The Legends of
KING ARTHUR
and his
KNIGHTS
Sir James Knowles
Illustrated by Lancelot Speed
TO
ALFRED TENNYSON, D.C.L.
POET LAUREATE
THIS ATTEMPT AT A POPULAR VERSION OF
THE ARTHUR LEGENDS
IS BY HIS PERMISSION DEDICATED
AS A TRIBUTE
OF THE SINCEREST AND WARMEST RESPECT
1862
The Marriage of King Arthur
PREFACE TO THE EIGHTH EDITION
he Publishers have asked me to authorise a new edition, in my own name,of this little book—now long out of print—which was written by methirty-five years ago under the initials J.T.K.
In acceding to their request I wish to say that the book as now publishedis merely a word-for-word reprint of my early effort to help to popularisethe Arthur legends.
It is little else than an abridgment of Sir Thomas Malory’s version ofthem as printed by Caxton—with a few additions from Geoffrey of Monmouthand other sources—and an endeavour to arrange the many tales into a moreor less consecutive story.
The chief pleasure which came to me from it was, and is, that it began forme a long and intimate acquaintance with Lord Tennyson, to whom, by hispermission, I Dedicated it before I was personally known to him.
JAMES KNOWLES.
Addendum by Lady Knowles
In response to a widely expressed wish for a fresh edition of this littlebook—now for some years out of print—a new and ninth edition has beenprepared.
In his preface my husband says that the intimacy with Lord Tennyson towhich it led was the chief pleasure the book brought him. I have beenasked to furnish a few more particulars on this point that may begenerally interesting, and feel that I cannot do better than give someextracts from a letter written by himself to a friend in July 1896.
“DEAR ——,
“I am so very glad you approve of my little effort to popularise theArthur Legends. Tennyson had written his first four ‘Idylls of the King’before my book appeared, which was in 1861. Indeed, it was in consequenceof the first four Idylls that I sought and obtained, while yet a strangerto him, leave to dedicate my venture to him. He was extremely kind aboutit—declared ‘it ought to go through forty editions’—and when I came toknow him personally talked very frequently about it and Arthur with me,and made constant use of it when he at length yielded to my perpetualurgency and took up again his forsaken project of treating the wholesubject of King Arthur.
“He discussed and rediscussed at any amount of length the way in whichthis could now be done—and the Symbolism, which had from his earliesttime haunted him as the inner meaning to be given to it, brought him backto the Poem in its changed shape of separate pictures.
“He used often to say that it was entirely my doing that he revived hisold plan, and added, ‘I know more about Arthur than any other man inEngland, and I think you know next most.’ It would amuse you to see inwhat intimate detail he used to consult with