we may conclude the Idylls of the King,
the exquisite fragment entitled Morte
d'Arthur, and the other tales of the Round
Table to have been drawn by our poet, is
the volume of chivalric romances compiled
and translated by Sir Thomas Malory,
and published by William Caxton in the
year of grace 1485. This work is usually
called briefly, Morte d'Arthur; but the
original title-page is worth giving in
extenso:

"The Byrth, Lyf, and Actes of Kyng
Arthur; of his noble Knyghtes of the
Rounde Table, Theyr merveyllous
Enquestes and Aduentures, Thacheuyng (the
achieving) of the Sanc Greal; and in the
end Le Morte Darthur, with the dolourous
Deth and Departyng out of thys Worlde
of them Al."

A reprint of this work was published
by Messrs. Longman and Co. in 1817, to
which Robert Southey furnished an
introduction and notes. Caxton's original
edition was scrupulously followed, even to the
minutest peculiarities of its antique
orthography. The book has now become rare.
The modern edition was reprinted from a
copy of Caxton's first edition in the library
of Earl Spencer.

Sir Thomas Malory translated the tales
from the "frensshe" tongue. Southey says
that it is not satisfactorily ascertained
whether he made the compilation himself,
or merely translated from a ready-made
French compendium. "Nor," adds Mr.
Southey, "is it of importance, as there is
no claim to originality on his (Malory's)
part."

Caxton's preface is delightfully quaint.
The reader has heard of the Nine Worthies?
Nay, he must have done so. For Caxton—
with a little touch of Able-Editor's assumption,
that everybody knows everything except
just that which the Able-Editor has
to tell him—gravely declares that it is
"notoyrly knowen thorugh the vnyuersal
world, that there been IX worthy & the
best that euer were."

Of these nine worthies, three are Paynim,
three Jewish, and three Christian. The
pagan heroes are Hector of Troy (of whom,
Caxton says, the story is common "bothe
in balade and in prose"), Alexander the
Great, and Julius Caesar. The latter—lest
we should have any doubt as to his
identity—is expressly characterised as
"Emperour of Rome." The Jews are "Duke
Joshua," who led the children of Israel
into the Promised Land; David, King of
Jerusalem; and Judas Maccabæus. And
the three "noble Crysten men" are Arthur,
Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bouillon.
An assemblage as heterogeneous as that
immortalised in the Groves of Blarney, of
Plutarch, Venus, and Nebuchadnezzar.

The work is divided into twenty-one
books, containing altogether five hundred
and seven chapters. The number of
chapters in each book varies from six to fifty
and upwards. The title-page above quoted
furnishes a compendious statement of the
nature of the contents.

One consideration forced itself on the
mind of the present writer, after a patient
and attentive perusal of Malory's Morte
d'Arthur, and of an able compendium of an
ancient manuscript, containing the Life of
Merlin, and given in Mr. Ellis's Specimens
of Early English Metrical Romances; the
consideration, namely, that the poet of
1870 has risen to altitudes of moral beauty
undreamt of by the old romancers. There
are some who would fain have us believe
that Mr.Tennyson has injured his original
by detracting from its "exquisite simplicity."
If Mr.Tennyson had intended to
give us a faithful historic picture of the
British king, his courtiers, and warriors,
the reproach might be allowed to be just,
inasmuch as the manners and customs of
those worthies were—on the showing of
the romance writers—certainly characterised
in many instances by an amount of
"simplicity" which, however "exquisite,"
could scarcely be presented in a poem
intended for modern readers.

There are traits undoubtedly in these
stories of valour, truthfulness, magnanimity,
and fidelity. But there is also abundance
of savagery, treachery, bloodthirsty cruelty,
and a blunt, coarse sort of profligacy
untouched by any refining sentiment. The
different books of the Morte d'Arthur vary
greatly in these respects, and betray widely
different authors, even on the most cursory
inspection. But not in any one of them is
there even an approach to the conception
of such a character as that of the Laureate's
ideal Arthur—the "selfless man and stainless
gentleman!" The female characters
are still further removed from anything
which we can deem noble, pure, or lovable.

There are, moreover, traces of the most
ferocious cruelty scattered throughout the
romances. Mr. Southey, while noticing
this point, says, doubtless with much justice,
that the romance writers are rather to be
admired for not introducing bloodthirsty
cruelties more frequently than they have
done, seeing that the history of Europe in