Le Morte DArthur, vol 1 | Page 4

as well as by lack of liberty, surely no task was
ever better devised to while away weary hours. Leaving abundant scope
for originality in selection, modification, and arrangement, as a
compilation and translation it had in it that mechanical element which
adds the touch of restfulness to literary work. No original, it is said, has
yet been found for Book vii., and it is possible that none will ever be
forthcoming for chap. 20 of Book xviii., which describes the arrival of
the body of the Fair Maiden of Astolat at Arthur's court, or for
chap. 25 of the same book, with its discourse on true love; but the great
bulk of the work has been traced chapter by chapter to the ``Merlin'' of
Robert de Borron and his successors (Bks. i.-iv.), the English metrical
romance La Morte Arthur of the Thornton manuscript (Bk. v.), the
French romances of Tristan (Bks. viii.-x.) and of Launcelot (Bks. vi.,
xi.-xix.), and lastly to the English prose Morte Arthur of Harley MS.
2252 (Bks. xviii., xx., xxi.). As to Malory's choice of his authorities
critics have not failed to point out that now and again he gives a worse
version where a better has come down to us, and if he had been able to
order a complete set of Arthurian manuscripts from his bookseller, no
doubt he would have done even better than he did! But of the skill,
approaching to original genius, with which he used the books from
which he worked there is little dispute.
Malory died leaving his work obviously unrevised, and in this
condition it was brought to Caxton, who prepared it for the press with
his usual enthusiasm in the cause of good literature, and also, it must be
added, with his usual carelessness. New chapters are sometimes made

to begin in the middle of a sentence, and in addition to simple misprints
there are numerous passages in which it is impossible to believe that we
have the text as Malory intended it to stand. After Caxton's edition
Malory's manuscript must have disappeared, and subsequent editions
are differentiated only by the degree of closeness with which they
follow the first. Editions appeared printed by Wynkyn de Worde in
1498 and 1529, by William Copland in 1559, by Thomas East about
1585, and by Thomas Stansby in 1634, each printer apparently taking
the text of his immediate predecessor and reproducing it with
modifications. Stansby's edition served for reprints in 1816 and 1856
(the latter edited by Thomas Wright); but in 1817 an edition supervised
by Robert Southey went back to Caxton's text, though to a copy (only
two are extant, and only one perfect!) in which eleven leaves were
supplied from Wynkyn de Worde's reprint. In 1868 Sir Edward
Strachey produced for the present publishers a reprint of
Southey's text in modern spelling, with the substitution of current
words for those now obsolete, and the softening of a handful of
passages likely, he thought, to prevent the book being placed in the
hands of boys. In 1889 a boon was conferred on scholars by the
publication of Dr. H. Oskar Sommer's page-for-page reprint of Caxton's
text, with an elaborate discussion of Malory's sources. Dr. Sommer's
edition was used by Sir E. Strachey to revise his Globe text, and in
1897 Mr. Israel Gollancz produced for the ``Temple Classics'' a very
pretty edition in which Sir Edward Strachey's principles of
modernisation in spelling and punctuation were adopted, but with the
restoration of obsolete words and omitted phrases. As to the present
edition, Sir Edward Strachey altered with so sparing a hand that on
many pages differences between his version and that here printed will
be looked for in vain; but the most anxious care has been taken to
produce a text modernised as to its spelling, but in other respects in
accurate accordance with Caxton's text, as represented by Dr Sommer's
reprint. Obvious misprints have been silently corrected, but in a few
cases notes show where emendations have been introduced from
Wynkyn de Worde--not that Wynkyn had any more right to emend
Caxton than we, but because even a printer's conjecture gains a little
sanctity after four centuries. The restoration of obsolete words has
necessitated a much fuller glossary, and the index of names has

therefore been separated from it and enlarged. In its present form the
index is the work of Mr. Henry Littlehales. A. W. POLLARD.
PREFACE OF WILLIAM CAXTON
AFTER that I had accomplished and finished divers histories, as well
of contemplation as of other historial and worldly acts of great
conquerors and princes, and also certain books of ensamples and
doctrine, many noble and divers gentlemen of this realm of England
came and demanded me many and oft times, wherefore that I have not
do made