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Hzb'7 V. MALORY'S MORTE DARTHUR ^; ''^- 'i. ^ % > V •^'•v '''i% B/ "^ % 9, i i % ] ^ LE MORTE DARTHUR BY SYR THOMAS MALORY THE ORIGINAL EDITION OF WILLIAM CAXTON NOW REPRINTED AND EDITED BY H. OSKAR SOMMER, Ph.D. VOL. III. STUDIES ON THE SOURCES WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY BY ANDREW LANG, M.A. LONDON : PUBLISHED BY DAVID NUTT, IN THE STRAND ^ I 891 / ; PREFACE. HERE present to the world of scholarship the % third and last instalment of the work which four years ago I set myself to accomplish, and of which I published the first instalment in the spring of 1889. I have faithfully endeavoured \ to redeem every pledge I made to the public and to myself, and to the best of my ability to render this work, which was begun and has been continued as a labour of love, \ a worthy contribution to English literature, a worthy example of German scholarship. The task has been a long and an onerous one during its execution my health failed me repeatedly—to this, as well as to my resolve to explore every portion of the vast tract of Romantic literature that lay before me, and, I candidly confess it, to miscalculation of the complexity of the task, must be attributed the delay which has taken place in the issue of this third volume. I can, however, assure the subscribers to my work that, as regrettable as this delay may have appeared to some of them, it has enabled me to attain results of which I had no idea when I began my task. I am likewise sure of one other thing : without the intimate knowledge of Malory's work which I acquired by the drudgery of copying out the text with my own hand, of collating proof with original, and of compiling the critical apparatus, I could never have achieved the results which I set forth in the present volume. All who are familiar vi PREFACE. with studies of this kind will understand that the amount of printed matter represents but a slight proportion of the labour involved. Negative results occupy little or no space, yet they necessitate as much labour, and may be as important to establish, as positive ones. It will be recognised, I trust, that, thanks to my efforts, Sir Thomas Malory's position in the history of English literature is henceforth clearly defined, and that the sources which he worked up into his compilation, together with his own additions, have been ascertained beyond doubt. It is true, a small portion remains which I have not been able to trace, but I fully hope that the opportune discovery of a new text (such " as that of the " Suite de Merlin fifteen years ago) may fill up this gap in our knowledge. I may be allowed to sketch briefly the outcome of my investigations. Malory, in his account of the early life of Arthur, followed partly the Vulgate-Merlin, but mainly the so-called " Suite de Merlin," of which one solitary French MS. has survived, and for a portion of which Malory is the only extant authority ; in the Tristan-section he followed a French trilogy, which is difierent from all existing versions, and which we only know from him ; in the Lancelot- section he used a " Suite de Lancelot," the existence of which was not even suspected by any previous investigator, was established conjecturally by me after a minute examination of the entire Lancelot-cycle, and was finally placed beyond doubt by my discovery of a fragment of the version embedded in a Tristan MS. When Malory followed previous English versions, as is the case of the Thornton MS. in the library of Lincoln Cathedral and the Harl. MS. 2252 at the British Museum, he made free and ample use of them, to the extent of transcribing whole passages. I may also claim to have destroyed the erroneous theory that Malory derived his information directly from Welsh sources, or that he was himself a Welshman ; and, finally, I have printed as an Appendix to this PREFACE. Vll volume the only portion of Malory's French sources which has never appeaj-ed in print previously. I have seen with great pleasure that my transcript of Caxton's volume, even before the completion of the work, has been of use to philologists as well as to students of literature, and I am more than ever convinced that it was time to produce a reliable text of " Le Morte Darthur," and that the secretary of a distinguished literary society was wrong when he expressed his surprise on hearing of my intention, and asked me plaintively if I was not acquainted with Robert Southey's splendid edition. I hope and trust that these Studies on the Sources will meet with the same kind welcome as the two former volumes, and that they will be useful to the student of the vast and intricate Arthurian romance. In common with other admirers of Malory, I must thank Mr. Andrew Lang for the few pages which he has prefixed to this volume, and in which he has so eloquently vindicated the abiding charm and interest of this great storehouse of romance. I have again to express my deep obligation to His Excellency the Royal Prussian State-Minister Herr Dr. von Gossler for the grant of a small third subsidy from the Prussian Treasury ; also to all the staff of the British Museum, the great national library, for their kindness and courtesy, and for all the facilities afforded me. I again express my warmest thanks to my friend Mr. Alfred Nutt, who, himself an enthusiastic student of Arthurian romance, eagerly watched the progress of my studies; I owe to him many valuable suggestions and much other help. He also assisted me in the onerous and ungrateful task of reading the proofs of this volume. Not only my thanks, but those of all who love Arthurian romance, are due to him that he readily and disinterestedly consented to the greatly enlarged scope of my work, whereby the size and cost of this volume have been .*. m very considerably increased. viii PREFACE. At the conclusion of a work involving the exercise of so much skill and taste on the part of the eminent printing firm to which its execution was entrusted, I must tender my hearty thanks to my friend Mr. Charles McCall and to all his assistants both for the beauty of the volumes and for the ever ready assistance afforded me in the course of their progress through the press. H. OSKAR SOMMER. British Museum, Large Room, April 1 89 1. CONTENTS. PAGE INTRODUCTORY ESSAY BY ANDREW LANG, M.A. xiii STUDIES ON THE SOURCES OF " LE MORTE DARTHUR": INTRODUCTION i I. THE " MERLIN," OR THE EARLY HISTORY^ OF KING ARTHUR. A. The " Merlin " by Robert de Boron. Table showing the Relative Length in Pages and the Number of Chapters of the Twenty-one Books op **Le Morte Darthur," the Branches op Arthurian Romance they belong to, and all MSS. and Editions PRESENTING THE SAME VERSIONS . facilKJ 12 Book I. Chapters I. -VII. : The Huth MS 14 B. The "Ordinary Merlin." Book I. Chapters VIII.-XVIII. : Add. MS. No. 10292 . 31 C. The ''Suite de Merlin." Table showing the Relation op the " Merlin '^ MSS. TO One Another, and illustrating the Treatment op Proper Names by the Scribes . facing 55 a. Book I. Chapters XIX.-XXVIII 58 /3. Book II. 70 7. Book III 97 S. Book IV 117 D. "La Morte Arthure": Thornton MS. Book V 148 z CONTENTS. PAGE II. THE '* LANCELOT,'* OE THE LATER HISTORY OF KING ARTHUR. A. The "Lancelot" Proper. a. Book VI, Table showing the MSS. op **Le Roman de Lancelot'* at the Bbitish Museum in their Relationship to the Edition of Paris, 15 13, AND "Le Morte Darthur" . facing 177 a. Chapters I.-VII 178 p. Chapters VII.-XI 186 7, Chapters XI.-XVIII 189 b. Book XI. a. Chapters I.-III 190 j8. Chapters III.-VI 193 7. Chapters VII.-XIV 195 c. Book XII. Chapters I.-X 200 B. The Quest of the Holy Grail. a. Book XIII 206 p. Book XIV 213 7. Book XV 214 5. Book XVI 216 e. Book XVII 217 C. " La Mort au Rot Artus." a. Book XVIII 221 *' " b. Book XIX. : Le Roman de la Charrette and the Prose-Lancelot. a. Chapters I. -VI. 232 /S. Chapters VI. -IX 241 7. Chapters X.-XII 248 c. " Le Mort Arthur": Harl. IMS. 2252 and the Prose- Lancelot 249 a. Book XX 250 jS. Book XXI 265 D. Malory's Compilation represents a Lost "Suite de Lancelot'' 272 CONTENTS. XI PAGE III. THE " TRISTAN," OR THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF SYR TRYSTRAM. Table showing the Relations op the MSS. op the *' Vulgate" and Enlarged "Tristan" at the British Museum to the Printed Edition op 1520 foxiing 280 AND to '*Le Morte Darthur" . • . XI.-XIII. Books VIIL, IX., X. ; XII., Chapters .286 lY. THE "PROPHECIES OF MERLIN." Book X. Chapters XXXI.-L 291 CONCLUSION 293 APPENDIX. The Adventures of Alysaunder le Orphelyn . -297 The Great Tournament of Galahalt of Surluse . 313 SUPPLEMENT TO YOLUME II. A. Addenda. I. Sir Thomas Malory 335 II. "The Ninth Year op the Reign op King Edward IV." 336 III. " The Last Day of July, 1485 " 336 IV. Douce Fragments No. 10, Bodleian Library, Oxford 336 V. William Copland's Edition op 1557 . 337 VI. Additions to the "List op Names and Places" . 337 B. Corrigenda 338 LE MORTE DARTHUR;' BY ANDREW LANG, M.A. HE learning about Malory has been so fully dealt with in this edition by an expert, that the com- ments of one who merely reads Malory for enjoy- ment may be confined to the enjoyable elements in his work.

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