The Blanket of the Dark
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 | |
| Author | John Buchan |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Set in | England |
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton[1] |
Publication date | 1931[1] |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 314[1] |
The Blanket of the Dark is a 1931 historical novel by the Scottish author John Buchan. The novel is set in the early part of the reign of Henry VIII, and explores the possible consequences had the Tudors been overthrown by a rightful descendant of Edward III.[2]
The action of the novel takes place in the country west of Oxford during the 1536 Pilgrimage of Grace, an uprising against Henry VIII. Peter Pentecost, a young monastic scholar, is informed by shadowy figures who are plotting to depose the king that he is the legitimate son of the deceased Duke of Buckingham and that, as the last of the Bohun line, he has a claim to the English throne.
Although his true identity must for now remain secret, Peter finds himself being prepared for his intended kingly role and being tutored in the noble pursuits of swordsmanship and archery. He meets a noblewoman, Sabine Beauforest.
To hide from the king’s men, Peter takes to the greenwood where he is aided by Solomon Darking and his vagabond comrades. They introduce him to the lore of the countryside, and reveal the existence of a self-contained outlaw society, invisible to the agents of the state, with its own system of communication and intelligence gathering. He discovers that "under the blanket of the dark all men are alike and all are nameless".
As the novel progresses, Peter has increasing doubts about the venture he is being asked to undertake, and the motives of those behind it: "They claimed to stand for the elder England and its rights, and the old Church, but at their heart they stood only for themselves." After an encounter with the king himself, Peter asks himself whether there "might not there be a world of light under the blanket of the dark?" He accepts that he is not destined for a life of power and disappears from official sight back into the greenwood.
Title
The title is a phrase from William Shakespeare's Macbeth, where Lady Macbeth, preparing herself to murder King Duncan, says "Come, thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, / That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, / Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, / To cry, Hold, hold!" (Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5)