‘Thus endeth this noble & joyous booke entytled _La_ Mort _dathur_.
Notwythstanding it treateth of the byrth, lyf & actes of the sayd
Kynge Arthur, _&_ of his noble knyghtes of the Rounde Table, theyr
marueyllous Enquestes & aduentures, thacheyuyng of the _Sang real_,
and in the ende _le Morte darthur with_ the dolourous deth and
departyng out of thys worlde of them al. Whiche booke was reduced
in to Englysshe by Syr Thomas Malory knyght _as afore is sayd_, and
by me deuyded in to xxi bookes chaptyred and emprynted and
fynysshed in thabbey Westmestre the last day of July the yere of
our lord MCCCCLXXXV. _Caxton me fieri fecit._’
On a comparison of these colophons we see that the article _La_ is only
in Ames: the spelling of _dathur_ is peculiar to Wynkyn de Worde, who
has it also in another passage; the words _le Morte darthur with_ are
in the Harleian Catalogue only: _as afore is said_ is in neither of
these, but it is in Ames: the peculiar mode of writing _Sang real_[47],
and the spelling of _chaptyred_, _emprynted_, _July_, are those of the
Harleian Catalogue: the _&_ introduced after _Arthur_ in the second
line is only in Upcott. _Caxton me fieri fecit_ is in Ames, but not in
the Harleian Catalogue.
When I say in Ames or the Harleian Catalogue only, it will be
understood that I include with the colophon of the former its
modernised copy in Dibdin; and with that of the latter its copies in
Herbert and the Biographia Britannica; the references to all which I
have given in the passage of the Introduction to which this is a Note.
The first words of the colophon are omitted in the Harleian Catalogue,
which gives it as the title of the book, as do the Biographia
Britannica and Herbert. The framer of the Catalogue probably quotes
directly, though inaccurately, from the Harleian (now the Osterley)
Morte Darthur: and Ames must have made his extract independently from
the same volume. Dibdin attributes both the Harleian Catalogue and the
article in the Biographia Britannica to Oldys.
-----
Footnote 1:
‘A braver soldier never couched lance,
A gentler heart did never sway in court.’
First part of _Henry VI._ iii. 2.
Footnote 2:
_Le Morte Darthur_, edited from the Harleian MS. 2252, in the British
Museum, by F. T. Furnivall, 1864.
Footnote 3:
The council of devils seems to have suggested that in _Paradise Lost_.
Footnote 4:
Geoffrey of Monmouth afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph wrote, or as he
tells us, translated from a work in the British tongue his _Historiae
Brithonum_ early in the 12th century.
Footnote 5:
Itinerary, ii. pp. 38, 39; Hearne, 1711.
Footnote 6:
Somersetshire Illustrated, by John Strachey, MS. 1736.
Footnote 7:
Polyolbion, 3rd Song.
Footnote 8:
Camelot: a Lecture delivered in 1889 by the Rev. J. H. Bennett. See
also Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archæological Society, 1890.
Footnote 9:
_Gervasii Tilburiensis Otia Imperialia_, Decisio ii. cap. xii, de
Insulis Mediterranei, in vol. I of ‘Scriptores Rerum Brunsvicensium
Illustrationi inservientes: Cura G. G. Leibnitzii, Hanov. MDCCVII.’
Gervase of Tilbury wrote about the beginning of the thirteenth
century. He was at the Peace of Venice in 1177 A. D.; was Chancellor
and Marshall of the kingdom of Arles about the year 1200; and died in
1235.
Footnote 10:
‘Renaissance in Italy,’ by J. A. Symonds, iv. 17.
Footnote 11:
The passage, which also recounts the names of Ewaine, Gawaine, and
Launcelot du Lac, is found in a charming episode in ‘The Complaynt of
Scotland’ (written in 1548, and edited in 1801 by G. J. Leyden), in
which the author tells how he went into the country to refresh his
weary mind and body, and there fell in with a party of shepherds and
shepherds’ wives and servants, who amused themselves with telling a
number of stories, classical and romantic, of which he gives the
names. It is a prose idyll, which reminds us of the Canterbury Tales,
and the Vision of Piers Plowman, in the love of nature and the love
of story-telling which it displays. Here, and in the passage from
Gervase, I quote from the originals; but my attention was first
directed to these by Sir George Webb Dasent’s quotations in his
‘Popular Tales from the Norse,’ p. xxix.
Footnote 12:
Roquefort, Glossaire de Langue Romane, art. ‘Graal:’ where are also
given the original passages from the first three romances named in
the text.
Footnote 13:
_Caffari Annales Genuenses_ in Muratori’s _Italicarum Rerum
Scriptores_, Tom. VI: Bent’s _Genoa_; and Dunlop’s _History of
Fiction_, edited by H. Wilson, Vol. I, Supplementary Note on the
Sangreal.
Footnote 14:
‘Pall Mall Gazette’ of June 23, 1868.
Footnote 15:
‘The Schoolmaster,’ by Roger Ascham; Book I. The Schoolmaster was
published by his widow, in 1570.
Footnote 16:
‘Oh, may my lot grant such a friend who knows
The art to crown with bays a poet’s brows,
If ever in the coming time my lay
Our native kings shall call again to-day,
Shall call up Arthur, even in worlds below
Preparing wars against the heathen foe;
Or tell of that great fellowship renown’d
The high-souled heroes of the Table Round,
And break, if God his present aid affords,
The Saxons’ serried bands with British swords.’
It is curious to note that Milton with all his learning should, like
Malory and Caxton, have spoken of the Britons as English, and the
Saxons as foreigners—a popular misuse of names which still makes the
Lowland Scotch complain if they are called English instead of
British, though they are in fact more English than the English in
language and in blood.
Footnote 17:
‘There be 2 Lordshipps lyenge not very far from _Ripon_ ... _Malory_
hath _Hutton Coniers_. Thes Lands cam to their Aunciters by two
Dowghtars, Heirs generall of that _Coniers_. _Malory_ hath another
place caullyd _Highe Studly_, a litle from Fountaines.’ Leland’s
Itinerary, viii. 2. p. 55. Hearne, 1712.
Footnote 18:
These two dates are obligingly given me by G. W. Tomlinson, Esq.,
Secretary of the Yorkshire Archæological Society.
Footnote 19:
Noble’s Spanish Armada List, 1886, p. 42.
Footnote 20:
Brown’s Genesis of the United States, 1890. Vol. I, p. 211; Vol. II,
p. 940.
Footnote 21:
Burton’s Description of Leicestershire, pp. 140, 262.
Footnote 22:
Kirby’s Register of the Wardens, Fellows, and Scholars of Winchester,
1888, quoted by Mr. L. Johnson in the Academy, September 20th, 1890.
Footnote 23:
Le Morte Darthur, edited by H. Oskar Sommer, Ph.D. Vol. III, p. 335.
Footnote 24:
‘The Biography and Typography of William Caxton, England’s First
Printer,’ by William Blades, 8vo, 1877, p. 22. In this, and in his
larger work, ‘Life and Typography of William Caxton, England’s First
Printer,’ 2 vols. 4to, 1861-1863, Mr. Blades has given a very learned
and complete history of Caxton and his times so far as they relate to
him.
Footnote 25:
‘like a circle in the water,
Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself
Till by broad spreading it do reach the bank.’
See First part of King Henry VI, i. 2, and the Variorum notes thereon.
Footnote 26:
Englishmen, who feel shame and sorrow for the loss of the only
perfect first copy of our National Epic, may yet be glad to know it
has an honoured place with our worthier kinsfolk across the Atlantic,
in the rich library and museum of Mr. and Mrs. Abby Pope:
‘And, so sepulchred, in such pomp doth lie,
That kings, for such a tomb, would wish to die.’
Footnote 27:
Dibdin’s Typographical Antiquities, 1810, vol. i, pp. 242, 254.
Footnote 28:
Dibdin’s Supplement to the Bibliotheca Spenceriana, vol. ii. p. 213;
or Ædes Althorpianæ, vol. vi. p. 213. I would here express my thanks
to Earl Spencer for sending to the British Museum for my use his
Caxton, and his unique copy of Wynkyn de Worde’s first edition of
Morte Darthur, as also for favouring me with details of information
respecting the former; and to the Earl of Jersey for permitting me to
examine his Caxton at Osterley.
Footnote 29:
‘Caxton followed the usage of the scribes in this particular; for,
with one exception only, and at the very end of his career, where the
title of the book is printed alone in the centre of the first page,
his books appear without any title page whatever. Wynkyn de Worde
adopted the use of title-pages immediately after the death of his
master.’ Biography and Typography of William Caxton, England’s first
printer, p. 45. By William Blades, 1877.
Footnote 30:
As the passage is worth preserving I have given it at the end of the
volume, Note A, p. 488.
Footnote 31:
Vol. i, p. xxviii.
Footnote 32:
Ibid. p. lviii.
Footnote 33:
The pages are vol. i, p. 167, line 18, to p. 169, line 17; p. 275,
third line from bottom, to p. 279, line 5 from bottom; vol. ii, p.
202, line 13, to p. 204, line 14; p. 446, line 5, to end of 455.
Footnote 34:
An account of these interpolations was given by me in the Athenæum of
Sept. 7 and Dec. 10, 1867, and Feb. 10, 1868.
Footnote 35:
Typographical Antiquities, by Ames and Herbert, 1785, vol. i, p. 61;
Ibid. enlarged by Dibdin, 1810, vol. i, p. 253. The ‘Additions’ are
at the end of vol. iii. of Herbert’s edition.
Footnote 36:
Catalogus Bibl. Harleianæ, 1744, vol. iii, no. 372.
Footnote 37:
See note B at the end of the volume, p. 488.
Footnote 38:
Even the learned M.M. Gaston Paris and Ulrich, say, in reference to
editions of Le Morte Darthur, ‘La plus commode à lire, parce que le
langage y est discrètement rajeuni, est l’édition donnée chez
Macmillan en 1868 par Sir Edw. Strachey.’
Footnote 39:
Sybel’s History of the Crusades, English Translation, p. 11.
Footnote 40:
For this distinction I am indebted to my friend the late Rev. F. D.
Maurice, whose genius lights up every subject it approaches.
Footnote 41:
Valiant.
Footnote 42:
Having gone to find adventures in Prussia with the Teutonic knights
who carried on war with the still Pagan Lithuania, he had been often
placed at the head of the table above the like adventurers from other
nations, in compliment to his especial merit.
Footnote 43:
Ridden in arms.
Footnote 44:
Praise.
Footnote 45:
It appears from Morte Arthur, p. 474, that London was the proper
place to go to, ‘to buy all manner of things that longed unto a
wedding.’
Footnote 46:
For facts my principal authorities—whose words I have frequently
availed myself of—are Mills’s History of Chivalry, which alone
almost exhausts the subject; Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire; Godwin’s Life of Chaucer; Scott’s Essay on Chivalry; Lord
Berner’s Froissart; and Southey’s Introduction to Amadis of Gaul.
Footnote 47:
The division of the word indicates that the writer adopts the
plausible notion that Sangreal means Real (or Royal) Blood; and no
doubt in ancient as well as modern times the spelling and sound would
suggest this meaning: but Roquefort shows clearly that the other is
the proper explanation, both in etymology and (so to speak)
historically. And Helinand, a monk of Fromont (A.D. 717), gives the
Latin _Gradale_, which supplies the link between _Graal_ and _Crater_
from which Roquefort derives the former. Helinand’s words are,—‘Hoc
tempore, in Britannia, cuidam eremitae monstrata est mirabilis
quaedam visio per angelum de sancto Josepho decurione nobili qui
corpus Domini deposuit de cruce, et de catino illo vel paropside in
quo Dominus coenavit cum discipulis suis; de qua ab eodem eremita
descripta est historia quae dicitur _de Gradal_. _Gradalis_ autem vel
_Gradale_ dicitur Gallicè scutella lata et aliquantulum profunda in
qua pretiosae dapes, cum suo jure, divitibus solent apponi, et
dicitur nomine _Graal_.... Hanc historiam latine scriptam invenire
non potui, sed tantum Gallicè scripta habetur a quibusdam proceribus,
nec facile ut aiunt tota inveniri potest.’ Helinandi Historia, quoted
in L’Essai Historique et Literaire sur l’Abbaye de Fécamp par Leroux
de Lincy, Rouen, 1840.
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