LE MORTE DARTHUR ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ LE MORTE DARTHUR _Sir Thomas Malory’s Book of King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table_ =The Text of Caxton= _EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION_ BY SIR EDWARD STRACHEY, BART. Si quando indigenas revocabo in carmina reges, Arturumque etiam sub terris bella moventem; Aut dicam invictae sociali foedere mensae Magnanimos Heroas.—MILTON. =London= MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1893 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Oxford HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TO FRANCES STRACHEY HER FATHER INSCRIBES THIS BOOK THE INTRODUCTION TO WHICH COULD NOT HAVE BEEN NOW RE-WRITTEN WITHOUT HER HELP IN MAKING THE EAR FAMILIAR WITH WORDS WHICH THE EYE CAN NO LONGER READ. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ADVERTISEMENT TO THE PRESENT EDITION. The Introduction to the first edition of this volume included an account of the Text in the various editions of Sir Thomas Malory’s ‘Morte Darthur,’ and an attempt to estimate the character and worth of his book. The publication of Dr. Sommer’s edition of the Text and Prolegomena, demands that I should complete my bibliography by an account of this important work; and it enables me, by help of this learned writer’s new information, to confirm, while enlarging, my former criticism. I have, therefore, revised and re-written the two first sections of the Introduction. The Essay on Chivalry remains, but for a few verbal changes, as it was first printed. SUTTON COURT, _November, 1891_. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. §1. THE AUTHORSHIP AND MATTER OF THE BOOK. PAGE