The Boy's King Arthur
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Lanier, Sidney. The Boy's King Arthur. Ill. Alfred Kappes. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1880.
Sidney Lanier's (1842-1881) The Boy's King Arthur was first published in 1880 with illustrations by Alfred Kappes (1850-1894). It was reissued in 1917 with illustrations by N. C. Wyeth (1882-1945), a student of Howard Pyle (and again in 1950 under a different title with illustrations by Florian though the version with Wyeth's illustrations is the one that remains in print and that is most popular).
The Boy's King Arthur is an abridged, modernized version of Malory. Lanier notes that, with the exception of words used to explain unfamiliar or archaic terms (like 'hight' or 'mickle') and connective passages to 'preserve the thread of a story which could not be given entire,' 'every word in the book . . . is Malory's, unchanged except that the spelling is modernized.' But, as is typical of retellings for young people, certain elements of the story are omitted or glossed over. Uther's rape of Igraine, for example, has no place in an edifying tale, so Lanier's story begins with the birth of Arthur, who is delivered, without explanation, to Merlin. Other examples of sexual impropriety are similarly disregarded, and new explanations are created for matters that would otherwise require some tarnishing of the shining armor of the knights who are meant to be models for the young readers. For instance, Lanier obviously deems Malory's account of Launcelot's madness unsuitable. To avoid the sordid details, Lanier concocts an excuse that makes the queen's anger seem a misunderstanding: 'it happened that Queen Guenever was angered with Sir Launcelot, yet truly for no fault of his, but only because a certain enchantress had wrought that Sir Launcelot seemed to have shamed his knighthood.' The explanation clearly suggests that Launcelot is maligned through no failing of his own, and Guenever is not the jealous lover she appears to be in Malory but rather a queen rightly concerned with knightly honor.
Noble deeds make the Arthurian stories as retold by Lanier appropriate models for young boys to emulate. Lanier comments on this aspect of the book in his introduction. After discussing how the besieged Lancelot refuses to kill Gawaine and how he will not allow the unhorsed Arthur to be slain, Lanier observes that 'Larger behavior is not shown us anywhere in English literature.' Launcelot's 'large' or greatly generous and chivalric behavior is, for Lanier, precisely the point of the story.
Most of the twelve images that Kappes created for this edition focus on knightly combat and the Grail. He also illustrates Arthur receiving Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake and Bedivere carrying Arthur to the shore after the final battle. One of the most interesting of Kappes's images depicts Balin striking the dolorous Stroke. As he wounds Pellam with the holy spear, lightning strikes and the castle begins to crumble around them.