Le Morte Darthur: A Norton Critical Edition

by Sir Thomas Mallory

• ISBN13: 9780393974645
• ISBN10: 0393974642
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-10-03
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• More Book Details

Summary

No other edition accurately represents the actual (and likely authorial) divisions of the text as attested to by its two surviving witnesses#xE2;#x80;#x94;Caxton#xE2;#x80;#x99;s 1485 print and, especially, the famous Winchester Manuscript. The Winchester Manuscript is now generally agreed to be the more authentic of the two earlier texts. The Norton Critical Edition is the first edition of Malory to recover important elements of this manuscript: paragraphing marginal annotations hierarchies of narrative division as signaled by size and decorative intricacy of initial capitals and font changes The Norton Critical Edition also represents, in black-letter font, the striking rubrication of proper names in the Winchester Manuscript, reconstructing for readers something of an authentic medieval reading experience, one which gives visual support to Malory#xE2;#x80;#x99;s extraordinary representation, in character and setting, of a chivalric ideal. No other student edition of Malory contains such extensive contextual and critical support.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Acknowledgments	xv
Chronologies	xvii
Arthur Before Malory	xvii
The Wars of the Roses	xix
Malory: Life Events	xxiv
Receptions of Le Morte Darthur to 1934	xxvii
Reading Malory's English	xxxv
Editorial Procedure/Reading the Edition	xliii
Abbreviations	xlix
Page Numbers in This Edition Corresponding to Vinaver (O3) Section Titles	li
Le Morte Darthur or The Hoole Book of Kyng Arthur and of His Noble Knyghtes of the Rounde Table	1	(698)
Fro the Maryage of Kynge Uther unto Kyng Arthure that Regned Aftir Hym and Ded Many Batayles	3	(110)
How Uther Pendragon Gate the Noble Conqueror Kyng Arthur	3	(37)
The Tale of Balyn and Balan	40	(22)
The Weddyng of Kyng Arthur	62	(16)
Aftir Thes Questis	78	(35)
The Noble Tale Betwyxt Kynge Arthure and Lucius the Emperour of Rome	113	(38)
A Noble Tale of Sir Launcelot Du Lake	151	(26)
The Tale of Sir Gareth of Orkeney	177	(51)
The Fyrste and the Secunde Boke of Syr Trystrams De Lyones	228	(268)
The Noble Tale of the Sankgreal	496	(92)
The Tale of Sir Launcelot and Quene Gwenyvere	588	(58)
The Dethe of Arthur	646	(53)
Sources and Backgrounds	699	(96)
Sources	705	(1)
The Prose Merlin	705	(4)
Merlin's Conception and Birth	705	(2)
The Conception of the Round Table	707	(2)
The Suite de Merlin	709	(5)
The Dolorous Stroke	709	(2)
The Lake of Diana; Ninianne Increasingly Ensnares Merlin	711	(3)
The Alliterative Morte Arthure	714	(5)
Arthur's Dream of the Dragon and the Bear	714	(2)
The End of the Battle of the Prisoner-Escort	716	(1)
The Death of Gawain; Mordred's Threnody	717	(2)
The Chronicle of John Hardyng	719	(1)
The Coronation of Arthur at Rome	719	(1)
The Prose Lancelot	720	(4)
The First Meeting of Lancelot and Guinevere	720	(2)
Mistaken Identity	722	(1)
Lancelot Rescues a Maiden	723	(1)
Perlesvaus	724	(2)
Lancelot at the Perilous Chapel	724	(2)
The Prose Tristan	726	(7)
The Philtre Takes Effect	726	(1)
Brangain and the Serfs	727	(1)
Iseut of the White Hands	728	(1)
The Mortal Lay	729	(4)
The Queste del Saint Graal	733	(7)
The Hermit Explains the Temptation of Perceval	733	(1)
Lancelot's Genealogy	734	(2)
The Tree of Life	736	(2)
Galahad Dies	738	(2)
The Stanzaic Morte Arthur	740	(7)
Launcelot in the Queen's Chambers	740	(2)
Gawain's Objection to the Queen's Execution	742	(1)
Launcelot Responds to His Besiegers	742	(1)
Launcelot Hopes for Peace	742	(1)
Arthur Finds Gawain Already Dead	743	(1)
Arthur's Dream of the Wheel of Fortune	743	(1)
The Death of Arthur	744	(1)
The Death of Launcelot	745	(2)
The Death of the Queen; Conclusion	747	(1)
The Morte le Roi Artu	747	(12)
The Maid of Escalot	747	(3)
Lancelot in the Queen's Chambers	750	(2)
Gawain's Objection to the Queen's Execution	752	(1)
The Death of Gawain	752	(1)
Arthur's Last Dreams	753	(2)
The Death of Arthur	755	(2)
The Death of the Queen	757	(1)
The Death of Lancelot	757	(2)
Backgrounds	759	(1)
Responses to the Times	759	(1)
The Berkeley Letters	759	(4)
Isabel, Lady Berkeley, Warns Lord Berkeley of Plans to Seize His Lands	760	(1)
Lord Berkeley Agrees to Trial by Combat with Viscount Lisle	761	(2)
The Paston Letters	763	(5)
Lord Moleyns Seizes Gresham Manor and Other Paston Holdings	764	(2)
Moleyns's Men Threaten to Abduct Margaret Paston; Other Threats to Paston Holdings	766	(2)
Contemporary Accounts of the Wars of the Roses	768	(9)
The Register of Abbot John Whetamstede	768	(1)
The Duke of York Claims the Throne and is Rejected (c. October 10, 1460)	768	(1)
Gregory's Chronicle	769	(1)
On Battles of Mortimer's Cross and Second St. Albans, February 2--17, 1461	769	(3)
Letter to Francesco Coppini on the Battle of Towton	772	(2)
George Neville
Edward IV's Act of Attainder, December 16, 1461	774	(3)
Chivalry in Principle	777	(8)
The Buke of Knychthede	777	(1)
Gilbert Hay
Properties of the Noble Order and Office of Knychthede	777	(3)
How Knyghtis of the Bath Shulde Be Made	780	(3)
Oath of a Herald	783	(2)
Tournament and Battle	785	(10)
Knights at Tournament: The 15th Century	785	(6)
Christopher Gravett
Agincourt, 25 October 1415	791	(4)
John Keegan
Criticism	795	(112)
Malory and Rape	797	(17)
Catherine Batt
Prologue and Epilogue to the 1485 Edition	814	(5)
William Caxton
Counter-Romance: Civil Strife and Father-Killing in the Prose Romances	819	(11)
Helen Cooper
The Rhetoric of Dialogue	830	(5)
P. J. C. Field
Enchanted Ground: The Feminine Subtext in Malory	835	(14)
Geraldine Heng
Shame and Guilt	849	(7)
Mark Lambert
On Malory's Style	856	(9)
Terence McCarthy
Manuscripts, Readers, and Patrons in Fifteenth-Century England: Sir Thomas Malory and Arthurian Romance	865	(17)
Carol Meale
Divisions	882	(12)
Felicity Riddy
Mellyagant's Primal Scene	894	(13)
Paul Strohm
Glossary	907	(32)
Selected Guide to Proper Names	939	(6)
Selected Bibliography	945