King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table: From Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur

Sir Thomas Malory, 1405 - 1471 Sir Thomas Malory's works (consisting of the legends of Sir Lancelot, Sir Gareth, Sir Tristram, and the Holy Grail, as well as the stories of King Arthur's coming to the throne, his wars with the Emperor Lucius, and his death) are the most influential expression of Arthurian material in English. The author's sources are principally French romances; his own contributions are substantial, however, and the result is a vigorous and resonant prose. "Le Morte d'Arthur," finished between March 1469 and March 1470, was first printed in 1485 by William Caxton, the earliest English printer. Malory is presumed to have been a knight from an old Warwickshire family, who inherited his father's estates about 1433 and spent 20 years of his later life in jail accused of various crimes. The discovery of a manuscript version of "Le Morte d'Arthur" in 1934 in the library of Winchester College, supported the identification of Malory the author with Malory the traitor, burglar, and rapist. It showed that many of the inconsistencies in the printed text were traceable to the printing house rather than to the author. The most reliable modern version, therefore, is one like Eugene Vinaver's that is based on the Winchester manuscript. Lanier was the foremost poet of the nineteenth-century South. Born in Macon, Georgia, he interrupted his education at Oglethorpe University to join the Confederate army. Taken prisoner, he developed tuberculosis, which led to a continual struggle with poor health and, ultimately, to his early death. The novel Tiger Lilies (1867) is based on his Civil War experiences. Throughout his life he was interested in both music and poetry. He played first flute in Baltimore's Peabody Symphony Orchestra, and his poetry reflects the connection he saw between music and verse. His greatest poem, "The Marshes of Glynn" (1878), is considered "a symphony without musical score." He lectured on the relationship of music and poetry at Johns Hopkins University and published The Science of English Verse (1880), which claimed that the laws of poetry and music were the same. Other lectures, including Shakespeare and His Forerunners (1902), were published by his widow. The work Lanier completed and the many fragments he left suggest a far greater potential than he was able to fulfill in his short life.