The Boy's King Arthur - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1919 edition. Excerpt: ... treason," said Sir Tristram, "for it killeth my heart to hear this tale." "So doth it mine," said Sir Gareth; "brethren as they be mine, I shall never love them nor draw me to their fellowship for that deed." "Now speak we of other deeds," said Sir Palamides, "and let him be, for his life ye may not get again." "That is the more pity," said Sir Dinadan, "for Sir Gawaine and his brethren (except you, Sir Gareth) hate all the good knights of the Round Table for the most part; for well I wot, and they might privily, they hate my lord Sir Launcelot and all his kin, and great privy despite they have at him, and that is my lord Sir Launcelot well ware of, and that causeth him to have the good knights of his kindred about him." "Sir," said Palamides, "let us leave off this matter, and let us see how we shall do at this tournament. By mine advice," said Palamides, "let us four hold together against ail that will come." Copyright by Charles Scribner's Sons " They Jought with him on foot more than three hours, both before him and behind him" "Not by my counsel," said Sir Tristram, "for I see by their pavilions there will be four hundred knights, and doubt ye not," said Sir Tristram, "but there will be many good knights, and be a man never so valiant nor so big yet he may be over-matched. And so I have seen knights done many times: and when they wend best to have won worship they lost it. For manhood is not worth but if it be meddled mingled with wisdom: and as for me," said Sir Tristram, "it may happen I shall keep mine own head as well as another." So thus they rode until that they came to Humber bank, where they heard a cry and a doleful noise. Then were they ware in the wind where came a rich vessel covered over with red silk, and the vessel...

Scholars have determined that there were at least six Thomas Malorys alive in the 1400s when Le Morte d'Arthur was written. Considerable evidence points to the likeliest author as one Sir Thomas Malory or Maleore of Newbold Revell in Warwickshire, who was born in the first quarter of the fifteenth century. A member of the gentry, he became a soldier in the service of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, with whom he fought in the siege of Calais in 1436. In records of the period he is accused of various crimes--including armed robbery, attempted murder, and rape--and he is said to have executed several dramatic escapes from prison.
Several things about Malory seem indisputable. As in Arthur's time when post-Roman Britain was in a state of fierce tribal war, he lived in an age of great unrest. Europe was still recovering from the Black Plague and a century of war. In England, two powerful families fought for the throne. Although he may have been a scoundrel, Malory was also, it seems clear, a man of ideals who believed in courage and loyalty, and who mourned the passing of chivalry. Incarcerated for long periods, he had many hours to fill his imagination with French romances and tales of chivalry, volumes of which were readily at hand. It is thought that Le Morte d'Arthur was written during his imprisonment.
Malory referred to himself as a 'knight-prisoner.' With a military man's passion for the details of conquest, a prisoner's sense of injustice, and a penitent's desire for redemption, he dedicated himself wholeheartedly to this retelling of the Arthurian legends. Sir Thomas Malory died, it is presumed, around 1471.