The Knight in History Read Free Page B

DEEDS CAN NEVER COME TO GREAT PERFECTION OF VIRTUE .
    —Honoré Bouvet, Tree of Battles
    SIR JOHN FASTOLF, WHO WAS CONSIDERED A VERY WISE AND VALIANT KNIGHT ….
    —Jean Wavrin du Forestal, Anciennes cbroniques d’Angleterre

 
    9
    The Long Twilight of Chivalry
    OH YE KNIGHTS OF ENGLAND, WHERE IS THE CUSTOM AND USAGE OF NOBLE CHIVALRY THAT WAS USED IN THE DAYS OF KING ARTHUR? WHAT DO YE NOW BUT GO TO THE BAGNIOS AND PLAY AT DICE…. LEAVE THIS, LEAVE IT AND READ THE NOBLE VOLUMES OF THE HOLY GRAIL, OF LAUNCELOT, OF GALAHAD, OF TRISTRAM, OF PERSEFOREST, OF PERCIVAL, OF GAWAIN AND MANY MORE. THERE SHALL YE SEE MANHOOD, COURTESY, AND GENTLENESS. AND LOOK IN LATER DAYS OF THE NOBLE ACTS SINCE THE CONQUEST…. READ FROISSART. AND ALSO BEHOLD THAT VICTORIOUS AND NOBLE KING HARRY THE FIFTH, AND THE CAPTAINS UNDER HIM…AND MANY OTHERS WHOSE NAMES SHINE GLORIOUSLY BY THEIR VIRTUOUS NOBLESSE AND ACTS THAT THEY DID IN HONOR OF THE ORDER OF CHIVALRY .
    —Conclusion of William Caxton’s
translation of The Book of the Ordre of Chyvalry (1484)
    IN OUR FOREFATHERS’ TIME, WHEN PAPISTRY, AS A STANDING POOLE, COVERED AND OVERFLOWED ALL ENGLAND, FEW BOOKS WERE READ IN OUR TONGUE, SAVING CERTAIN BOOKS OF CHIVALRY…WHICH, AS SOME SAY, WERE MADE IN MONASTERIES, BY IDLE MONKS, OR WANTON CANONS: AS ONE FOR EXAMPLE, MORTE ARTHURE: THE WHOLE PLEASURE OF WHICH BOOK STANDETH IN TWO SPECIAL POINTS, IN OPEN MANSLAUGHTER, AND BOLD BAWDRY: IN WHICH BOOK THOSE HE COUNTED THE NOBLEST KNIGHTS, THAT DO KILL MOST MEN WITHOUT ANY QUARREL, AND COMMIT FOULEST ADULTERIES BY SUBTLEST SHIFTS ….
    —Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster (1570)
    AT A VILLAGE OF LA MANCHA, WHOSE NAME I DO NOT WISH TO REMEMBER, THERE LIVED A LITTLE WHILE AGO ONE OF THOSE GENTLEMEN WHO ARE WONT TO KEEP A LANCE IN THE RACK, AN OLD BUCKLER, A LEAN HORSE, AND A SWIFT GREYHOUND…. THE ABOVE-MENTIONED GENTLEMAN IN HIS LEISURE MOMENTS (WHICH WAS MOST OF THE YEAR) GAVE HIMSELF UP WITH SO MUCH DELIGHT AND GUSTO TO READING BOOKS OF CHIVALRY THAT HE ALMOST ENTIRELY NEGLECTED THE EXERCISE OF THE CHASE AND EVEN THE MANAGEMENT OF HIS DOMESTIC AFFAIRS .
    —Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote (1605)

 
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