Thomas Malory

THOMAS MALORY’S
MORTE DARTHUR
MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD

THE TEXT & ITS CONTEXT
· 15th century text known both as Le Morte Darthur, or simply, Morte Darthur
· Translates as “Death of King Arthur”
· Based on the legend of King Arthur & the first of its kind in English prose
· Arthurian legend is the body of stories and medieval romances centring on the
legendary King Arthur.
· Medieval writers, especially the French, variously treated stories of Arthur’s birth, the
adventures of his knights, and the adulterous love between his knight Sir Lancelot and
his queen, Guinevere.
· This last situation and the quest for the Holy Grail (the vessel used by Christ at the Last
Supper and given to Joseph of Arimathea) brought about the dissolution of the knightly
fellowship, the death of Arthur, and the destruction of his kingdom.
· Knightly fellowship means the Knights of the Round Table
KING ARTHUR & THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE
· Round Table: quite literally, the table of King Arthur: but has symbolic significance
· Round table meant that none of his barons, when seated at it, could claim precedence
over the others
· Knights of the Round Table: It served to provide the knights of Arthur’s court with a
name and a collective personality
· The fellowship of the Round Table, in fact, became comparable to, and in many respects
the prototype of, the many great orders of chivalry that were founded in Europe
during the later Middle Ages
· By the late 15th century, when Sir Thomas Malory wrote his Le Morte Darthur, the
notion of chivalry was inseparable from that of a great military brotherhood established
in the household of some great prince
CHIVALRY
· From French, c. 11th century, literally “horsemanship”
· Knights, noblemen, and horsemen collectively
· The primary sense of the term in Europe in the Middle Ages is “knights,”
or “fully armed and mounted fighting men.”
· In the Middle Ages, the religious and moral system of behaviour that the
perfect knight was expected to follow: “the age of chivalry”
· the sum of the ideal qualifications of a knight, including courtesy,
generosity, valor, and dexterity in arms.
· Later-day / narrow meaning: polite and kind behaviour that shows a
sense of honour, especially by men towards women
ARTISTIC DEPICTIONS
KING ARTHUR A KNIGHT
MORTE DARTHUR
· Text completed by Sir Thomas Malory about 1470 AD & printed by William Caxton in 1485
AD
· It retells the adventures of the knights of the Round Table in chronological sequence from
the birth of Arthur
· Malory’s text based on French romances
· Malory’s account differs from his French sources/models in its emphasis on the brotherhood
of the knights rather than on courtly love, and on the conflicts of loyalty (brought about by
the adultery of Lancelot and Guinevere) that finally destroy the fellowship
· Malory wrote ‘The Death of Arthur’ during 1469 while imprisoned for a series of violent
crimes
· Died in 1471
· The chivalry of Arthur’s world was a far cry from Malory’s own, which was torn by war
between the noble dynasties of York and Lancaster (War of the Roses)
SIR THOMAS MALORY
· The identity of Thomas Malory is shrouded in mystery
· In the book, he describes himself as ‘knight prisoner’
· Generally believed to have been the same Sir Thomas Malory who inherited estates in
1434, aged around 24 years
· Led the unremarkable life of a country gentleman until 1450
· Suddenly, for unknown reasons, he turned to a life of crime
· Attempt to murder a Duke, terrorising monks, extortion, plunder, theft, rape, menaces
· Arrested and spent most of the 1450s in various prisons without ever coming to trial
· Escaped twice and was bailed out on two other occasions
· Malory was one of a number of gang leaders who exploited the increasing breakdown
of law and order across England
POLITICAL SITUATION IN ENGLAND
· Central government was weak under Emperor Henry VI, who suffered from bouts of insanity
· Local disorder thrived
· Richard, Duke of York ruled as Regent during the illness of Henry VI, who came from the house of
Lancaster
· When Henry recovered in 1455, Richard refused to relinquish power
· Civil war broke out as the houses of York and Lancaster fought for the throne in the Wars of the Roses
· By 1462, Malory had been released from prison and was fighting with the powerful Earl of Warwick on
the side of the Yorkists
· When Warwick later switched his allegiance to the Lancastrian cause, Malory followed — a political
miscalculation.
· In 1468, he was specifically excluded from the list of Lancastrians granted pardon by the new Yorkist
king, Edward IV ‒ Malory was back in prison
· During this imprisonment, in London’s Newgate Prison, Malory began occupying his time in writing
the work he called “the whole book of King Arthur and his noble knights of the Round Table”
· William Caxton retitled the text Le Morte Darthur
WHY MALORY WROTE MORTE DARTHUR
· Despite the upheavals of Malory’s day, there was a strong revival of interest in chivalry
and in Britain’s past
· The adventures of Arthur’s knights epitomised the self-same aristocratic values that
were being eroded by the political opportunism of the War of the Roses
· Loyalty had become an endangered virtue
· In his narrative, Malory compares the behaviour of its lords and ladies to that of
contemporary nobility
· He criticises the current reluctance to reward faithful service – an injustice he felt
particularly keenly, no doubt, as he languished in jail
· Wars of Roses (1455-1485): White Rose represented the House of York & Red Rose
represented the House of Lancaster

Thomas Malory

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Thomas Malory

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Thomas Malory

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

THOMAS MALORY’S

MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD

You might also like

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.