Malory
contents of this chapter:
-
source for examples
Malory's life
texts of Morte d'Arthur
All the example sentences in this thesis are taken from the corpus version of Thomas
Malory's Morte d'Arthur (Death of Arthur.) This is because Malory is the most accessible
of all the authors represented in the Middle English corpus. The Morte d'Arthur is a cycle
of Arthurian legends that makes enjoyable reading, especially compared to the dense
sermons, theological tracts, and legal documents that make up much of the corpus.
Malory wrote in the East Midlands dialect during the last period of Middle English.
Because of this his work can usually be "read off the page" (without translation)
by educated 20th century English speakers.
Thomas Malory was born in Warwickshire, England in the early 1400's. He inherited his
father's estate at Newbold Revell in about 1433, and served as member of Parliament for
Warwickshire in 1445. But a few years later he was sent to prison, where he would spend
most of his adult life, on charges ranging from theft to rape to attempted murder. He was
imprisoned at least eight times and escaped from jail twice. In the 1460's, Malory was out
of prison long enough to fight on the (then losing) Lancastrian side of the Wars of the Roses.
In later years, there were general pardons issued to the Lancastrians that specifically
excluded Malory. Since these other political prisoners were freed but not Malory, it lends
some credence to the idea that the charges against him were not just politically motivated,
but had some real basis. He wrote Morte d'Arthur during his final imprisonment at
Newgate, where he died and was buried in 1471.
In 1485, the Lancastrians triumphed with the death of Richard III, ending
decades of conflict.
(source: Works, Malory, Eugene
Vinaver, ed. 1971.)
In 1485 a printer named Caxton published Le Morte d'Arthur . For centuries this was the
standard version of the text. Then in 1934 a manuscript of Morte d'Arthur was discovered
in the Fellows' Library of Winchester College. This manuscript is roughly contemporary
with Caxton's printed edition but appears to be much closer to what Malory actually wrote.
The Winchester manuscript is the basis of Eugène Vinaver's critical edition of Malory
which is now the scholarly standard.