The said noble gentlemen instantly required me to imprint the history
of the said noble king and conqueror King Arthur, and of his knights,
with the history of the Saint Greal, and of the death and ending of the
said Arthur; affirming that I ought rather to imprint his acts and
noble feats, than of Godfrey of Boloine, or any of the other eight,
considering that he was a man born within this realm, and king and
emperor of the same: and that there be in French divers and many noble
volumes of his acts, and also of his knights. To whom I answered that
divers men hold opinion that there was no such Arthur, and that all
such books as been made of him be feigned and fables, because that some
chronicles make of him no mention, nor remember him nothing, nor of his
knights. Whereto they answered, and one in special said, that in him
that should say or think that there was never such a king called Arthur
might well be aretted great folly and blindness. For he said that there
were many evidences of the contrary. First ye may see his sepulchre in
the monastery of Glastonbury. And also in Policronicon, in the fifth
book the sixth chapter, and in the seventh book the twenty-third
chapter, where his body was buried, and after found, and translated
into the said monastery. Ye shall see also in the history of Bochas, in
his book De Casu Principum, part of his noble acts, and also of his
fall. Also Galfridus in his British book recounteth his life: and in
divers places of England many remembrances be yet of him, and shall
remain perpetually, and also of his knights. First in the abbey of
Westminster, at St. Edward’s shrine, remaineth the print of his seal in
red wax closed in beryl, in which is written, Patricius Arthurus
Britannie, Gallie, Germanie, Dacie, Imperator. Item in the castle of
Dover ye may see Gawaine’s skull, and Cradok’s mantle: at Winchester
the Round Table: in other places Launcelot’s sword and many other
things. Then all these things considered, there can no man reasonably
gainsay but there was a king of this land named Arthur. For in all
places, Christian and heathen, he is reputed and taken for one of the
nine worthy, and the first of the three Christian men. And also, he is
more spoken of beyond the sea, more books made of his noble acts, than
there be in England, as well in Dutch, Italian, Spanish, and Greekish,
as in French. And yet of record remain in witness of him in Wales, in
the town of Camelot, the great stones and the marvellous works of iron
lying under the ground, and royal vaults, which divers now living have
seen. Wherefore it is a marvel why he is no more renowned in his own
country, save only it accordeth to the Word of God, which saith that no
man is accepted for a prophet in his own country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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