Had Malory undertaken an account of the landing of Julius Caesar he would, as a matter of course, have protected the Roman legions with bascinet or salade, breastplate, pauldron and palette, coudiére, taces and the rest, and have armed them with lance and shield, jewel-hilted sword and slim misericorde; while the Emperor himself might have been given the very suit of armour stripped from the Duke of Clarence before his fateful encounter with the butt of malmsey.
Did not even Shakespeare calmly give cannon to the Romans and suppose every continental city to lie majestically beside the sea? By the old writers, accuracy in these matters was disregarded, and anachronisms were not so much tolerated as unperceived.
In illustrating this edition of “The Legends of King Arthur and his Knights,” it has seemed best, and indeed unavoidable if the text and the pictures are to tally, to draw what Malory describes, to place the fashion of the costumes and armour somewhere about A.D. 1460, and to arm the knights in accordance with the Tabard Period.
LANCELOT SPEED.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- [The Marriage of King Arthur]
- [Then fell Sir Ector down upon his knees upon the ground before young Arthur, and Sir Key also with him.]
- [The Lady of the Lake]
- [The giant sat at supper, gnawing on a limb of a man, and baking his huge frame by the fire]
- [The castle rocked and rove throughout, and all the walls fell crashed and breaking to the earth]
- [Came forth twelve fair damsels, and saluted King Arthur by his name]
- [Prianius was christened, and made a duke and knight of the Round Table]
- [Sir Lancelot smote down with one spear five knights, and brake the backs of four, and cast down the King of Northgales]
- [Beyond the chapel, he met a fair damsel, who said, “Sir Lancelot, leave that sword behind thee, or thou diest”]
- [“Lady,” replied Sir Beaumains, “a knight is little worth who may not bear with a damsel”]
- [So he rode into the hall and alighted]
- [Then they began the battle, and tilted at their hardest against each other]
- [And running to her chamber, she sought in her casket for the piece of iron ... and fitted it in Tristram’s sword]
- [By the time they had finished drinking they loved each other so well that their love never more might leave them]
- [Waving her hands and muttering the charm, and presently enclosed him fast within the tree]
- [Galahad ... quickly lifted up the stone, and forthwith came out a foul smoke]
- [“This girdle, lords,” said she, “is made for the most part of mine own hair, which, while I was yet in the world, I loved full well”]
- [At last the strange knight smote him to the earth, and gave him such a buffet on the helm as wellnigh killed him]
- [Then was Sir Lancelot sent for, and the letter read aloud by a clerk]
- [But still the knights cried mightily without the door, “Traitor, come forth!”]