The Project Gutenberg EBook of Arthur, Copied And Edited
From The Marquis of Bath's MS

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Title: Arthur, Copied And Edited From The Marquis of Bath's MS
A Short Sketch of His Life and History in English Verse
of the First Half of the Fifteenth Century

Author:

Editor: Frederick J. Furnivall

Release Date: October 10, 2005 [EBook #16845]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ARTHUR ***

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[TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
The original text contained the letters "yogh" and "thorn". They are
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[Th] [th] thorn (note that the text also uses "th")
[Gh] [gh] yogh
[P] pilcrow (parragraph symbol).]

Arthur

A Short Sketch of His Life and History in English Verse of the First
Half of the Fifteenth Century

Copied and Edited From the Marquis of Bath's MS.

by

Frederick J. Furnivall, M.A., Camb.

Editor of De Borron's and Lonelich's "History of the Holy Graal,"
Walter Map's "Queste Del Saint Graal," Etc. Etc.

London:
Published for the Early English Text Society,
by Truebner & Co., 60, Paternoster Row.
MDCCCLXIV

Contents

Preface
Arthur
Words
Notes

Preface

As one of the chief objects of the Early English Text Society is to
print every Early English Text relating to Arthur, the Committee have
decided that this short sketch of the British hero's life shall form one
of the first issue of the Society's publications. The six hundred and
forty-two English lines here printed occur in an incomplete Latin
Chronicle of the Kings of Britain, bound up with many other valuable
pieces in a MS. belonging to the Marquis of Bath. The old chronicler has
dealt with Uther Pendragon, and Brounsteele (Excalibur), and is
narrating Arthur's deeds, when, as if feeling that Latin prose was no
fit vehicle for telling of Arthur, king of men, he breaks out into
English verse,

"Herkene[th], [th]at loueth hono_ur_,
Of kyng Arthour & hys labo_ur_."

The story he tells is an abstract, with omissions, of the earlier
version of Ge