Order Description
Comment on the style and content of the following passage and its effectiveness in its dramatic context:
‘Sires, leve youre noyse,’ seyde sir Launcelot, ‘for wyte you well, sir Aggravayne, ye shall nat preson me thys nyght! And therefore, and ye do be my counceyle, go ye all from thys chambir-dore and
make you no suche cryyng and such maner of sclaundir as ye do; for I promyse you be my knyghthode, and ye woll departe and make no more noyse, I shall as 5 to-morne appyere afore you all and before
the kynge, and than lat hit be sene whych of you all, other ellis ye all, that woll deprave me of treson. And there shall I answere you, as a knyght shulde, that hydir I cam to the quene for no
maner of male-engyne, and that woll I preve and make hit good uppon you wyth my hondys.’ 10 ‘Fye uppon the, traytour,’ seyd sir Aggravayne and sir Mordred, ‘for we woll have the magre thyne hede
and sle the, and we lyste! For we let the wyte we have the choyse of kynge Arthure to save the other sle the.’ ‘A, sirres,’ seyd sir Launcelot, ‘ys ther none other grace with you? Than kepe
youreselff!’ And than sir Launcelot sette all opyn the chambir dore, 15 and myghtyly and knyghtly he strode in amonge them. And anone at the firste stroke he slew sir Aggravayne, and anone aftir
twelve of hys felowys. Within a whyle he had layde them down colde to the erthe, for there was none of the twelve knyghtes myght stonde sir Launcelot one buffet. And also he wounded sir Mordred,
and therewithall he fled with all 20 hys myght. (SIR THOMAS MALORY from Le Morte Darthur)