Caxton Prepares His Edition of the Morte Darthur

Abstract

The article discusses why Caxton chose to publish Malory's Morte Darthur, how this copy was prepared for printing and what steps the publisher took to promote it. The manuscript itself was prepared fairly mechanically for printing with only book 5 being rewritten. Most of what Caxton tells us in his prologue, which was added after the rest of the book was in print, is fictitious and was designed to sell the book. The realization that this is so gives an important insight into Caxton's attitude towards Malory and to fifteenth-century literary taste, and these themes are discussed extensively in this article.