fickleness in the first chapter of Book xxi., though the Wars of
the Roses might have inspired them in any one, come most
naturally from an author who was a Lancastrian knight.

If the Morte Darthur was really written in prison and by a
prisoner distressed by ill-health as well as by lack of liberty,
surely no task was ever better devised to while away weary hours.
Leaving abundant scope for originality in selection,
modification, and arrangement, as a compilation and translation
it had in it that mechanical element which adds the touch of
restfulness to literary work. No original, it is said, has yet
been found for Book vii., and it is possible that none will ever
be forthcoming for chap. 20 of Book xviii., which describes the
arrival of the body of the Fair Maiden of Astolat at Arthur's
court, or for chap. 25 of the same book, with its discourse
on true love; but the great bulk of the work has been traced
chapter by chapter to the ``Merlin'' of Robert de Borron and his
successors (Bks. i.-iv.), the English metrical romance La Morte
Arthur of the Thornton manuscript (Bk. v.), the French romances
of Tristan (Bks. viii.-x.) and of Launcelot (Bks. vi., xi.-xix.),
and lastly to the English prose Morte Arthur of Harley MS. 2252
(Bks. xviii., xx., xxi.). As to Malory's choice of his
authorities critics have not failed to point out that now and
again he gives a worse version where a better has come down to
us, and if he had been able to order a complete set of Arthurian
manuscripts from his bookseller, no doubt he would have done even
better than he did! But of the skill, approaching to original
genius, with which he used the books from which he worked there
is little dispute.