The Fortunes of Arthur

Abstract

David Matthews, in his contribution to this volume, identifies a tension between veneration of significant figures from the past and scepticism surrounding their authorship, their arguments, and in some cases their existence. Elsewhere, Paul Stevens has shown the extent to which Milton was in a similar predicament, wanting to find in England's history a subject worthy of epic, but torn between the rigorous revisionism of the likes of Camden and Selden and 'the patriotic [tradition] mediated through Spenser, Shakespeare, and Drayton' (Stevens 2012: 157). Between Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur, completed by 1470, and published by Caxton-with carefully qualified scepticism about Arthur's existence-in 1485, and Milton's History of Britain (1670), we can follow the fortunes of Arthur as a figure contested and celebrated in equal measure. Malory depicted the French wars under the guise of Arthur's sixth-century campaign against Rome, and Book III of Milton's History uses the same interval between Roman departure and Saxon arrival to warn contemporaries of the dangers of backsliding. One approach to early modern Arthurianism suggests that somewhere between Malory and Milton, Arthur became an inconvenient myth, retaining poetic and propagandistic potential but scoffed at by serious scholars. The Reformation and the rise of antiquarianism engendered suspicion of medieval sources, and Arthur and Brutus were undone by the rise of Anglo-Saxon studies (Brinkley 1932). Yet Arthur, like Brutus, maintained momentum even as myth morphed from history to poetry. But before delving into the variegated history of later 2 representations of Arthur, we must first consider how the legendary king was used in Malory's time. Why the Matter of Britain mattered It's been argued that Malory's Morte Darthur was, like Spenser's Faerie Queene, an historical allegory, addressing the reigns of Henry IV and Henry V. Inconsistencies in Malory's Arthur have been attributed to his allegorical depiction of successive English monarchs: "interpreting it in terms of the Lancastrian dynasty, the three rulers dominating the life of Malory, it is a strikingly accurate picture. In general features the personality and career of Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI correspond respectively to (1) the Arthur of the first three books, (2) the Arthur of book four extending through to the Grail section, and (3) the Arthur of the post-Grail period"