Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

86 VIII. SIR THOMAS MALORY.25 bedwere put vpon hym poure clothes, and seruyd the hermyteful lowly in fastyng and in prayers.Thus of Arthur I finde neuer more wryton in bookes thatben auctorysed nor more of the veray certente of his dethherde I neuer redde, but thus was he ledde aweye in a shyppe.^o wherin were thre queues ; that one was kyng Arthurs syster,queue Morgan le fay, the other was the queue of Northgalys, the thyrd was the queue of the waste londes. Alsothere was Nynyue, the chyef lady of the lake, that hadwedded Pelleas the good knyght, and this lady had doon35 moche for kyng Arthur ; for she wold neuer suffre syr Pelleasto be in noo place W'here he shold be in daunger of his lyf,& so he lyued to the vttermest of his dayes wyth h}T in gretereste. More of the deth of kyng Arthur coude I neuer fynde,but that ladyes brought hym to his buryellys, & suche one40 was buryed there that the hermyte bare wytnesse that somtymewas bysshop of caunterburye, but yet the heremyteknewe not in certayn that he was verayly the body of kyngArthur ;made itfor thys tale syr Bedwer, knyght of the table rounde,to be wryton.CapitulumVII.Yet somme men say in many partyes of Englond thatkyng Arthur is not deed. But had, by the wylle of our lordJhesu, in to another place, and men say that he shal comefageyn & he shal wynne the holy crosse \ I wyl not say itshal be so, but rather I wyl say here in thys w^orld he chaungedhis lyf; but many men say that there is wryton vpon histombc this vers.ftitiirus.Hie iacet Arihurus, Rex quofidam, Rex queThus Icue I here syr Bedwere with the hermyte, that* Printed ' crorse' in Souther's edition.