Cassell & Company first edition - 1888
I purchased this first edition many years ago but have only just got around to reading it. On my study wall there is a colourful poster of Louis Hayward buckling his swash, with a timid but buxom Janet Blair cowering behind him. The poster publicises the 1948 Movie (which is in black & white) and is for French cinemas, hence the title Flèche Noire (it is also publicised as De Zwarte Pÿl). Unfortunately, I have never watched it. It is available on DVD but only for Region 1 (USA) and at a cost of £35.94. I did purchase the 1972 T.V. series some time back, but only watched a couple of episodes, as the acting and slow pace was dire.
For much of the book itself, there was little to get excited about. In a letter to his friend, W.E. Henley in May 1883 (the story first came out as a serial in Young Folks between that June and October, under the pseudonym Captain George North) Stevenson wrote: The influenza has busted me a good deal; I have no spring, and am headachy. So, as my good Red Lion Counter begged me for another Butcher's Boy - I turned me to - what thinkest 'on? - to Tushery, by the mass. Ay, friend, a whole tale of tushery. And every tusher tushes me so free, that I may be tushed if the whole thing is worth a tush. THE BLACK ARROW: A TALE OF TUNSTALL FOREST is his name: tush! a poor thing. For most of the book, the author is not far wrong. Like its predecessors Treasure Island and Kidnapped, it was written for a youthful audience, primarily for boys, but it does not match up to them.
The Black Arrow tells the story of Dick Shelton during an episode of the Wars of the Roses. He begins to suspect that his guardian Sir Daniel Brackley and his retainers, including the cleric Sir Oliver Oates, are responsible for his father's death. Outlaws in nearby Tunstall Forest, organised by Ellis Duckworth, whose weapon is a black arrow, are determined to kill Brackley and certain of his followers. Dick joins the outlaws, rescues his love Joanna Sedley, the unwilling ward of Brackley, after fighting on both land and sea. The plot includes Joanna being disguised as a boy page; Dick being disguised as a friar; both escaping from a locked room; Dick meeting up with Richard, duke of Gloucester and fighting on behalf of the Yorkists against Brackley and other Lancastrians. All ends well as he is able to marry Joanna, whilst a black arrow has finally dispatched Sir Daniel.
From the information given in the novel (the indicator is the Battle of Wakefield, 30 December 1460, described in the first chapter of Book 3) ), the two main action pieces can be pinpointed to May 1460 and January 1461. Richard of Gloucester would have been only eight years old rather than the late teenager or early twenty year-old as portrayed in Crookback Book V. At least Stevenson admits this in a footnote: Richard Crookback would have been really far younger at this date. Moreover, he also uses another footnote to clarify that at the date of this story, Richard Crookback could not have been created Duke of Gloucester (he was not created duke until June 1461); but for clearness, with the reader's leave, he shall be so called. In a letter, to another friend, Sidney Colvin, Stevenson written as the final instalment came out in Young Folks, he said: I am pleased you liked Crookback; he is a fellow whose hellish energy has always fired my attention...some day, I will re-tickle the Sable Missile...I can lighten it of much, and devote some more attention to Dick o' Gloucester. It's great sport to write tushery. Alas, he never did.
The story only really came alive for me with Book V and the appearance of Gloucester. Dick was surprised to find in one who had displayed such strength, skill and energy, a lad no older than himself - slightly deformed, with one shoulder higher than the other, and of a pale, painful and distorted countenance. He uses sneering and cruel tones. He is the deformed leader, who says to Dick, ye have seen my vengeance, which is, like my blade, both sharp and ready. In a fight he is the formidable hunchback, who says to his sidekick Catesby, here we must vanquish. And as for the exposure - if ye were an ugly hunchback, and the children geeked at you upon the street, ye would count your body cheaper, and an hour of glory worth a life...Dick quailed before his eyes. The insane excitement, the courage, and the cruelty that he read therein, filled him with dismay about the future. This young duke's was indeed a gallant spirit, to ride foremost in the ranks of war; but after the battle, in the days of peace and in the circle of his trusted friends, that mind, it was to be dreaded, would continue to bring forth the fruits of death. Later in the medley, Dick beheld Crookback. He was already giving a foretaste of that furious valour and skill to cut his way across the ranks of war, which, years afterwards upon the field of Bosworth, and when he was stained with crimes, almost sufficed to change the fortunes of the day and the destiny of the English throne.
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