"T. H. White - The Once and Future King" - читать интересную книгу автора (White T.H)

He went to the door and opened it, but there was nobody there.
"A false alarm." -.
"Bolt it then."
He slid the wooden beam across тАФ a great bar of oak five inches thick, which slid into a channel deep in
the thickness of the wail. Coming back to the candle-light, he separated the shining hair into convenient
strands and began to plait them swiftly. His hands moved like shuttles.
"It Is silly to be nervous," he observed.
She was still speculating, however, and replied with a question.
"Do you remember Tristram and Iseult?"
"Of course."
"Tristram used to sleep with King Mark's wife, and the King murdered him for it."
"Tristram was a lout."
"I thought he was nice."
"That was what he wanted you to think. But he was a Cornish knight, like the rest of them."
"He was said to be the second-best knight in the world. Sir Lancelot, Sir Tristram, Sir Lamorak..."
"That was tittle-tattle."
"Why did you think he was a lout?" she asked.
"Well, it's a long story. You don't remember what chivalry used to be before your Arthur started the
Table, so you don't know what a genuis you have married. You don't see what a difference there is
between Tristram, and, well, Gareth for instance."
"What difference?"
"In the old days it was a case of every knight for himself. The old stagers, people like Sir Bruce Saunce
Pit├й, were pirates. They knew they were impregnable in armour, and they did as they pleased. It was
open manslaughter and bold bawdry. When Arthur came to the throne, they were furious. You see, he
believed in Right and Wrong."
"He still does."
"Fortunately he had a tenacious character as well as this idea of his. It took him about five years to set it
on foot, but it was that people ought to be gentle. I must have been one of the first knights to catch the

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idea of gentleness from him, and I caught it young, and he made it part of my inside. Everybody is
always saying what a parfit, gentle knight I am, but it has nothing to do with me. It is Arthur's idea. It is
what he has wished on all the younger generation, like Gareth, and now it is fashionable. It led to the
Quest for the Grail."
"And why was Tristram a lout?"
"Well, he just was. Arthur says he was a buffoon. He lived in Cornwall; he had never been educated by
Arthur; but he had got wind of the fashion. He had got some garbled notion into his head that famous
knights ought to be gentle, and he was always rushing about trying to live up to the fashion, without
properly understanding it or feeling it in himself. He was a sort of copycat. Inside, he was not a bit
gentle. He was foul to his wife, he was always bullying poor old Palomides for being a nigger, and he
treated King Mark most shamefully. The knights from Cornwall are Old Ones and have always been
hostile to Arthur's idea, inside thelmselves, even if they do get hold of a part of it."
"Like Agravaine,"
"Yes. Agravaine's mother was from Cornwall. The reason why Agravaine hates me is because I stand for
the idea. It is a funny thing, but all three of us that the common people ased to call the three best knights
тАФI mean Lamorak, Tristram and myselfтАФhave been hated by the Old Ones. They were delighted when
Tristram was murdered because he copied the idea, and, of course, It was the Gawaine family who