Le Morte d’Arthur
Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur was first printed by William Caxton, who is generally accepted to be the first printer in England. The printing of the first edition was carried out in 1485 by Caxton’s printing house and has been of great significance, since Caxton’s printed version allowed for further distribution and printing by other printing houses. Further printing of Malory’s text by different English printers is what allowed the creation of the canonical text of Arthurian literature in the English language, as this piece of writing became more widely distributed. During the times of Victorian Britain, Malory’s first printed version, and the whole genre of English Arthuriana, gained great popularity within the academia, as well as the general population. What was especially praised was Malory’s treatment of the topic of violence, which abundantly occurs in the legend. The occurrences of killings and rape were treated with a sense of religious significance and later act as patriotic and sacred, rather than barbaric and immoral, causing the text to become a symbol of morality and Godly ideology. Furthermore, it is not only Malory’s text that was praised. William Caxton and his printed edition were greatly valued by Victorian scholars, too. It was regarded as Caxton’s most influential production. The academia generally agreed that if it was not for Caxton’s agreement to print Malory’s text, English literature might have moved in a very different direction, or been radically altered, even. Although there are several different versions of Malory’s text, each is used for different purposes, as each was published with an altered, mostly modernized, version of the language.