Le Morte Darthur / by Syr Thomas Malory ; the original edition of William Caxton now reprinted and edited with an introduction and glossary by H. Oskar Sommer ; with an essay on Malory's prose style by Andrew Lang

¶ Capitulum xiiij

SYr said Melyagaunce I shalle telle you for what cause we doo this bataille / I praysed my lady Quene Gueneuer / and said she was the fayrest lady of the world / and sire Lamorak said nay therto / For he said quene Morgause of Orkeney was fayrer than she and more of beaute / A syre Lamorak why saist thou soo / hit is not thy parte to disprayse thy pryncesse that thou arte vnder theire obeyssaunce dn we alle / and there with he alyghte on foote / and sayd for this quarel make the redy / For I wille preue vpon the / that Quene Gueneuer is the fayrest lady and moost of bounte in the world

¶ Syre said sire Lamorak I am loth to haue adoo with you in this quarell / For euery man thynketh his owne lady fayrest / and though I prayse the lady / that I loue moost / ye shold not be wrothe / For though my lady quene Gueneuer be fayrest in your eye / wete ye wel Quene Morgause of Orkeney is fayrest in myn eye / and soo euery knyght thynketh his owne lady fayrest / and wete ye wel syr ye are the man in the world excepte sire Tristram / that I am moost lothest to haue adoo with alle / But and ye wille nedes fyghte with me I shal endure you as long as I may /

¶ Thenne spake sire Bleoberys / and said / my lord sire Laūcelot / I wyste you neuer soo mysauysed as ye are now / For syre Lamorak saith you but reason and knyghtely /

¶ For I warne you I haue a lady / and me thynketh that she is the fayrest lady of the world / were this a grete reason that ye shold be wrothe with me for suche langage / And wel ye wote / that syr Lamorak is as noble a knyght as I knowe / and he

[leaf 180r] hath oughte you and vs euer good wille / and therfore I praye you be good frendes /

¶ Thenne sire Launcelot sayd vnto sir lamerak / I pray you foryeue me myn euylle wylle / And yf I was mysauysed I wille amende hit / Syre sayde sir Lamorak the amendys is soone made betwixe you and me And soo sir Launcelot and sire Bleoberys departed / and syr Melyagaunce and sir Lamorak took their horses / and eyther departed from other / And within a whyle came kynge Arthur and mette with sir Lamorak and Iusted with hym / and there he smote doune sire Lamorack / and wounded hym sore with a spere / and soo he rode from hym / wherfore sir Lamorak was wrothe that he wold not fyghte with hym on foote / hou be it that sire Lamorak knewe not kynge Arthur