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Le Morte d'Arthur
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The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon (begun 1881), detail, by Edward Burne-Jones (d. 1898), greatly influenced by Le Morte d'Arthur throughout his career
Le Morte d'Arthur (originally spelled Le Morte Darthur, Middle French for "the death of Arthur"[1]) is a reworking of existing tales by Sir Thomas Malory about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin, and the Knights of the Round Table. Malory interprets existing French and English stories about these figures and adds original material (e.g., the Gareth story).
Le Morte d'Arthur was first published in 1485 by William Caxton, and is today one of the best-known works of Arthurian literature in English. Until the discovery of the Winchester Manuscript in 1934, the 1485 edition was considered the earliest known text of Le Morte d'Arthur and that closest to Malory's translation and compilation.[2] Various modern editions are inevitably variable, changing a variety of spelling, grammar, and/or pronouns for the convenience of readers of modern English. Many modern Arthurian writers have used Malory as their principal source, including T. H. White in his The Once and Future King and Alfred, Lord Tennyson in The Idylls of the King.
Contents
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1 Authorship
2 Publication history
2.1 The Winchester Manuscript
2.2 Style and themes of Le Morte D'Arthur
3 Synopsis
3.1 Book I: "From the Marriage of King Uther unto King Arthur that Reigned After Him and Did Many Battles" (Caxton I–IV)
3.2 Book II: "The Noble Tale Between King Arthur and Lucius the Emperor of Rome" (Caxton V)
3.3 Book III: "The Noble Tale of Sir Launcelot Du Lac" (Caxton VI)
3.4 Book IV: "The Tale of Sir Gareth of Orkney" (Caxton VII)
3.5 Book V: "The First and the Second Book of Sir Tristrams de Lione" (Caxton VIII–XII)
3.6 Book VI: "The Noble Tale of the Sangreal" (Caxton XIII–XVII)
3.7 Book VII: "Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere" (Caxton XVIII–XIX)
3.8 Book VIII: "The Death of Arthur" (Caxton XX–XXI)
4 Modern republications and adaptations
5 Bibliography
5.1 The work itself
5.2 Commentary
5.3 References
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Authorship[edit]
Main article: Sir Thomas Malory
The exact identity of the author of Le Morte D'Arthur has long been the subject of speculation, owing to the fact that at least six historical figures bore the name of "Sir Thomas Malory" in the late 15th century.[3] In the work the author describes himself as "Knyght presoner Thomas Malleorre" ("Sir Thomas Maleore" according to Caxton). This is taken as supporting evidence for the identification most widely accepted by scholars: that the author was the Thomas Malory born in the year 1416, to Sir John Malory of Newbold Revel, Warwickshire.[4][5]
Sir Thomas inherited the family estate in 1434, but by 1450 he was fully engaged in a life of crime. As early as 1433 he had been accused of theft, but the more serious allegations against him were that of the attempted murder of the Duke of Buckingham, an accusal of rape at least twice, and that he had attacked and robbed Coombe Abbey. Malory was first arrested and imprisoned in 1451 for the ambush of Buckingham, but was released early in 1452. By March he was back in prison at Marshalsea Prison and then in Colchester, escaping on at least two occasions. In 1461 he was granted a pardon by Henry VI, returning to live at his estate.
Although originally allied to the Yorkists, after his release Malory changed his allegiance to the Lancastrians. This led to him being imprisoned yet again in 1468 when he led an ill-fated plot to overthrow Edward IV.[4] It was during this final stint at Newgate Prison in London that he is believed to have written Le Morte D'Arthur. Malory was released in October, 1470 when Henry VI came to the throne, but died only five months later.[4]
Publication history[edit]
Elizabeth Bryan speaks of Malory's contribution to Arthurian Legend in her introduction to Le Morte D'Arthur: "Malory did not invent the stories in this collection; he translated and compiled them... Malory in fact translated Arthurian stories that already existed in thirteenth-century French prose (the so-called Old French Vulgate romances) and compiled them together with at least one tale from Middle English sources (the Alliterative Morte Arthure and the Stanzaic Morte Arthur) to create this text."[6]
He called the full work The hoole booke of kyng Arthur & of his noble knyghtes of the rounde table, but William Caxton instead titled it with Malory's name for the final section of the cycle. Modernized editions update the late Middle English spelling, update some pronouns, and repunctuate and reparagraph the text. Others furthermore update the phrasing and vocabulary to contemporary Modern English. Here is an example (from Caxton's preface) in Middle English and then in Modern English:
Doo after the good and leve the evyl, and it shal brynge you to good fame and renomme.[7]
Do after the good and leave the evil, and it shall bring you to good fame and renown.[8]
The Middle English of Le Morte D'Arthur is much closer to Early Modern English than the Middle English of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. If the spelling is modernized, it reads almost like Elizabethan English.
The first printing of Malory's work was made by Caxton in 1485. Only two copies of this original printing are known to exist, in the collections of the Morgan Library & Museum and the John Rylands Library.[9] It proved popular and was reprinted in 1498 and 1529 with some additions and changes by Wynkyn de Worde who succeeded Caxton's press. Three more editions were published before the English Civil War: William Copland's (1557), Thomas East's (1585), and William Stansby's (1634), each of which contained additional changes and errors (including the omission of an entire leaf). Thereafter, the book went out of fashion until the Romantic revival of interest in all things medieval; the year 1816 saw a new edition by Walker and Edwards, and another one by Wilks, both based on the 1634 Stansby edition. Davison's 1817 edition was promoted by Robert Southey and was based on Caxton's 1485 edition or on a mixture of Caxton and Stansby. Davison was the basis for subsequent editions until the discovery of the Winchester Manuscript.
Caxton separated Malory's eight books into 21 books; subdivided each book into a total of 507 chapters; added a summary of each chapter and added a colophon to the entire book.[10] Malory's eight tales are:
The birth and rise of Arthur: "From the Marriage of King Uther unto King Arthur that Reigned After Him and Did Many Battles"
King Arthur's war against the Romans: "The Noble Tale Between King Arthur and Lucius the Emperor of Rome"
The book of Lancelot: "The Tale of Sir Launcelot du Lac"
The book of Gareth (brother of Gawain): "The Tale of Sir Gareth"
Tristan and Isolde: "The Book of Sir Tristrams de Lyons"
The Quest for the Holy Grail: "The Noble Tale of the Sangreal"
The affair between Lancelot and Guinevere: "Sir Launcelot and Queen Gwynevere"
The breaking of the Knights of the Round Table and the death of Arthur: "Le Morte D'Arthur"
Most of the events in the book take place in Britain and France at an unspecified time. (The historical events on which the legend is based took place in the late 5th century, but the story contains many anachronisms and makes no effort at historical accuracy.) In some parts, the story ventures farther afield, to Rome and Sarras (near Babylon), and recalls Biblical tales from the ancient Near East.
The Winchester Manuscript[edit]
For the Winchester Chronicle, see Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
Winchester College headmaster W. F. Oakeshott discovered a previously unknown manuscript copy of the work in June 1934, during the cataloging of the college's library. Newspaper accounts announced that what Caxton had published in 1485 was not exactly what Malory had written.[11] Oakeshott published "The Finding of the Manuscript" in 1963, chronicling the initial event and his realization that "this indeed was Malory," with "startling evidence of revision" in the Caxton edition.[12] It is hypothesized that Caxton's text and the Winchester manuscript are both derived from an earlier copy. (Having said this, microscopic examination revealed that ink smudges on the Winchester manuscript are offsets of newly printed pages set in Caxton's own font, which indicates that the Winchester Manuscript was in Caxton's print shop.[9]) The "Winchester Manuscript" is believed to be closer on the whole to Malory's original. In addition, it does not have the book and chapter divisions for which Caxton takes credit in his preface.
Malory scholar Eugène Vinaver examined the manuscript shortly after its discovery. Oakeshott was encouraged to produce an edition himself, but he ceded the project to Vinaver.[12] Based on his initial study of the manuscript, Oakeshott concluded in 1935 that the copy from which Caxton printed his edition "was already subdivided into books and sections."[13] Vinaver made an exhaustive comparison of the manuscript with Caxton's edition and reached similar conclusions. In his 1947 publication of The Works of Sir Thomas Malory, he argued that Malory did not write a single book, but rather a series of Arthurian tales, each of which is an internally consistent and independent work. However, scholars (including William Matthews) pointed out that Malory's later tales make frequent references back to the earlier events, suggesting that he had wanted the tales to cohere better but had not sufficiently revised the whole text to achieve this.[14]
The Winchester manuscript has been digitised by a Japanese team, who note that "the text is imperfect, as the manuscript lacks the first and last quires and few leaves. The most striking feature of the manuscript is the extensive use of red ink."[15][16]
Style and themes of Le Morte D'Arthur[edit]
The publication of Chaucer's work by William Caxton was a precursor to his publication of Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur. Where the Canterbury Tales are in Middle English, Malory extends "one hand to Chaucer, and one to Spenser" constructing a manuscript which is hard to place in one category. Like other English prose in the fifteenth century, Le Morte D'Arthur was highly influenced by French writings, but Malory blends these with other English verse and prose forms. Although Malory hearkens back to an age of idealized knighthood, jousting tournaments, and grand castles to suggest a medieval world, his stories lack any agricultural life, or commerce which makes the story feel as if it were an era of its own.
Because there is so much lengthy ground to cover, Malory uses "so—and—then," often to transition his retelling. This repetition is not redundant, but adds an air of continuity only befitting the story's scale and grandeur. The stories then become episodes instead of instances that can stand on their own.
There is an artful way in which Malory portrays Arthur by revealing him to us only by how others are affected by his actions. This creates a man whom we cannot define, but still stands as the center of the legend, and lets our mind move from him to the scenes around him.[17]
The themes of love and war "are fundamental to the work of Sir Thomas Malory. Religion—the third of the great epic themes—is admittedly and nobly subordinated; only at the end, Guinevere, in expiation of her guilt in destroying the Round Table, becomes a nun; and Lancelot, for love of her and not for the love of God, takes on himself the habit of perfection."[citation needed] It has been declared that, "Malory recreated an epic story from romance," because of his inclusion of the mysterious and magical elements in a depiction of a world with which Malory's contemporaries are familiar. Through the format of a knightly romance provides, "an idealized version of the life of the knightly class; it is the warrior's daydream, designed for recreation (or "solace"), not instruction (or "doctrine"), and representing the average sensual man's point of view." The forms of romantic characters used in order to create the world of Arthur and the Round Table, "consist almost entirely of fighting men, their wives or mistresses, with an occasional clerk or an enchanter, a fairy or a fiend, a giant or a dwarf," and "time does not work on the heroes of Malory."[18]
Synopsis[edit]
Book I: "From the Marriage of King Uther unto King Arthur that Reigned After Him and Did Many Battles" (Caxton I–IV)[edit]
Arthur is born to Uther Pendragon and Igraine and then taken by Sir Ector to be fostered in the country. He later becomes the king of a leaderless England when he removes the fated sword from the stone. Arthur goes on to win many battles due to his military prowess and Merlin's counsel. He then consolidates his kingdom.
This first book also tells "The Tale of Balyn and Balan", which ends in accidental fratricide, and the begetting of Mordred, Arthur's incestuous son by his half-sister, Morgause (though Arthur did not know her as his half-sister). On Merlin's advice, and reminiscent of Herod's killing of the innocents in scripture, Arthur takes every newborn boy in his kingdom and sends them to sea in a boat. The boat crashes and all but Mordred, who later kills his father, perish. This is mentioned matter-of-factly, with no apparent moral overtone. Arthur marries Guinevere, and inherits the Round Table from her father Leodegrance. At Pentecost, Arthur gathers his knights at Camelot and establishes the Round Table company. All swear to the Pentecostal Oath as a guide for knightly conduct.
Book II: "The Noble Tale Between King Arthur and Lucius the Emperor of Rome" (Caxton V)[edit]
This book, detailing Arthur's march on Rome, is heavily based on the Middle English Alliterative Morte Arthure, which in turn is heavily based on Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae. The opening of Book V finds Arthur and his kingdom without an enemy. His throne is secure, his knights have proven themselves through a series of quests, Sir Lancelot and Sir Tristan have arrived and the court is feasting. When envoys from Emperor Lucius of Rome arrive and accuse Arthur of refusing tribute, "contrary to the statutes and decrees made by the noble and worthy Julius Caesar", Arthur and his knights are stirring for a fight. They are "many days rested" and excited, "for now shall we have warre and worshype." Arthur invokes the lineage of Ser Belyne and Sir Bryne, legendary British conquerors of Rome, and through their blood lineage demands tribute from Lucius under the argument that Britain conquered Rome first. Lucius, apprised of the situation by his envoys, raises a heathen army of the East, composed of Spaniards and Saracens, as well as other enemies of the Christian world. Rome is supposed to be the seat of Christianity, but it is more foreign and corrupt than the courts of Arthur and his allies. Departing from Geoffrey of Monmouth's history in which Mordred is left in charge, Malory's Arthur leaves his court in the hands of Sir Constantine of Cornwall and an advisor. Arthur sails to Normandy to meet his cousin Hoel, but he finds a giant terrorizing the people from the holy island of Mont St. Michel. Arthur battles him alone, an act of public relations intended to inspire his knights. The giant dies after Arthur "swappis his genytrottys in sondir" and "kut his baly in sundir, that oute wente the gore". Arthur then fights Lucius and his armies defeat the Romans. He is crowned Emperor, a proxy government is arranged for the Roman Empire and Arthur returns to London where his queen welcomes him royally.
Book III: "The Noble Tale of Sir Launcelot Du Lac" (Caxton VI)[edit]
In this tale, Malory establishes Lancelot as King Arthur's most revered knight. Among Lancelot's numerous episodic adventures include being enchanted into a deep sleep by the sorceress Morgan le Fay and having to escape her castle, proving victorious in a tournament fighting on behalf of King Bagdemagus, slaying the mighty Sir Turquine who had been holding several of Arthur's knights prisoner, and also overcoming the betrayal of a damsel to defend himself unarmed against Sir Phelot.
Book IV: "The Tale of Sir Gareth of Orkney" (Caxton VII)[edit]
The tale of Sir Gareth begins with his arrival at court as le bel inconnu, or the fair unknown. He comes without a name and therefore without a past. Sir Kay mockingly calls the unknown young man "Beaumains" and treats him with contempt and condescension. An unknown woman, later revealed to be the Dame Lynette, eventually comes to court asking for assistance against the Red Knight of the Red Lands, and Gareth takes up the quest. On his quest, he encounters the Black, Green, Red, and Blue knights and the Red knight of the Red Lands. He kills the Black Knight, incorporates the others into Arthur's court, and rescues Lynette's sister Lyonesse. Lustily in love with Lyonesse, Gareth conspires to consummate their relationship before marrying. Only by the magical intervention of Lynette is their tryst unsuccessful, thus preserving Gareth's virginity and, presumably, his standing with God. Gareth later counsels Lyonesse to report to King Arthur and pretend she doesn't know where he is; instead, he tells her to announce a tournament of his knights against the Round Table. This allows Gareth to disguise himself and win honor by defeating his brother knights. The heralds eventually acknowledge that he is Sir Gareth right as he strikes down Sir Gawain, his brother. The book ends with Gareth rejoining his fellow knights and marrying Lyonesse.
In Book IV, there are only two knights that have ever held against Sir Lancelot in tournament: Tristram and Gareth. This was always under conditions where one or both parties were unknown by the other, for these knights loved each other "passingly well." Gareth was knighted by Lancelot himself when he took upon him the adventure on behalf of Dame Lynette. Much later, Gareth is accidentally slain by his beloved Lancelot when Guinevere is rescued from being burnt at the stake by King Arthur.
Book V: "The First and the Second Book of Sir Tristrams de Lione" (Caxton VIII–XII)[edit]
In "The Fyrste and the Secunde Boke of Syr Trystrams de Lyones," Malory tells the tales of Sir Tristan (Trystram), Sir Dinadan, Sir Palamedes, Sir La Cote De Male Tayle, Sir Alexander, and a variety of other knights. Based on the French Prose Tristan, or a lost English adaptation of it, Malory's Tristan section is the literal centerpiece of Le Morte D'Arthur as well as the longest of the eight books.
The book is rife with adultery, characterized most visibly in Sir Tristan and the Belle Isolde. However, it should be noted that Sir Tristan had met and fallen in love with Isolde earlier, and that his uncle, King Mark, jealous of Tristan and seeking to undermine him, appears to seek marriage to Isolde for just such a hateful purpose, going so far as to ask Tristan to go and seek her hand on his behalf (which Tristan, understanding that to be his knightly duty, does). Sir Tristan is the namesake of the book and his adulterous relationship with Isolde, his uncle Mark's wife, is one of the focuses of the section. Other knights, even knights of the Round Table, make requests that show the dark side of the world of chivalry. In one episode, Sir Bleoberis, one of Lancelot's cousins, claims another knight's wife for his own and rides away with her until stopped by Sir Tristan. In another, when Tristan defeats Sir Blamore, another knight of the Round Table, Blamore asks Tristan to kill him because he would rather die than have his reputation tarnished by the defeat.
Of all the knights, Tristan most resembles Lancelot. He loves a queen, the wife of another. Tristan is even considered to be as strong and able a knight as Lancelot, although they become beloved friends. Because of King Mark's treacherous behavior, Tristan takes Isolde from him and lives with her for some time, but he then returns Isolde to him. Nonetheless, Mark kills Tristan while he is "harping" (Tristan is noted in the book as one of the greatest of musicians and falconers).
Book VI: "The Noble Tale of the Sangreal" (Caxton XIII–XVII)[edit]
Malory's primary source for "The Noble Tale of the Sangreal" is the French Vulgate Cycle's La Queste Del Saint Graal. Malory's version chronicles the adventures of numerous knights in their quest to achieve the Holy Grail. The Grail first appears in the hall of King Arthur "coverde with whyght samyte", and it miraculously produces meat and drink for the knights. Gawain is the first to declare that he "shall laboure in the Queste of the Sankgreall". He embarks on the quest in order to see the Grail "more opynly than hit hath bene shewed" before, and to gain more "metys and drynkes". Likewise, Lancelot, Percival, Bors, and Galahad undergo the quest. Their exploits are intermingled with encounters with maidens and hermits who offer advice and interpret dreams along the way.
Book VII: "Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere" (Caxton XVIII–XIX)[edit]
At the beginning of the book "Sir Launcelot and Queene Gwenyvere", Malory tells his readers that the pair started behaving carelessly in public, stating that "Launcelot began to resort unto the Queene Guinevere again and forget the promise and the perfection that he made in the Quest... and so they loved together more hotter than they did beforehand"(Cooper, 402). They indulged in "privy draughts together" and behaved in such a way that "many in the court spoke of it" (Cooper, 402).
This book also includes the "knight of the cart" episode, where Maleagant kidnapped Guinevere and her unarmed knights and held them prisoner in his castle. After Maleagant's archers killed his horse, Launcelot had to ride to the castle in a cart in order to save the queen. Knowing Lancelot was on his way, Maleagant pleaded to Guinevere for mercy, which she granted and then forced Lancelot to stifle his rage against Maleagant.
In this same book Malory mentions Lancelot and Guinevere's adultery. Malory says, "So, to passe upon this tale, Sir Launcelot wente to bedde with the Quene and toke no force of his hurte honed, but toke his plesaunce and hys lyknge untyll hit was the dawning of the day" (633). Sir Maleagant, upon finding blood in Guinevere's bed, was so convinced of her unfaithfulness to Arthur that he was willing to fight in an attempt to prove it to others. After Guinevere made it known that she wanted Maleagant dead, Launcelot killed him even though Maleagant begged for mercy (but only after Maleagant agreed to continue fighting with Lancelot's helmet removed, his left side body armor removed, and his left hand tied behind his back—Lancelot felt it necessary to finish the bout, but would not slay Maleagant unless Maleagant agreed to continue fighting). The book ends with Lancelot's healing of Sir Urry of Hungary, where Malory notes that Lancelot is the only knight out of hundreds to succeed in this endeavor.
Book VIII: "The Death of Arthur" (Caxton XX–XXI)[edit]
Mordred and Agravaine have been scheming to uncover Lancelot and Guinevere's adultery for quite some time. When they find an opportune moment to finally and concretely reveal the adulterous relationship, Lancelot kills Agravaine and several others and escapes. Arthur is forced to sentence Guinevere to burn at the stake, and orders his surviving nephews, Gawain, Mordred, Gareth, and Gaheris, to guard the scene, knowing Lancelot will attempt a rescue. Gawain flatly refuses to be part of any act that will treat the queen shamefully. His younger brothers, Gaheris and Gareth, unable to deny the king's request that they escort Guinevere to the stake to be burnt, advise that they will do so at his command, but they will not arm themselves. When Lancelot's party raids the execution, many knights are killed, including, by accident, Gareth and Gaheris. Gawain, bent on revenge for their deaths, prompts Arthur into a war with Lancelot, first at his castle in northern England. At this point the Pope steps in and issues a bull to end the violence between Arthur's and Lancelot's factions. Shortly thereafter, Arthur pursues Lancelot to his home in France to continue the fight. Gawain challenges Lancelot to a duel, but loses and asks Lancelot to kill him; Lancelot refuses and grants him mercy before leaving. This event plays out twice, each time Lancelot delaying because of Gawain's enchantment/blessing to grow stronger between 9 a.m. and noon, then striking down Gawain, but sparing his life.
Arthur receives a message that Mordred, whom he had left in charge back in Britain, has usurped his throne, and he leads his forces back home. In the invasion Gawain is mortally injured, and writes to Lancelot, asking for his help against Mordred, and for forgiveness for separating the Round Table. In a dream, the departed Gawain tells Arthur to wait thirty days for Lancelot to return to England before fighting Mordred, and Arthur sends Lucan and Bedivere to make a temporary peace treaty. At the exchange, an unnamed knight draws his sword to kill an adder. The other knights construe this as treachery and a declaration of war. Seeing no other recourse, at the Battle of Camlann, Arthur charges Mordred and impales him with a spear. But with the last of his strength, Mordred impales himself even further, so as to come within striking distance of King Arthur, then gives a mortal blow to Arthur's head.
As he was dying, Arthur commands Bedivere to cast Excalibur into the lake. Bedivere initially does not throw the sword in the lake, but instead hides it behind a tree. He confesses his reluctance to Arthur, then returns to the lake and throws in his own sword instead of Excalibur. Bedivere once again relays his disobedience to Arthur, who requests the sword be returned to the lake for a third time. When Bedivere finally throws Excalibur back in the lake, it is retrieved by the hand of the Lady of the Lake. The hand shakes the sword three times and then vanishes back into the water. A barge appears, carrying ladies in black hoods (one being Morgan le Fay), who take Arthur to the Isle of Avalon.
After the passing of King Arthur, Malory provides a denouement, mostly following the lives (and deaths) of Guinevere, Lancelot, and Lancelot's kinsmen. When Lancelot returns to Dover, he mourns the deaths of his comrades. Lancelot travels to Almesbury to see Guinevere. During the civil war, Guinevere is portrayed as a scapegoat for violence without developing her perspective or motivation. However, after Arthur's death, Guinevere retires to a convent in penitence for her infidelity. Her contrition is sincere and permanent; Lancelot is unable to sway her to come away with him. Instead, Lancelot becomes a monk, and is joined in monastic life by his kinsmen. Arthur's successor is appointed (Constantine, son of King Carados of Scotland), and the realm that Arthur created is significantly changed. After the deaths of Guinevere and Lancelot, Sirs Bors, Hector, Blamore, and Bleoberis head to the Holy Land to crusade, where they die on Good Friday.
Modern republications and adaptations[edit]
The Victorian poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson retold the legends in the poetry volume Idylls of the King. His work focuses primarily on Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and the Mabinogion, but with many expansions, additions, and several adaptations, like the fate of Guinevere. In Malory, she is sentenced to be burnt at the stake but is rescued by Lancelot; in the Idylls Guinevere flees to a convent, is forgiven by Arthur, repents, and serves in the convent until she dies.
"How Arthur by the mean of Merlin gat Excalibur his sword of the Lady of the Lake", illustration for Le Morte Darthur, J. M. Dent & Co., London (1893-1894), by Aubrey Beardsley
In 1892, London publisher J. M. Dent & Co. decided to produce an illustrated edition of Le Morte Darthur in modern spelling. They chose a 20-year-old insurance-office clerk and art student, Aubrey Beardsley, to illustrate the work. It was issued in 12 parts between June 1893 and mid-1894, and met with only modest success at the time. However, it has since been described as Beardsley's first masterpiece, launching what has come to be known as the "Beardsley look".[19] It was his first major commission, and included nearly 585 chapter openings, borders, initials, ornaments and full- or double-page illustrations. Most of the Dent edition illustrations were reprinted by Dover Publications, New York, in 1972 under the title Beardsley's Illustrations for Le Morte Darthur. A facsimile of the Beardsley edition, complete with Malory's unabridged text, was published in the 1990s.
Title page (N.C. Wyeth) for The Boy's King Arthur: Sir Thomas Malory's History of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, Edited for Boys by Sidney Lanier (1922)
In 1880, American poet Sidney Lanier published a much watered-down and expurgated version of Malory's book entitled The Boy's King Arthur.[20] This version was later incorporated into Grosset and Dunlap's series of books called the Illustrated Junior Library, and reprinted under the title King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.[21]
A number of other English versions of Le Morte d'Arthur have appeared. The first was published anonymously in 1950; the second by Roger Lancelyn and Richard Lancelyn Green published in 1953, and the third by Emma Gelders Sterne, Barbara Lindsay, Gustaf Tenggren and Mary Pope Osborne, published in 2002. Scholar Keith Baines published a modernized English version of Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur in 1962. In 2009, scholar Dorsey Armstrong published a Modern English translation that focused on the Winchester manuscript rather than the Caxton edition.
Malory's work served as inspiration for Mark Twain's novel A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court. In Twain's work, a reading of the text in modern times is interrupted by a mysterious stranger who claims to be a Yankee who was sent back in time to the Arthurian era.
The Once and Future King by T.H. White is, by far, the most well-known and influential retelling of Malory's story. Not a scene-by-scene redition, White instead retold the story in his own fashion, in the form of a novel. Just as Malory's retelling stands as the "definitive" and most popular version of Arthur's story, White's version stands out as, to date, the "definitive" telling of Malory's work.
John Steinbeck utilized the Winchester Manuscripts of Thomas Malory and other sources as the original text for his The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, which he never completed. It was published posthumously in 1976 in unfinished form of The Book of King Arthur and His Noble Knights of the Round Table. He intended the work for young people.
Other adaptations include Excalibur, a 1981 British epic fantasy film directed, produced, and co-written by John Boorman, which retells Le Morte d'Arthur with some changes to the plot and fate of the characters (such as completely replacing Morgause with Morgan, who dies in this version). Castle Freeman, Jr.'s 2008 novel Go With Me is a modern retelling of the Tale of Sir Gareth.[22][23]
Bibliography[edit]
The work itself[edit]
Editions based on the Winchester manuscript:
Facsimile:
Malory, Sir Thomas. The Winchester Malory: A Facsimile. Introduced by Ker, N. R. (1976). London: Early English Text Society. ISBN 0-19-722404-0.
Original spelling:
Malory, Sir Thomas. Le Morte Darthur. (A Norton Critical Edition). Ed. Shepherd, Stephen H. A. (2004). New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-97464-2. (Official website with textual corrections and further commentary: Stephen H. A. Shepherd: Le Morte Darthur: On-line companion.)
_________. The Works of Sir Thomas Malory. Ed. Vinaver, Eugène. 3rd ed. Field, Rev. P. J. C. (1990). 3 vol. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-812344-2, ISBN 0-19-812345-0, ISBN 0-19-812346-9.
_________. Malory: Complete Works. Ed. Vinaver, Eugène (1977). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-281217-3. (Revision and retitling of Malory: Works of 1971).
_________. Malory: Works. Ed. Vinaver, Eugène (1971). 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-254163-3.
_________. The Works of Sir Thomas Malory. Ed. Vinaver, Eugène (1967). 2nd ed. 3 vol. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-811838-4.
_________. Malory: Works. Ed. Vinaver, Eugène (1954). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-254163-3. (Malory's text from Vinaver's The Works of Sir Thomas Malory (1947), in a single volume dropping most of Vinaver's notes and commentary.)
_________. The Works of Sir Thomas Malory. Ed. Vinaver, Eugène (1947). 3 vol. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Modernised spelling:
Malory, Sir Thomas. Le Morte Darthur: The Winchester Manuscript. Ed. Cooper, Helen (1998). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-282420-1. (Abridged text.)
Translation/paraphrase into contemporary English:
Malory, Sir Thomas. Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur: King Arthur and Legends of the Round Table. Trans. and abridged by Baines, Keith (1983). New York: Bramhall House. ISBN 0-517-02060-2. Reissued by Signet (2001). ISBN 0-451-52816-6.
_________. Le Morte D'Arthur. (London Medieval & Renaissance Ser.) Trans. Lumiansky, Robert M. (1982). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 0-684-17673-4.
Steinbeck, John, and Thomas Malory. The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights: From the Winchester Manuscripts of Thomas Malory and Other Sources. (1976) New York: Noonday Press. Reissued 1993. ISBN 0-374-52378-9.
Brewer, D.S. Malory: The Morte Darthur. York Medieval Texts, Elizabeth Salter and Derek Pearsall, Gen. Eds. (1968) London: Edward Arnold. Reissued 1993. ISBN 0-7131-5326-1. (Modernized spelling version of Books 7 and 8 as a complete story in its own right. Based on Winchester MS, but with changes taken from Caxton, and some emendations by Brewer.)
Armstrong, Dorsey. Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur: A New Modern English Translation Based on the Winchester Manuscript (Renaissance and Medieval Studies) Anderson, SC: Parlor Press, 2009. ISBN 1-60235-103-1.
Editions based on Caxton's edition:
Facsimile:
Malory, Sir Thomas. Le Morte d'Arthur, printed by William Caxton, 1485. Ed. Needham, Paul (1976). London.
Original spelling:
Malory, Sir Thomas. Caxton's Malory. Ed. Spisak, James. W. (1983). 2 vol. boxed. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-03825-8.
_________. Le Morte Darthur by Sir Thomas Malory. Ed. Sommer, H. Oskar (1889–91). 3 vol. London: David Nutt. The text of Malory from this edition without Sommer's annotation and commentary and selected texts of Malory's sources is available on the web at:
University of Michigan: Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse: Le Morte Darthur.
Modernised spelling:
Malory, Sir Thomas. Le Morte d'Arthur. Ed. Matthews, John (2000). Illustrated by Ferguson, Anna-Marie. London: Cassell. ISBN 0-304-35367-1. (The introduction by John Matthews praises the Winchester text but then states this edition is based on the Pollard version of the Caxton text, with eight additions from the Winchester manuscript.)
_________. Le Morte Darthur. Introduction by Moore, Helen (1996). Herefordshire: Wordsworth Editions Ltd. ISBN 1-85326-463-6. (Seemingly based on the Pollard text.)
_________. Le morte d'Arthur. Introduction by Bryan, Elizabeth J. (1994). New York: Modern Library. ISBN 0-679-60099-X. (Pollard text.)
_________. Le Morte d'Arthur. Ed. Cowen, Janet (1970). Introduction by Lawlor, John. 2 vols. London: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-043043-1, ISBN 0-14-043044-X.
_________. Le Morte d'Arthur. Ed. Rhys, John (1906). (Everyman's Library 45 & 46.) London: Dent; London: J. M. Dent; New York: E. P. Dutton. Released in paperback format in 1976: ISBN 0-460-01045-X, ISBN 0-460-01046-8. (Text based on an earlier modernised Dent edition of 1897.)
_________. Le Morte Darthur: Sir Thomas Malory's Book of King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table,. Ed. Pollard, A. W. (1903). 2 vol. New York: Macmillan. (Text corrected from the bowdlerised 1868 Macmillan edition edited by Sir Edward Strachey.) Available on the web at:
Project Gutenberg: Le Morte Darthur: Volume 1 (books 1-9) and Le Morte Darthur: Volume 2 (books 10-21). (Plain text.)
Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library: Le Morte Darthur: Volume 1 (books 1-9) and Le Morte Darthur: Volume 2 (books 10-21) (HTML.)
Celtic Twilight: Legends of Camelot: Le Morte d'Arthur (HTML with illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley from the Dent edition of 1893–94.)
_________. Le Morte Darthur. Ed. Simmon, F. J. (1893–94). Illustrated by Beardsley, Aubrey. 2 vol. London: Dent.
Limerick translation: Le Morte d'Arthur, an Epic Limerick, 2006, by Jacob Wenzel, ISBN 978-1-4116-8987-9
Commentary[edit]
Glossary to Le Morte d'Arthur at Glossary to Book 1 and Glossary to Book 2 (PDF)
Lugodoc's Guide to Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur
Malory's Morte d'Arthur and Style of the Morte d'Arthur, selections by Alice D. Greenwood with bibliography from the Cambridge History of English Literature.
Arthur Dies at the End by Jeff Wikstrom
About the Winchester manuscript:
University of Georgia: English Dept: Jonathan Evans: Walter F. Oakeshott and the Winchester Manuscript. (Contains links to the first public announcements concerning the Winchester manuscript from The Daily Telegraph, The Times, and The Times Literary Supplement.)
UBC Dept. of English: Siân Echard: Caxton and Winchester (link offline on Oct. 25, 2011; according to message on Ms. Echard's Medieval Pages, "September 2011: Most of the pages below are being renovated, so the links are (temporarily) inactive.")
Department of English, Goucher College: Arnie Sanders: The Malory Manuscript
References[edit]
Bryan, Elizabeth J. (1999/1994). "Sir Thomas Malory", Le Morte D'Arthur, p.v. Modern Library. New York. ISBN 0-679-60099-X.
Whitteridge, Gweneth. “The Identity of Sir Thomas Malory, Knight-Prisoner.” The Review of English Studies; 24.95 (1973): 257-265. JSTOR. Web. 30 November 2009.
See also[edit]
King Arthur portal
Novels portal
Illegitimacy in fiction
Post-Vulgate Cycle
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Since morte (or mort) is a feminine noun, French would require the article la (i.e., "la mort d'Arthur"). According to Stephen H. A. Shepherd, "Malory frequently misapplies le in titular compounds, perhaps on a simple sonic and gender-neutral analogy with 'the'". Stephen H. A. Shepherd, ed., Le Morte Darthur, by Sir Thomas Malory (New York: W. W. Norton, 2004), 1n.
Jump up ^ Bryan, Elizabeth J. (1994/1999). "Sir Thomas Malory", Le Morte D'Arthur, p.vii. Modern Library. New York. ISBN 0-679-60099-X.
Jump up ^ (Bryan & 1994/1999, p. v)
^ Jump up to: a b c Wight, Colin (2009). "Thomas Malory's 'Le Morte Darthur'". www.bl.uk.
Jump up ^ (Whitteridge 2009, p. 257-265)
Jump up ^ Bryan (1994), p.viii-ix.
Jump up ^ Bryan (1994), p.xii.
Jump up ^ Bryan, ed. (1999), p.xviii.
Jump up ^ McShane, Kara L. (2010). "Malory's Morte d'Arthur". The Rossell Hope Robbins Library at the University of Rochester. Retrieved 3 July 2013.
Jump up ^ Bryan (2004), p.ix
Jump up ^ W. F. Oakeshott. "The Text of Malory". Retrieved 2009-01-11.
^ Jump up to: a b Walter F. Oakeshott, "The Finding of the Manuscript," Essays on Malory, ed. J. A. W. Bennett (Oxford: Clarendon, 1963), 1-6.
Jump up ^ Walter F. Oakeshott, "Caxton and Malory's Morte Darthur," Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (1935), 112-116.
Jump up ^ William Matthews, The Ill-Framed Knight: A Skeptical Inquiry into the Identity of Sir Thomas Malory (Berkeley, CA: University of California, 1966).
Jump up ^ The Malory Project (http://www.maloryproject.com), directed by Takako Kato and designed by Nick Hayward.
Jump up ^ Whetter, K. S. (2017). The Manuscript and Meaning of Malory's Morte Darthur. D. S. Brewer.
Jump up ^ "Morte D'Arthur." The Cambridge History of English Literature. A.W Ward, A.R Waller. Vol II. Cambridge: A UP, 1933. Print.
Jump up ^ Scott-Kilvert, Ian. British Writers. New York Charles Scribners's Sons, 1979
Jump up ^ Dover Publications (1972). Beardsley's Illustrations for Le Morte Darthur, Publisher's note & back cover.
Jump up ^ Malory, Thomas; Lanier, Sidney; Kappes, Alfred; Charles Scribner's Sons; Rand, Avery & Co (16 October 1880). "The boy's King Arthur: Being Sir Thomas Malory's history of King Arthur and his Knights of The Round Table" – via Open WorldCat.
Jump up ^ Malory, Sir Thomas (1 September 1950). Lanier, Sidney, ed. "King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table". Grosset & Dunlap – via Amazon.
Jump up ^ bookgroup.info: interview: Castle Freeman. Retrieved 2012-12-17.
Jump up ^ A Chat With Castle Freeman, Jr. Retrieved 2012-12-17.
External links[edit]
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Le Morte d'Arthur
Le Morte d'Arthur public domain audiobook at LibriVox
Full Text of Volume One - at Project Gutenberg
Full Text of Volume Two - at Project Gutenberg
Full eBook of Volume One eBook different versions
Le Morte Darthur. volume 1 (Ebook version)
Le Morte Darthur. volume 2 (Ebook version)
Different copies of La Mort d'Arthur on Internet Archive.
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Got to Give It Up
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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"Got to Give It Up"
Picture sleeve for one of U.S. vinyl singles
Single by Marvin Gaye
from the album Live at the London Palladium
A-side
"Got to Give It Up" (Pt. 1)
B-side
"Got to Give It Up" (Pt. 2)
Released
March 15, 1977
Format
7" single
12" single
Recorded
December 1976
Studio
Marvin's Room, Los Angeles, California
Genre
Disco
jazz-funk
soul
R&B
Length
11:52 (full-length version)
4:12 (single version)
Label
Tamla
Songwriter(s)
Marvin Gaye
Producer(s)
Art Stewart
Marvin Gaye singles chronology
"Since I Had You"
(1976) "Got to Give It Up"
(1977) "String Module Error: Match not found"
(1978)
"Got to Give It Up" is a song by American music artist Marvin Gaye. Written by the singer and produced by Art Stewart as a response to a request from Gaye's record label that he perform disco music, it was released in March of 1977.
Upon its release, it topped three different Billboard charts and also became a worldwide success. Gaye sometimes used the song to open up his live concert shows. The song has been covered by several acts.
Contents
1 Background
2 Production
3 Composition
4 Release and reaction
5 Music video
6 Legacy
7 Personnel
8 Charts
9 Aaliyah version
10 Charts
11 Covers by other artists
12 References
13 External links
Background[edit]
Throughout 1976, Marvin Gaye's popularity was still at a high in America and abroad, but the singer struggled throughout the year due to pending lawsuits from former band mates. Divorce court proceedings between Gaye and first wife Anna Gordy had put a strain on him. Financial difficulties almost led to imprisonment for the singer when Gordy accused him of failing to pay child support payments for their only child, son Marvin Pentz Gaye III.
To relieve Gaye from his debt, his European concert promoter Jeffrey Kruger booked the singer on a lengthy European tour. Gaye began the tour in the United Kingdom where he had a strong fan base dating back to his early career in the 1960s, making his first stop in the country since 1964. His performances there were given rave reviews. One of the shows, filmed at London's Palladium, was recorded for a live album, later released as Live at the London Palladium, in the spring of 1977. Around the same time, Gaye's label Motown tried to get the artist to record in the current sound of the times, disco music. Gaye criticized the music, claiming it lacked substance and vowed against recording in the genre. His label mate Diana Ross had recorded her first disco song, "Love Hangover". The song's producer Hal Davis debated over giving that song to either Ross or Gaye. After working over the song, he went with Ross, and it became her fourth solo number one hit. Motown struggled to get Gaye in the studio as Gaye focused on work on an album (which would later be released as Here, My Dear, dedicated to Gaye's troubled first marriage). After months of holding off from recording anything resembling disco, the singer set upon writing a song parodying a disco setting.
Production[edit]
The first recording session for "Got to Give It Up", originally titled "Dancing Lady", was on December 13, 1976. Influenced by the Johnnie Taylor hit, "Disco Lady", Gaye was inspired to create his answer song to Taylor's hit. To help set up a "disco" atmosphere, Gaye hired Motown producer and engineer Art Stewart to oversee the song's production. Gaye and Stewart brought in several musicians and Gaye's friends, his brother Frankie and girlfriend Janis Hunter, to Gaye's recording studio complex, Marvin's Room. From December 14 to 17, 1976, Gaye performed the lead vocal track, instrumentation (which included Gaye, Fernando Harkness, Johnny McGhee, Frankie Beverly and Bugsy Wilcox and Funk Brother member Jack Ashford) and background vocals. In the song, Gaye added background vocals from his brother and his girlfriend. During the second half of the song, the song introduces vocal layered doo-wop styled scatting from Gaye and produced a funk-influenced vamp. Fernando Harkness performs a tenor saxophone solo in the second half of the song.
Gaye recorded his vocals on the first date of sessions, adding instrumentation on the following day, and then adding other effects in the latter two days, mixing it by January 1977. Influenced by the vocal chatter on his previous hit, "What's Going On", Gaye decided to create a party scene outside the recording studio where different voices are heard either greeting each other or partying. Gaye is also heard on the track greeting people and laughing while mingling in with the crowd. During the bridge, Gaye is heard yelling, "Say Don! Hey man, I didn't know you was in here!" The "Don" was later confirmed as Soul Train host Don Cornelius, who was one of Gaye's close friends. Gaye overlapped the party sounds over and over, making a loop. In the second half of the song, Gaye sings mainly the initial title, "dancing lady" over and over while a saxophone is playing a solo. All the background vocals on the second part of the song were from Gaye himself. Gaye also plays percussion, bass keyboards and RMI synthesisers in the final fade of the song. In the second half, he can be heard playing on a glass bottle halfway filled with grapefruit juice.[1] L.T.D. guitarist Johnny McGhee added guitar. McGhee and Frankie Beverly were the only non-band mates featured on the song playing instruments. Beverly also added assorted percussion.
Composition[edit]
After the start of the song, which includes vocal chatter, the song kicks off with a standard drum beat: kick, snare and hi-hat while synthesizers are heard soon afterwards. After nearly a minute, Gaye's vocals appear in a falsetto, which he sings in for most of the song. In the second half, after harmonizing in falsetto, Gaye's tenor vocals take over.
The song's story line focuses on a man who is a wallflower when he comes into a nightclub nervous to perform on the dance floor. But after a minute of this, the music takes over and his body starts to lose any inhibitions. Midway through he finally cuts loose before shouting the chant "non-stop express, party y'all; feel no distress, I'm at my best — let's dance, let's shout, gettin' funky what it's all about!" proving the power of the dance can overtake any shyness. The dance is mainly focused on Gaye and a suitable female partner he seeks. In the second half, a funkier jazz arrangement is helped in guitar, bass and a tambourine. After this, he continues chanting until the song fades.
Release and reaction[edit]
The record was released in March 1977 and eventually topped the US Billboard charts. The song held the number one position on the US Billboard Hot 100 for one week, from June 18 to 25, 1977. It replaced "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac, and was replaced by "Gonna Fly Now" by Bill Conti. On the R&B Singles Charts it held the number one spot for five weeks from April 30 until June 17, 1977 (being interrupted twice at the number one position for one week by "Whodunit" by Tavares for the week of May 21, 1977 and Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke" for the week of May 28, 1977 respectively).[2] On the disco charts the single was also a number one hit.[3] Billboard ranked it as the No. 20 song of 1977.
It would also reach number-one on the dance chart in May. The single also found success outside the United States reaching number seven on the UK Singles Chart, his biggest charted hit as a solo artist since his version of "Abraham, Martin & John" had peaked at number nine on the chart in 1970. Before, Gaye had modest success with two singles - "Save the Children" (which was released as a double-A side with Gaye's 1966 recording, "Little Darling (I Need You)") in 1971 and "Let's Get It On" in 1973 (which peaked at number 31 on the UK chart). The single also found modest success in some countries, peaking at number 24 on the Dutch singles chart and number 31 on the New Zealand charts. The single's success helped its parent album, Live at the London Palladium find substantial success on the Billboard 200, where it stayed at the top ten for several weeks. Sales of the album eventually reached two million.
Music video[edit]
Marvin lip-synched the song with a band on Soul Train soon after the song's release. This video was edited to achieve a music video format.
Legacy[edit]
Gaye's song became an important influence and motivation for Michael Jackson, who was searching to write a potential hit after The Jacksons had struggled with previous offerings. Jackson later wrote, with brother Randy, "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)", adapting parts of Gaye's chant, transforming it into "let's dance, let's shout, shake your body down to the ground". The song, "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough", written solely by Jackson and recorded the same year as "Shake Your Body", took even more of Gaye's approach with "Got to Give It Up", using percussive instruments and a continued funk guitar riff. Jackson sings most of the song in falsetto. Jackson's producer Quincy Jones added in strings used during the instrumental intro and a synthesizer guitar during the song's bridge. Much like the party chatter in "Got to Give It Up", Jackson added in vocal chatter; however, the chatter would later be debated as two people having a verbal argument while the tape was recording (a woman could be heard hollering "I love your little ass anyway!"). Jackson and Jones allowed the argument in the recording.
"Got to Give It Up" has been featured in the films Menace II Society (1993), Boogie Nights (1997), Practical Magic (1998), Summer of Sam (1999), Charlie's Angels (2000), Barbershop (2002), This Christmas (2007), Eat Pray Love (2010) and Paul (2011).
The song has also featured in the television shows The Wire, True Blood, and Scandal.
The 2013 hit single "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and song co-writer T.I. was the subject of a lawsuit for allegedly copying "Got to Give It Up". Thicke originally told the public both he and Pharrell were in the recording studio and suddenly Thicke told Pharrell "Damn, we should make something like that, something with that groove" and they wrote the song in less than an hour. However, Thicke later claimed this was all a lie and the song was entirely written by Pharrell.[4] Thicke stated "I was high on Vicodin and alcohol when I showed up at the studio."[5] On March 10, 2015, a federal jury found "Blurred Lines" infringed on "Got to Give It Up” and awarded nearly $7.4 million to Gaye's children. Jurors found against Pharrell and Thicke, but held harmless the record company and T.I.[6]
Personnel[edit]
Written and composed by Marvin Gaye
Produced and engineered by Art Stewart
Mixing by Art Stewart and Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye: Lead Vocals, RMI synthesizer bass, keyboards, percussion, bottle
Johnny McGhee: guitar
Fernando Harkness: saxophone
Bugsy Wilcox: drums
Jack Ashford: tambourine
Frankie Gaye: background vocals (Part I)
Janis Gaye: background vocals (Part I)
Vocal, rhythm and synthesizer arrangement by Marvin Gaye
Background vocals by Marvin Gaye (Part II)
Charts[edit]
Chart (1977)
Peak
position
US Billboard Hot 100
1
US Hot Soul Singles
1
US National Disco Action
1
Canadian RPM Top Singles
5
Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique
5
Dutch Top 40
24
VRT Top 30
21
New Zealand Singles Chart
31
UK Singles Chart
7
Aaliyah version[edit]
"Got to Give It Up"
Single by Aaliyah featuring Slick Rick
from the album One in a Million
B-side
"No Days Go By"
Released
October 8, 1996
Format
CD single
12-inch single
Recorded
October 1995[7]
Spectrum Studios
(Greensboro, NC)
Larrabee Studios
(Los Angeles)
Genre
R&B
funk
hip hop soul
Length
4:02 (radio edit)
4:41 (album version)
Label
Blackground
Atlantic
Songwriter(s)
Marvin Gaye
Slick Rick
Michael Jackson
Producer(s)
Kay Gee
Aaliyah singles chronology
"If Your Girl Only Knew"
(1996) "Got to Give It Up"
(1996) "One in a Million"
(1996)
Slick Rick singles chronology
"I Like"
(1996) I Like1996 "Got to Give It Up"
(1996) Got to Give It Up1996 "Street Talkin'"
(1999) Street Talkin'1999
Aaliyah's cover version of "Got to Give It Up" features a rap from Slick Rick, samples Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean", "Champ" by The Mohawks, an uncredited sample of "Got to Give It Up" itself on the LP version (the video version is overdubbed with original acoustics) and was included on her 1996 album One in a Million. It was released as the second single in the UK. Aaliyah's version of "Got to Give It Up" failed to chart in the US when it was commercially released there in January 1997 (although it was not sent to radio stations for airplay, a 12-inch vinyl single was released to record stores), but it was a minor hit in the UK, peaking at number 37 on the UK Singles Chart, it also peaked at number 38 on the Tokio Hot 100 charts in Japan[8] . It reached number 34 in New Zealand. The single's B-side, "No Days Go By", was one of Aaliyah's few self-compositions.
A new remix of Aaliyah's "Got to Give It Up" (without Slick Rick's vocals) was included on her posthumous 2002 compilation album I Care 4 U. The video is a re-edit of the original, which was directed by Paul Hunter. The video was edited to both the album version with Slick Rick, and a remix, without Slick Rick's vocals.
Charts[edit]
Chart (1996-1997)
Peak
position
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[9] 34
Scotland (Official Charts Company)[10] 98
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[11] 37
UK Dance (Official Charts Company)[12] 10
UK R&B (Official Charts Company)[13] 4
Covers by other artists[edit]
Tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders covered the song on his 1977 album Love Will Find a Way. Another saxophonist David Sanborn covered the song on his 1994 album Hearsay.[14] Urban Knights, a contemporary jazz group led by legendary pianist Ramsey Lewis performed a cover of this song, which was included on their 2003 album Urban Knights V.[15][16] A second known instrumental version is by saxophonist Kim Waters from his 2007 album You Are My Lady.[17][18] The song has been featured in several films and soundtracks since its release including the soundtracks to films such as 54, Summer of Sam and The Nanny Diaries while it was featured on the films, Charlie's Angels, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Menace 2 Society and Barbershop. In the latter film, the song is played during a crucial part in the film when two rival barbers nearly come to blows, the song is played which not only cools tension but brings out other people in the neighborhood to step out and dance. Justin Timberlake performed the song live at the 2008 Fashion Rocks concert. Gaye's daughter Nona recorded an unreleased version with Prince's band, New Power Generation. Zhane performed this song on a tribute album of various artists titled Marvin Is 60. The song has been covered recently by Thom Yorke's band Atoms for Peace during a live concert performance.[19] In 2015 South African band Van Coke Kartel released their version of the song.
References[edit]
Jump up ^ "Got to Give It Up – Marvin Gaye | Song Info". AllMusic. Retrieved 2016-10-12.
Jump up ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942–2004. Record Research. p. 225.
Jump up ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Hot Dance/Disco: 1974–2003. Record Research. p. 108.
Jump up ^ "Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams to face Marvin Gaye's family in court over Blurred Lines plagiarism claims – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)". Abc.net.au. 2014-10-31. Retrieved 2016-10-12.
Jump up ^ Eriq Gardner (15 September 2014). "Robin Thicke Admits Drug Abuse, Lying to Media in Wild "Blurred Lines" Deposition (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter.
Jump up ^ "Jurors hit Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams with $7.4-million verdict".
Jump up ^ "20 Questions". Google Books. Vibe. October 1995. Archived from the original (Magazine) on November 1995. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
Jump up ^ "Hits In Tokio". Billboard. Retrieved 2018-01-07.
Jump up ^ "Charts.nz – Aaliyah – Got to Give It Up". Top 40 Singles.
Jump up ^ "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
Jump up ^ "Aaliyah: Artist Chart History". Official Charts Company.
Jump up ^ "Official Dance Singles Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company. Retrieved December 3, 2017.
Jump up ^ "Official R&B Singles Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
Jump up ^ "Hearsay overview". Allmusic.com.
Jump up ^ "Urban Knights V overview". Allmusic.com.
Jump up ^ "Ramsey Lewis & Urban Knights". Narada.com. Archived from the original on 2004-06-22.
Jump up ^ "You Are My Lady overview". AllMusic.
Jump up ^ "You Are My Lady Kim Waters". JazzTimes.com.
Jump up ^ "Atoms For Peace cover Marvin Gaye's 'Got To Give It Up' – watch". Stereogum.com. Retrieved October 13, 2013.
External links[edit]
Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
show
v
t
e
Marvin Gaye
Studio
albums
The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye (1961)
That Stubborn Kinda Fellow (1962)
When I'm Alone I Cry (1964)
Hello Broadway (1964)
How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You (1965)
A Tribute to the Great Nat "King" Cole (1965)
Moods of Marvin Gaye (1966)
In the Groove/I Heard It Through the Grapevine! (1968)
M.P.G. (1969)
That's the Way Love Is (1970)
What's Going On (1971)
Trouble Man (1972)
Let's Get It On (1973)
I Want You (1976)
Here, My Dear (1978)
In Our Lifetime (1981)
Midnight Love (1982)
Posthumous
albums
Dream of a Lifetime (1985)
Romantically Yours (1986)
Vulnerable (1997)
Duet albums
Together (with Mary Wells, 1964)
Take Two (with Kim Weston, 1966)
United (with Tammi Terrell, 1967)
You're All I Need (with Tammi Terrell, 1968)
Easy (with Tammi Terrell, 1969)
Diana & Marvin (with Diana Ross, 1973)
Compilations
Greatest Hits (1964)
Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (1967)
Marvin Gaye and His Girls (1969)
Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's Greatest Hits (1970)
Super Hits (1970)
Anthology (1974)
Marvin Gaye's Greatest Hits (1976)
Motown Remembers Marvin Gaye: Never Before Released Masters (1986)
The Marvin Gaye Collection (1990)
The Norman Whitfield Sessions (1994)
Love Starved Heart: Rare and Unreleased (1994)
The Very Best of Marvin Gaye (1994)
The Master (1961–1984) (1995)
Marvin Gaye: The Love Songs (2000)
The Complete Duets (2001)
The Very Best of Marvin Gaye (2001)
Live albums
Marvin Gaye Recorded Live on Stage (1963)
Marvin Gaye Live! (1974)
Live at the London Palladium (1977)
Marvin Gaye at the Copa (2005)
Video albums
Greatest Hits Live (Live in Holland 1976) (2000)
Live In Montreux 1980 (2003)
The Real Thing: In Performance (1964–1981) (2006)
Live In Belgium 1981 (2006)
US/UK Top
Ten singles
"Pride and Joy"
"How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)"
"I'll Be Doggone"
"Ain't That Peculiar"
"Your Precious Love"
"If I Could Build My Whole World Around You"
"Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing"
"You're All I Need to Get By"
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine"
"Too Busy Thinking About My Baby"
"That's the Way Love Is"
"Abraham, Martin and John"
"The Onion Song"
"What's Going On"
"Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)"
"Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)"
"Trouble Man"
"Let's Get It On"
"You Are Everything"
"Got to Give It Up"
"Sexual Healing"
Family
Marvin Gay Sr. (father)
Alberta Gay (mother)
Anna Gordy Gaye (first wife)
Denise Gordy (son's birth mother)
Nona Gaye (daughter)
Frankie Gaye (brother)
Gordon Banks (brother-in-law)
Related
topics
Discography
Songs
Albums
Songs by Marvin Gaye
Albums produced by Marvin Gaye
Songs in memory
Songs produced by Marvin Gaye
Personal life
Death
Tributes
The Marquees
Harvey Fuqua
Tammi Terrell
Leon Ware
Marvin's Room
Marvin Is 60: A Tribute Album
Book
Category
Portal
show
v
t
e
Marvin Gaye singles discography
1960s: (Tamla)
1961
"Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide"
1962
"Sandman"
"Soldier's Plea"
"Stubborn Kind of Fellow"
"Hitch Hike"
1963
"Pride and Joy"
"Can I Get a Witness"
1964
"You're a Wonderful One"
"Once Upon a Time"
"What's the Matter with You Baby"
"Try It Baby"
"Baby Don't You Do It"
"What Good Am I Without You"
"How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)"
1965
"I'll Be Doggone"
"Pretty Little Baby"
"Ain't That Peculiar"
1966
"One More Heartache"
"Take This Heart of Mine"
"Little Darling (I Need You)"
"It Takes Two"
1967
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough"
"Your Unchanging Love"
"Your Precious Love"
"You"
"If I Could Build My Whole World Around You"/"If This World Were Mine"
1968
"Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing"
"You're All I Need to Get By"
"Chained"
"Keep On Lovin' Me Honey"
"You Ain't Livin' till You're Lovin'"
"His Eye Is on the Sparrow"
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine"
1969
"Good Lovin' Ain't Easy to Come By"
"Too Busy Thinking About My Baby"
"That's the Way Love Is"
"Abraham, Martin and John"
"What You Gave Me"
"How Can I Forget"
1970s: (Tamla)
1970
"Gonna Give Her All the Love I've Got"
"The Onion Song"
"California Soul"
"The End of Our Road"
1971
"What's Going On"
"Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)"
"Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)"
"Save the Children"
1972
"You're the Man"
"Trouble Man"
"I Want to Come Home for Christmas"
1973
"Let's Get It On"
"You're a Special Part of Me"
"Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)"
"Come Get to This"
1974
"You Sure Love to Ball"
"My Mistake (Was to Love You)"
"Don't Knock My Love"
"You Are Everything"
"Distant Lover"
1976
"I Want You"
"After the Dance"
"Since I Had You"
1977
"Got to Give It Up"
1978
"Pops, We Love You (A Tribute to Father)"
1979
"A Funky Space Reincarnation"
"Anger"
"Ego Tripping Out"
1980s: (Tamla/
Columbia)
1981
"Praise"
"Heavy Love Affair"
1982
"Sexual Healing"
1983
"My Love Is Waiting"
"'Til Tomorrow"
"Joy"
Posthumous
1985
"Sanctified Lady"
"It's Madness"
"Just Like"
1986
"The World Is Rated X"
1991
"My Last Chance"
1994
"Lucky, Lucky Me"
1995
"This Love Starved Heart Of Mine(It's Killing Me)"
2001
"Music"
2005
"Let's Get It On (The M.P.G. Groove Remix)"
2015
"Where Are We Going"
Book
Category
Portal
show
v
t
e
Aaliyah
Discography
Songs
Awards and nominations
Studio albums
Age Ain't Nothing but a Number
One in a Million
Aaliyah
Compilation albums
I Care 4 U
Ultimate Aaliyah
Singles
"Back & Forth"
"At Your Best (You Are Love)"
"Age Ain't Nothing but a Number"
"Down with the Clique"
"The Thing I Like"
"Are You Ready?"
"If Your Girl Only Knew"
"Got to Give It Up"
"One in a Million"
"4 Page Letter"
"Hot Like Fire"
"The One I Gave My Heart To"
"Journey to the Past"
"Are You That Somebody?"
"I Don't Wanna"
"Try Again"
"Come Back in One Piece"
"We Need a Resolution"
"More Than a Woman"
"Rock the Boat"
"Miss You"
"I Care 4 U"
"Don't Know What to Tell Ya"
"Come Over"
"Enough Said"
Featured singles
"I Need You Tonight"
"Live and Die for Hip Hop"
"Up Jumps da Boogie"
"Don't Think They Know"
Other songs
"Summer Bunnies (Summer Bunnies Contest Extended Remix)"
"Your Body's Callin' (His & Hers Extended Remix)"
"No One Knows How to Love Me Quite Like You Do"
"Choosey Lover"
Related topics
Gladys Knight
Rashad Haughton
Barry Hankerson
R. Kelly
Death of Aaliyah
Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B
Book
Category
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Got_to_Give_It_Up&oldid=853151758"
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values: Find background information on current events

values:
/wiki/Special:Random
Load a random article [ctrl-alt-x]
x

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