Itinerary
From this base will cruise the area of interest in Warwickshire. Thursday Grand Hotel, Manchester (Vinaver)
Friday Lord Crew Armes, Blanchland
Saturday Rothbury and the Wall
Sunday Wall and down into Wales, possibly to Malvern
Monday Tresanton St. Mawes near Falmouth
Tuesday Winchester (Mss)
TO ERO AND CHASE--LONDON, JULY 14, 1957
Rolling and tossing about last night, I had an idea which seemed to have some validity to me and I want to ask you what you think of it. The trouble with such ideas is in my ignorance. I mean that this may have occurred to many people and the field be thoroughly covered. Anyway, I am going to put down the thinking just as it developed and pretend that it has never been considered before. Unfortunately I do not have my Morte with me. It has been sent to the ship, so I will have to rely a little on memory which in me is not so hot. OK then, it goes like this.
In considering a man about whom there are few and sparse records, there are three directions one may take to build up some kind of reality about him--His work (the most important). His times (important because he grew out of them) and finally his associates or people with whom he may have associated. In the case of Malory a great deal has been made of his association with Beauchamp, the learned parfait knight, the worldly, the romantic, the brave and the experienced. And this preoccupation seems to me to be extremely valid. But there is another man whom I have not met in my reading and this is a man about which a great deal must be known, his publisher Caxton. If I remember correctly, in his preface Caxton never indicates that he knew Malory. In fact it does seem from his words that he did not. We know that there were two, probably three and perhaps a number of other copies of the Morte. But the book was finished a very few years before Caxton printed it. I do not think that it could have been issued in sections as it was completed, therefore we must believe that the first appearance of the Morte could hardly have been before 1469. Between that time and Caxton's printing of it, a very short time elapsed, not enough time for the mss to be widely copied, distributed, memorized and read or recited. Why then did Caxton pick up and print this book? If he had wanted to print the Arthurian story as something which might be popular, he could have chosen the alliterative poem which was very much better known, or he could have had the classic tales translated, the Romaunt, the Lancelot etc. But he took the work of an unknown writer with no background in learning or scholarship, a felon. I cannot believe that Malory's Morte was well known at the time Caxton printed it. Why then did he print it? I think the only way to approach this is to inquire into his other choices. Did he print other unknown works by unknown men? I don't know, but it is easy to find out. I don't have a library to consult. What were Caxton's business habits and practices, his editorial habits and practices? It is my feeling that he was not a man to go out on a limb except in bucking the copyists' organizations with his movable type. Could a pattern of his activities be arrived at? Did the new work of an unknown writer so sparkle with Genius that Caxton, the editor, was drawn to it on a critical basis? It was not a time when novelists were commonly undertaken. Malory would have had no backing of school, college or church. His book was not revolutionary as Wyckliff's translation of the Bible was, nor did it have the fascination of the Lollard heresies. It was a traditional book, dealing with traditional stories. Caxton could easily have got translations made by well-known and respected men. Malory had no noble backing, no sponsor and I believe that this was a pretty good thing to have if you wanted your book to be well received. Was Caxton an inspired editor with a great sense of literary values as opposed to traditional and business values? I don't know these things but I would like to. For what seems to emerge is this. The first printer chose for one of his early but not his earliest efforts the works of an unknown writer, or if he were known at all it was as a robber, a rapist and a felon who had died in prison. That his book was immediately successful there is no doubt, but how in the world could Caxton have known that? These are all questions but they are questions I would like to have resolved. How much is known about Caxton? My own knowledge is abysmally nonexistent. But have these considerations ever been entertained in connection with the Morte?
I have a feeling that if Chase has not already considered and resolved these questions, that he will react to them like a dog whose tail is soaked in kerosene and then lighted. I have not in my reading come on these questions. Damn it, it is hard not having a library available. And tomorrow we will be on the road. I'm sorry to throw this polecat to you, but let us not fail to discuss it as soon as I get home and perhaps to try to resolve some of it. I don't know but I do have a feeling that Caxton is well documented. If it weren't Sunday I would go out and try to find a book on Caxton. But London is shut tighter than a drum.
TO ERO--SAG HARBOR, AUGUST 7, 1957
I went also to the Rylands Library in Manchester to inspect one of two existing Caxton first printings in the world. Dr. Vinaver was of great help to me and offered any help he could give and opened his files and his bibliography to me. He was very much excited by my approach to the subject, saying it was the first new approach in many years. I went also to Winchester College to see the manuscript of the Morte which was only discovered in 1936, having been lost since it was written by priestly scribes in the fifteenth century.
Since my work in this field requires that I know the countryside in which Malory lived and operated, I rented a car and driver and went to Malory's birthplace in Warwickshire, to the place where he was imprisoned. I then found it necessary to visit Alnwick Castle, Wales, Glastonbury, Tintagel and all of those places associated with King Arthur. This journey took ten days of very rapid traveling since I had to go from one end of England to the other to get a sense of topography, color of soil, marsh, moor, forest and particularly relationships of one place to another. Elaine made an extensive photographic record of all the places visited on this major effort. This is destined to be the largest and I hope the most important work I have ever undertaken. Throughout the trip I have filled in my library with books, records, photographs, and even microfilms of documents which cannot be removed from their repositories. I am very much excited by this work and am highly gratified by the respect and encouragement of the authorities in the field. Far from resenting my intrusion, they have all gone out of their way to give me every possible help.
TO CHASE--NEW YORK, OCTOBER 4, 1957
It does seem to me that there is no problem about how Malory got books. If he didn't get them he would have been a fool and he was no fool.
Damn it--the subject is endless, isn't it? I'm looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday. And I'm going to stay in all week so we can repeat. Also my energy seems to be beginning to come back. Thank heaven for that. I had reached a point of despair.
Malory is uneasy in the Knight of the Cart probably because it didn't mean anything to him. The earlier fact that carts were used solely for condemned prisoners was not enough for him even if he knew it. There are many places in the Morte where he is uneasy because he doesn't know the reason, nor the background, but when he is sure--when he is dealing with people and countryside--he is not a bit confused.
TO CHASE--NEW YORK, OCTOBER 25, 1957
Of course I am very much excited about the microreader. Sure it weighs seventeen pounds, but you can carry a large library in a shoe box. We're going to have lots of fun with that. When Archie MacLeish was Librarian of Congress, he was microfilming lots of things that couldn't be moved. I'm sure some of the Universities and probably the N.Y. Public Library are doing the same. Is there any way to find out what the various repositories have filmed and whether it is obtainable?
I hope the machine you got has a reverse. Quite often one wants to turn back. Won't it be fun to track down the things we want and can't take out. Very exciting. I've just finished the second volume of Henry V. I believe Wylie died after proofing the first volume. At least that's what the introduction to volu
me II says. His detail is marvelous. And did you notice one thing? He was so immersed that he was writing in the old words and even the old constructions. It's a great history and it is just possible that Henry may have been Malory's Arthur symbol.
Right now I'm staying away from Malory. But when I go back to him I think it will be with a new dimension and that, my friend, is completely your doing. This work is collaboration, and don't think it isn't. The fact that I will do the final writing does not make the work less collaboration. Meanwhile I'm having a hell of a fine time with the books. And I'm going to take all the time I need--or rather, want. And I want a lot. I have even stopped writing letters except to you and Elizabeth. I want to forget how to write and learn all over again with the writing growing out of the material. And I'm going to be real mean about that.
TO CHASE--NEW YORK, MARCH 1, 1958
Yesterday I wrote the very first lines of the book, either for first printed page or endpaper, which I here enclose.1
I guess this is the first time I have ever written a first part first. It is also probably the only passage in the whole thing which will be written in fifteenth-century spelling. (Save possibly a footnote or caboose material.)
TO ERO--NEW YORK, MARCH 4, 1958
I think the time has come for a progress report in the matter of the Malory work. I also want to make a kind of declaration of immediate intention in regard to this work. As you know, the research and reading and accumulation of knowledge has gone on over a long, long period now, and must continue to go on at least until the autumn. You will understand that I am pumped full of information, some of it possibly ill assimilated and perhaps being slowly digested. As usual it is the texture rather than the exact information which has the most profound impact on me, but even so a remarkable amount of factual material seems to be getting through to me. I have read literally hundreds of books on the Middle Ages and have literally a few hundred more to dip into before I shall be ready to start writing. The enormous accumulation of notes which Chase and I have made are necessary, even though they may not come to the surface in the work to be done. To proceed without the information would be to proceed without foundation. Last year I spent some time in England, as you well know, going to a number of places which will be referred to in the work, to absorb the physical feeling of the places. I thought that I had covered the field fairly well. It is only with continued reading that I find that there are gaps in my information. I shall find it necessary to return to England to pick up, or rather to fill up the holes in my visual background. I think the best time to go would be the first of June. I must go to spend some time at Glastonbury, at Colchester and at parts of Cornwall in the neighborhood of Tintagel and then north again to spend a little more time at Alnwick, and at Bamborough Castle in Northumberland. These last two are very important since one may well have been the Maiden's Castle referred to by Malory, and the other might be Joyous Garde. And I must have the feel and look of all of these places, which are not only referred to but are parts of Malory's experience in the fifteenth century. Pictures do not do any good. There is a great charge to be gained from going there. I shall be very glad if Chase can accompany me to these places, since our research has been done in conjunction.
I plan to spend the month of June in England picking up final topographical information and also consulting with certain authorities, such as Professor Vinaver of the University of Manchester, and others who are preeminent in the field of the fifteenth century. I shall return to America about the first of July and will continue the reading in the light of what I have found in this next trip into October. And if I can judge at all by my own state of information and mind, I should be able to start writing on this book this fall. And of course, once started, I shall continue with it until a great part of it is completed.
Building a background for this book has been a long and arduous job but highly rewarding. I doubt very much whether I could have done it at all without the help of Chase Horton. Surely it might have been done but not with the exactness and the range and the universality that he has brought to the association.
I come now to something a little more exact. First, title of first proposed work, and this I shall want to discuss with you further, but I think I can put a preliminary discussion of this matter in this letter. When Caxton printed the first edition of a book by Sir Thomas Malory in the fifteenth century, he gave it a title and we do not know whether this was the title used by Malory or not. It may have been supplied by Caxton. The full title gradually was reduced to MORTE D'ARTHUR, but this was only three words in the title and did not describe the book at all. The full title in Caxton, you will remember, is: THE BIRTH, LIFE AND ACTS OF KING ARTHUR, OF HIS NOBLE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE, THEIR MARVELOUS ENQUESTS AND ADVENTURES, THE ACHIEVING OF THE SAN GREAL, AND IN THE END LE MORTE D'ARTHUR WITH THE DOLOROUS DEATH AND DEPARTING OUT OF THIS WORLD OF THEM ALL. Now this is the title that was used by Caxton and why this whole body of work should come to be known as MORTE D'ARTHUR, which is just one little part, I will never know. I propose, therefore, to give it a title which is a little more descriptive of what the body of the work is about. A title such as THE ACTS OF KING ARTHUR, which is sufficient, or if necessary, THE ACTS OF KING ARTHUR AND HIS NOBLE KNIGHTS. Now this would describe much more completely what the body of the work is about. It also would be a kind of a new approach, a living approach rather than a deathly approach to the whole subject. We will discuss this later, but I think that I am ready to leave the word "Morte" out of this because it is such a small part of the whole body of the work. And if the followers of Caxton could abstract a few words from the whole title, I don't know why I can't abstract a few more, particularly if they're more descriptive. This is not essentially the story of the death of Arthur but of the life of Arthur. I think it's very important to put that in the title. We will never know, of course, what Malory himself called the work. It may well be that Caxton used the title that Malory himself used, which is the full title.
As to the exact method I shall use, it is beginning to take form in my head, but I don't think that it is complete enough to discuss it now but there must be much discussion before I go to active work in the fall. It seems to me that in addition to the daydreaming and nightdreaming that I do about the book that my first job is to complete my research on the Middle Ages and to pick up the material in England, which I failed to do on my last trip.
I am going to talk to Chase about the possibility of his joining me in England because I think that two sets of eyes would be more valuable than one, and two sets of information could be compounded into one thing.
My purpose will be to put it into a language which is understandable and acceptable to a modern-day reader. I think this is not only an important thing to do, but also a highly practical thing to do, since these stories form, with the New Testament, the basis of most modern English literature. And it can be shown and will be shown that the myth of King Arthur continues even into the present day and is an inherent part of the so-called "Western" with which television is filled at the present time--same characters, same methods, same stories, only slightly different weapons and certainly a different topography. But if you change Indians or outlaws for Saxons and Picts and Danes, you have exactly the same story. You have the cult of the horse, the cult of the knight. The application with the present is very close, and also the present day with its uncertainties very closely parallels the uncertainties of the fifteenth century.
It is actually a kind of nostalgic return to the good old days. I think Malory did it, and I think our writers for television are doing it--exactly the same thing and, oddly enough, finding exactly the same symbols and methods.
Thus we find that the work I propose is not a period piece necessarily, and certainly not a specialized piece of work, but one with applications in the present day and definite roots in our living literature.
TO ERO AND CHASE--NEW YORK, MARCH 14, 1958
There seems to be something necessary about pressures.
The other night I was lying awake wishing I could get to Malory with a rolling barrage of sling-stones and arrows--which isn't likely to happen--and suddenly it came back to me that I have always worked better under pressure of one kind or another--poverty, death, emotional confusion, divorces--always something. In fact the only really unproductive times I can remember were those when there were no pressures. If my record has any meaning at all, it is that pressures are necessary to my creative survival--an inelegant, even a nauseating thought, but there it is. So maybe I had better pray not for surcease but for famine, plague, catastrophe, and bankruptcy. Then I would probably work like a son-of-a-bitch. I'm comparatively serious about this.
A curious state of suspension has set in, kind of a floaty feeling like the drifting in a canoe on a misty lake while ghosts and winkies, figures of fog, go past--half recognized, and only partly visible. It would be reasonable to resist this vagueness, but for some reasons which I will set down later, I do not.
It is all very well to look back at the Middle Ages from a position of vantage. The story, or part of it, is finished. We know--to a certain extent--what happened and why and who and what were the causes. This knowledge of course is strained through minds which have no likeness of experience with the mind of the Middle Ages. But the writer of the Morte did not know what had happened, what was happening, nor what was going to happen. He was caught as we are now. In forlorn-ness--he didn't know finally whether York or Lancaster would win, nor did he know that this was the least important of problems. He must have felt that the economic world was out of tune since the authority of the manors was slipping away. The revolts of the subhuman serfs must have caused consternation in his mind. The whisperings of religious schism were all around him so that the unthinkable chaos of ecclesiastical uncertainty must have haunted him. Surely he could only look forward to those changes, which we find healthy, with horrified misgiving.