eas settled in Italy at the close T Geofire of the rojan war, y treats of his descendants n on e u - there, and prese tly comes to Br tus , the great grand son oi E n r un eas , who is afte wards the fo der of the British e T u u i n own rac his Br t s , hav ng by accide t slain his wi un father th an arrow while h ting, is banished by his v kinsmen for the dreadful deed. He wanders forth o er n n u v n u the earth , falls i to wo dro s ad e t res, fights battles . n l n l and does noble deeds , u ti he is fi a ly told by the god dess Dian a that there is an islan d in the Western Sea u n un po which he is to fo d a great empire. e in t n : He go s search , and, af er other treme dous war and in o victories which he amasses great sp ils, he and his i n n C n u i mighty l eute a t ori e s , with a company wh ch he has a v on g thered in his wanderings , arri e the coast of Eng Th e of e n land. details these matters occupy fourte 0 du i n r o c on vi I t t . r : i n chapters after chapter fi st , already quoted and here, x n C n u chapter si tee , we have the terrible fight of ori e s n d un n r n r n a . with the abo igi al giant , the fo di g of B itai “ The n A n n island was the called lbio , and was i habited ” h n n ut n . x n n t e by o e b a few gia ts Fi i g their habitatio , y “ n du u n begin to till the groun d ; a Br t s called the isla d I B rit ai n an d n n n . n after his ame , his compa io s Brito s “ B ut Corin eus begin s to lan guish for some fun : For it n n un n was a diversio to him to e co ter the said gia ts , which were in greater n umbers in his provi n ce than in all the n other provin ces that fell to the share of his companio s . A mon g the rest was on e detestable mon ster n amed Goe v u an d r in u magot , stat re twel e c bits , of such p odigious stren gth that at on e shake he pulled up an oak as ifit had n z n On n n bee a ha el wa d .

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