The month of May was come, when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit; for like as herbs and trees bring forth fruit and flourish in May, in likewise every lusty heart that is in any manner a lover, springeth and flourisheth in lusty deeds. For it giveth unto all lovers courage, that lusty month of May.

This passage comes from Sir Thomas Malory’s late-medieval Arthurian compilation, written in the 15th century and first printed by William Caxton in 1485 as Le Morte Darthur. Malory frequently uses seasonal set-pieces—especially the coming of May—to signal a shift into romance, adventure, and courtly love. In the chivalric imagination, May is the month of renewal, tournaments, quests, and amorous “lusty deeds,” and Malory draws on a long tradition of May-time openings found in Middle English and French romance. The lines function as a narrative prelude, framing the knights’ and lovers’ actions as part of a natural, cyclical stirring of desire and courage.

Malory treats human desire and knightly energy as seasonal and almost botanical: as trees and herbs flower in May, so “lusty” (vigorous, spirited) hearts blossom into love and action. The quote links eros and valor—love does not merely soften the lover but emboldens him—capturing a core courtly ideal in which affection inspires bravery, generosity, and feats of arms. At the same time, the rhetoric naturalizes passion, suggesting that lovers are moved by forces as inevitable as spring itself. The passage thus serves both as celebration and as foreshadowing: the same Maytime courage that launches romances and quests can also propel characters into rashness and conflict.