PENGUIN CLASSICS
VOLUME 1
We cannot be certain of the identity of the author of Le Morte D’Arthur and several theories have been advanced as to his historical circumstances. However, the theory put forward by an American scholar, G. L. Kittredge, has prevailed. He claimed that the author was a Sir Thomas Malory or Maleore of Newbold Revell in Warwickshire, born in the first quarter of the fifteenth century, who spent the greater part of the last twenty years of his life in prison. Contemporary accounts accuse him of a number of crimes, including attempted murder, rape and armed robbery and he is also credited with a couple of dramatic escapes from prison. Other records suggest that he was a fighting man rather than a criminal. He was certainly in the service of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and fought with him in the siege of Calais in 1436. It is not surprising that some scholars have found it difficult to reconcile this violent man with the author of these moral tales.
Another possible candidate is a Thomas Malory of Studley and Hutton in Yorkshire and it has been suggested that the language of the tales points to an author living north of Warwickshire.
It is generally accepted that the author was a member of the gentry and a Lancastrian who deeply mourned the passing of the age of chivalry. He describes himself as a ‘knight-prisoner’ and it is clear that he spent many years in prison and Le Morte D’Arthur was probably written while the author was incarcerated. It would seem that he had seen service in southwestern France and it is possible that some of this book was written while he was held captive by Jacques d’Armagnac, who had an extensive Arthurian library. He is thought to have died around 1471.
John Lawlor was Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Keele, and has held visiting appointments at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Brandeis University and the universities of California, British Columbia and New Mexico. He is the author of The Tragic Sense in Shakespeare. Piers Plowman: An Essay in Criticism and Chaucer.
Janet Cowen was formerly Senior Lecturer in English at King’s College, University of London.