Errors in the Malory Archetype: The Case of Vinaver's Wight and Balan's Curious Remark

Abstract

T text of Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur is based upon two authoritative witnesses: the Winchester Manuscript and the incunable printed by William Caxton in 1485.1 Scholarship, primarily by Eugène Vinaver, has established beyond reasonable doubt that the two versions descend from a common archetype rather than one from the other and that the archetype was not Malory’s own autograph.2 This situation allows textual scholars to reconstruct more of Malory’s exact words from the errors and interference that are an inescapable part of the transmission of medieval romance than would otherwise be possible.3 Not only does each witness allow for a check upon the other, but in conjunction with Malory’s sources they can at times allow scholars to correct the archetype and glimpse the exemplar that must lie beyond it.