¹ The Works of Sir Thomas Malory, 3 vols. (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1947), pp. 1521–22. All page references within the text of this article are to Vinaver's ed. and are marked both by page and by line reference thus: (p./l.).

² Ibid., p. xxxii. For a review of critical reaction to Vinaver's theory see R. M. Lumiansky, “The Question of Unity in Malory's Morte Darthur,” Tulane Studies in English, v (1955), 29–39, and the sources cited by Robert H. Wilson in “How Many Books Did Malory Write,” Univ. of Texas Studies in English, xxx (1951), 1–23.

³ See P. E. Tucker, “The Place of the ‘Quest of the Holy Grail’ in the ‘Morte Darthur’,” MLR, xlvii (1953), 391–397, for a general discussion of the foreshadowings of the Grail quest in the first 5 sections of the Morte Darthur and of the effects of the Grail quest upon later sections of the book.

⁴ Tucker, p. 391, states that he believes the Grail quest to be a turning point in Malory's conception of Launcelot's character and hence in the thematic movement of the Morte Darthur. My reference here and elsewhere to the theme and pattern of the whole Morte Darthur derives from a conjecture held, if I read aright, by Tucker, D. S. Brewer (“Form in the ‘Morte Darthur’,” Medium Æmm, xxi [1952], 14–24), C. S. Lewis (“Review of Sir Thomas Wyatt and Some Collected Essays by E. K. Chambers,” Medium Mourn, in, 238–239), R. M. Lumiansky, and the late Charles Williams (see n. 12 below) that Malory in the Morte Darthur is systematically chronicling the rise, decay, and fall of a secular civilization.

⁵ For instances of Malory's reductions of the elaborate theological commentaries of the hermits see Vinaver's text 882/28 ff., 892/7 ft., 898/8 ff., 927/10 ff., 945/10 ff., and 990/22 ff.

⁶ The Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romances: Volume VI, Les Aventures Ou La Queste del Saint Graal, Carnegie Inst, of Washington: Publ. No. 74, vi (1913), 72–73. Page references in this article to the French text are to this ed. and are marked (F—). The only other modern ed. of Malory's source for the Grail section of the Morte Darthur is that by Albert Pauphilet for the Classiques français du moyen âge in 1923. In those passages considered here, the two eds. are in agreement.

⁷ That Malory's task was not to “secularize” the Grail may be demonstrated by the fact that in three places (888/12 ff., 891/10, 997/15) he cuts away needless battle detail. Plainly, Malory wishes to cut away all unnecessary material, be it religious or secular.

⁸ I note one possible exception to this general statement: in the Gawain section a hermit condemns the court “for their synne and their wyckednesse” (946/18). The French source reads “par lor luxure et par lor orgueil.” It may be, however, that Malory felt his general rendering to be a stronger indictment of the court than was the statement found in the source, especially in the substitution of “wyckednesse” for “orgueil.”

⁹ Tucker (p. 393), in discussing Launcelot's pride, states that Malory “magnifies Launcelot's sense of his own prowess until it becomes a fault in his knighthood.”

¹⁰ Tucker, in discussing Launcelot's character, also regards Launcelot's instability as his chief sin. Tucker views Launcelot as wavering between two sorts of chivalry—“good” (that directed by the chivalric code and represented by the Grail) and “bad” (that directed by his love for Guinevere). On the other hand, I would prefer to see Launcelot wavering not between two degrees of chivalry, but between his own avowed conception of chivalry as a secular ideal (and this would include his love for Guinevere) and a religious ideal which itself transcends chivalry. Tucker also contends that Malory “was already uneasy over the connexion of love and chivalry when he came to the quest” and that because “he found Launcelot condemned as the knight-lover, but being certain that knighthood was a noble ideal, he began to distinguish between good chivalry and bad.” This thesis, however, seems to me to ignore a distinction important to the interpretation of the whole Morte Darthur, that Malory did not condemn love as a part of the knightly code (see Malory's own “Tale of Sir Gareth”), but instead condemned the adultery which was an integral part of the system of courtly love as he found it reflected in his French source.

¹¹ The italics represent Malory's addition. For other instances of the changes which Malory makes in his source in order to emphasize Launcelot's instability, see 948/23 ff. (a hermit's statement that Launcelot “ys not stable”); 897/17 ff. (Launcelot's own statement that he has always done battle “were hit ryght other wrong”); 1011/31 ff. (the famous passage in which Launcelot, “somewhat wery of the [holy] shippe,” goes “to play hym by the watirs side”); and 1204/3 ff. (Launcelot's statement that in him “was nat all the stabilité of thys realme”). Other passages cited by Tucker occur on pp. 931–935. Vinaver condemns nearly all of these additions as, e.g., his comments on the 1st (p. 1551) and 3rd (p. lxxxvii) of those mentioned above, on the grounds that they are “out of keeping with the spirit and letter of the French” (p. 1551).

¹² Charles Williams, in the elaborate reconstruction of the Arthurian cycle contained in Taliessin through Logres, The Region of the Summer Stars, and the fragmentary Figure of Arthur, makes much the same point concerning the functions of Bors and Galahad. It will be seen, however, that Williams' approach to and point of view toward the legend differ greatly from mine here. Williams, especially in the poetry, is interested in remaking the Arthurian materials according to certain personally held notions of the meaning of the legend. My conclusions, reached before I read Williams, are based solely on an examination of the source materials.

¹³ Later (990/5 ff.) we leam that King Pelles received the stroke for daring to touch the forbidden sword. This inconsistency, however, like the confusion of the Fisher King and King Pelles, comes to Malory from his source.

¹⁴ The italics represent Malory's addition.