ABSTRACT
On 31 July 1485 England's first printer, William Caxton, published a volume of the adventures of King Arthur, which he called Le Morte Darthur. In Caxton's text, the author identifies himself as 'syr Thomas Maleore, knyght', asks for his readers' prayers, and fixes completion of his task during the year following 4 March 1469. Until 1934, when a manuscript discovered at Winchester College, Caxton's print was all that was known of Malory's work. Caxton represented Malory's work as translated from French, which suited the prejudices of his intended audience, but this is only true, since Book V, from which these excerpts taken, is in fact adaptation of the north Midland ME alliterative Morte Arthur. This contrast has recently been given sharper focus by the discovery of ink marks from printer's type in the Winchester manuscript, which proves that it must have been in Caxton's workshop throughout the 1480s.
