Le Morte Arthur: A Middle English Metrical Romance

Excerpt from Le Morte Arthur: A Middle English Metrical Romance
Le Morte Arthur is a fourteenth-century English, metrical romance, in eight-line stanzas, dealing with the love of Lancelot and Guinevere, the wars resulting therefrom, Arthur's death after the great battle in the west, and the deaths of Lancelot and Guinevere. The romance is found in one manuscript only, - Harleian 2252, Brit. Mus., - and is often referred to as the Harleian Morte Arthur or the stauzaic Morte Arthur. The dialect is Midland (probably East Midland), somewhat modified by the Northern dialect of the scribe who copied Il. 1-1901, and the Southern dialect of the scribe who finished the copy.
The poem has recently been ably edited by Professor J. Douglass Bruce for the Early English Text Society (Extra Series, LXXVIII), and to his edition all serious students of the poem should turn. The present edition is designed for the more elementary student and for class-room use. The Notes and Glossary are therefore simpler and fuller, and arc designed to meet the needs of the beginner. This edition does not include detailed discussions of the various problems connected with the poem. The results of Bruce's investigations are recorded here, and for details the student is referred to his work. As Bruce's text is practically a reprint of the manuscript, I have followed it, making few emendations, and have not thought it wise to burden the pages with textual notes.
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