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 (I 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 •>i
 
 ROBIN HOOD 
 
 AND 
 
 MAID MARIAN
 
 THE FORESTERS 
 
 ROBIN HOOD AND MAID MARIAN 
 
 BY 
 
 ALFRED 
 LORD TENNYSON 
 
 POET LAUREATE 
 
 HonDcin 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 AND NEW YORK 
 1892 
 
 All rigJits reserved
 
 PR 
 
 ^557 
 
 DRAMA TIS PERSONS. 
 
 Robin Hood, Earl of Huntingdon. 
 
 King Richard, Cccur de Lion. 
 
 Prince John. 
 
 Little John, >i 
 
 Will Scarlet, . , . 
 
 „ ^ \ Folloivers of Robin Hood. 
 
 Friar Tuck, ^ 
 
 Much, J 
 
 A Justiciary. 
 
 Sheriff of Nottingham. 
 
 Abbot of St. Mary's. 
 
 Sir Richard Lea. 
 
 Walter Lea, son of Sir Richard Lea. 
 
 Maid Marian, daughter of Sir Richard Lea. 
 
 Kate, attendant on Marian. 
 
 Old Woman. 
 
 Retainers, Messengers, Merry J\Len, Mercenaries, Friars, 
 Beggars, Sailors, Peasants {men and ivot/ien), di^c. 
 
 G16G28
 
 ACT I 
 
 SCENE I 
 
 THE BOND 
 
 SCENES II, III 
 
 THE OUTLAWRY
 
 THE FORESTERS 
 
 ACT I 
 
 Scene I. — The garden before Sir Richard 
 Lea's castle. 
 
 Kate {gathering flozvers). 
 
 These roses for my Lady Marian ; these lilies to 
 lighten Sir Richard's black room, where he sits and 
 eats his heart for want of money to pay the Abbot. 
 
 \_Sings. 
 The warrior Earl of Allendale, 
 
 He loved the Lady Anne ; 
 The lady loved the master well, 
 The maid she loved the man. 
 
 All in the castle garden, 
 
 Or ever the day began, 
 The lady gave a rose to the Earl, 
 The maid a rose to the man. 
 
 IE B
 
 2 THE FORESTERS act i 
 
 '' I go to fight in Scotland 
 
 With many a savage clan;' 
 The lady gave her hand to the Earl, 
 The maid Iter hand to the man. 
 
 ^ Fareivell, farewell, my warrior Earl I ' 
 
 And ever a tear doivn ran. 
 She gave a iveeping hiss to the Earl, 
 
 And the maid a kiss to the man. 
 
 Enter four ragged Retainers. 
 
 First Retainer. 
 
 You do well, Mistress Kate, to sing and to gather 
 
 roses. You be fed with tit-bits, 3011, and we l)e dogs 
 
 that have only the bones, till we be only bones our 
 
 own selves. 
 
 Second Retainer. 
 
 I am fed with tit-bits no more than you arc, but 
 I keep a good heart and make the most of it, and, 
 truth to say. Sir Richard and my Lady Marian fare 
 wellnigh as sparely as their people. 
 
 Third Retainer. 
 
 And look at our suits, out at knee, out at elbow. 
 We be more like scarecrows in a field than decent 
 serving men ; and then, I pray you, look at Robin 
 Earl of Huntingdon's men.
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 3 
 
 First Retainer. 
 She hath looked well ai one of 'em, Little John. 
 
 Third Retainer. 
 
 Ay, how fine they be in their liveries, and each of 
 'em as full of meat as an egg, and as sleek and as 
 round-about as a mellow codlin. 
 
 Fourth Retainer. 
 
 But I be worse off than any of you, for I be lean 
 by nature, and if you cram me crop-full I be little 
 better than Famine in the picture, but if you starve 
 me I be Gaffer Death himself. I would like to show 
 you. Mistress Kate, how bare and spare I be on the 
 rib : I be lanker than an old horse turned out to die 
 on the common. 
 
 Kate. 
 
 Spare me thy spare ribs, I pray thee ; but now I 
 ask you all, did none of you love young Walter Lea ? 
 
 First Retainer. 
 
 Ay, if he had not gone to fight the king's battles, 
 we should have better battels at home. 
 
 Kate. 
 
 Right as an Oxford scholar, but the boy was taken 
 prisoner by the Moors.
 
 4 THE FORESTERS act i 
 
 First Retainer. 
 Ay. 
 
 Kate. 
 
 And Sir Richard was told he might be ransomed 
 for two thousand marks in gold. 
 
 First Retainer. 
 Ay. 
 
 Kate. 
 
 Then he borrowed the monies from the Abbot of 
 York, the Sheriff's brother. And if they be not paid 
 back at the end of the year, the land goes to the 
 Abbot. 
 
 First Retainer. 
 
 No news of young Walter ? 
 
 Kate. 
 
 None, nor of the gold, nor the man who took out 
 tlie gold : but now ye know why we live so stintedly, 
 and why ye have so few grains to peck at. Sir 
 Richard must scrape and scrape till he get to the 
 land again. Come, come, why do ye loiter here ? 
 Carry fresh rushes into the dining-hall, for those that 
 are there they be so greasy and smell so vilely that my 
 Lady Marian holds her nose when she steps across it.
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 5 
 
 Fourth Retainer. 
 
 Why there, now! that very word 'greasy' hath a 
 kind of unction in it, a smack of relish about it. The 
 rats have gnawed 'em already. I pray Heaven we 
 may not have to take to the rushes. [Exeunt 
 
 Kate. 
 Poor fellows ! 
 
 T/ie lady gave Iter hand to the Earl^ 
 The maid her hand to the man. 
 
 E?iter Little John. 
 
 Little John. 
 
 My master, Robin the Earl, is always a-telling us 
 that every man, for the sake of the great blessed 
 Mother in heaven, and for the love of his own little 
 mother on earth, should handle all womankind gently, 
 and hold them in all honour, and speak small to 'em, 
 and not scare 'em, but go about to come at their 
 love with all manner of homages, and observances, 
 and circumbendibuses. 
 
 Kate. 
 
 The hxdy gave a rose to the Earl, 
 The maid a rose to the man.
 
 6 THE FORESTERS act i 
 
 Little John [seeing her). 
 
 O the sacred little thing ! What a shape ! what 
 lovely arms ! A rose to the man ! Ay, the man had 
 given her a rose and she gave him another. 
 
 Kate. 
 Shall I keep one little rose for Little John ? No. 
 
 Little John. 
 
 There, there ! You see I was right. She hath a 
 tenderness toward me, but is too shy to show it. It 
 is in her, in the woman, and the man must bring it 
 out of her. 
 
 Kate. 
 
 She gai'e a 7veeping kiss to the Earl, 
 The maid a kiss to the mau. 
 
 Little John. 
 
 Did she ? But there I am sure the ballad is at 
 fault.- It should have told us how the man first 
 kissed the maid. She doesn't see me. Shall I be 
 bold ? shall I touch her ? shall I give her the first 
 kiss? O sweet Kate, my first love, the first kiss, the 
 first kiss ! 
 
 Kate {turns and hisses him). 
 
 Why lookest thou so amazed ?
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 7 
 
 Little John. 
 
 I cannot tell ; but I came to give thee the first 
 kiss, and thou hast given it me. 
 
 Kate. 
 
 But if a man and a maid care for one another, 
 does it matter so mucli if the maid give the first 
 kiss? 
 
 Little John. 
 
 I cannot tell, but I had sooner have given thee 
 the first kiss. I was dreaming of it all the way 
 hither. 
 
 Kate. 
 
 Dream of it, then, all the way back, for now I will 
 have none of it. 
 
 Little John. 
 
 Nay, now thou hast given me the man's kiss, let 
 me give thee the maid's. 
 
 Kate. 
 
 If thou draw one inch nearer, I will give thee a 
 buffet on the face. 
 
 Little John. 
 
 Wilt thou not give me rather the little rose for 
 Little John ?
 
 8 THE FORESTERS act i 
 
 Kate {throws it doivn atid trajtifhs on if). 
 
 There ! 
 
 [Kate, seeing Marian, exit hurriedly. 
 
 Enter Marian {singing). 
 
 Love flezv in at the window 
 
 As Wealth waWd in at the door. 
 
 ' YoH have come for you saw Wealth coming,' said I. 
 
 But he fluttered his 7C>ings tvith a sweet little cry, 
 r 11 cleave to yon rich or poor. 
 
 Wealth dropt out of the window. 
 
 Poverty crept thro' the door. 
 ' Well noiu you would fain follo7v Wealth^ said I, 
 But he flutter d his wings as he gave me the lie, 
 
 I cling to you all the more. 
 
 Little John. 
 
 Thanks, my lady — inasmuch as I am a true behever 
 in true love myself, and your Ladyship hath sung the 
 old proverb out of fasliion. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Ay but thou hast ruftlccl my woman, Little John. 
 She hath the fire in her face and the dew in her eyes. 
 I believed thee to be too solemn and k)rinal to be a 
 rufTlcr. Out upon thee !
 
 SCF.NF. I THE FORESTERS 9 
 
 Little John. 
 
 I am no rufflcr, my lady ; but I pray you, my lady, 
 if a man and a maid love one another, may the maid 
 give the first kiss ? 
 
 Marian. 
 
 It will be all the more gracious of her if she do. 
 
 LiTTi.K John. 
 
 I cannot tell. Manners be so corrupt, and these 
 are the days of Prince Jolin. \Exit. 
 
 Enter Sir Richard Lea {i-eadiug a bond). 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 Marian ! 
 
 Marian. 
 Father ! 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 Who parted from thee even now ? 
 
 Marian. 
 
 That strange starched stiff creature, Liule John, 
 the Earl's man. He would grapple with a lion like 
 the King, and is flustered by a girl's kiss.
 
 lo THE FORESTERS ac r i 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 There never was an Earl so true a friend of the 
 people as Lord Robin of Huntingdon. 
 
 Marian. 
 A gallant Earl. I love him as I hate John. 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 I fear me he hath wasted his revenues in the 
 service of our good king Richard against the jjarty 
 of John, as I have done, as I ha^•e done : and where 
 is Richard ? 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Cleave to him, father ! he will come home at last. 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 I trust he will, but if he do not I and thou are 
 but beggars. 
 
 Marian. 
 We will be beggar'd then and be true to the King. 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 Thou speakcst like a fool or a woman. Canst 
 thou endure to be a Ijcggar whose whole life hath
 
 SCENT. I riir. FORESTERS 1 1 
 
 been folded like a blossom in the sheath, like a care- 
 less sleeper in the down ; wlio never Imst felt a want, 
 to whom all things, up to tliis pivsnil, liavc come as 
 freely as heaven's air and mother's milk? 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Tut, father ! I am none of your delicate Norman 
 maidens who can only broider and mayhap ride 
 a-hawking with the help of the men. I can bake and 
 1 can brew, and by all the saints I can shoot almost 
 as closely with the bow as the great Earl himself 
 1 have played at the foils too with Kate : but is not 
 to-day his birthday ? 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 Dost thou love him indeed, that thou keepest a 
 record of his birthdays? Thou knowest that the 
 Sheriff of Nottingham loves thee. 
 
 Marian, 
 
 The Sheriff dare to love me? me who worship 
 Robin the great Earl of Huntingdon ? 1 love him 
 as a damsel of his day might have loved Harold the 
 Sa.xon, or Hereward the Wake. They both fought 
 against the tyranny of the kings, the Normans. But 
 ihcn your Sheriff, your little man, if he dare to fight
 
 12 
 
 THE FORESTERS act i 
 
 at all, would fight for his rents, his leases, his houses, 
 his monies, his oxen, his dinners, himself Now your 
 great man, your Robin, all England's Robin, fights 
 not for himself but for the people of England. This 
 John — this Norman tyranny — the stream is bearing 
 us all down, and our little Sheriff will ever swim with 
 the stream ! but our great man, our Robin, against 
 it. And how often in old histories have the great 
 men striven against the stream, and how often in the 
 long sweep of years to come must the great man strive 
 against it again to save his country, and the liberties 
 of his people ! (lod bless our well-beloved Robin, 
 Earl of Huntingdon. 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 Ay, ay. 1 \ e wore thy colours once at a tourney. 
 I am old and forget. Was Prince John there ? 
 
 Marian. 
 The Sheriff of Nottingham was there — not Jolin. 
 
 Sir Rkhakp. 
 
 Beware of John and the Sheriff of Nottingham. 
 
 They hunt in couples, and when they look at a maid 
 
 they blast her. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Then llic maid is not higli-lieartcd enough.
 
 SCENK I THE FORESTERS 13 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 There — there — be not a fool again. Their aim is 
 ever at that which flies highest — but O girl, girl, I 
 am almost in despair. Those two thousand marks 
 lent me by the Abbot for the ransom of my son 
 Walter — I believed this Abbot of the party of King 
 Richard, and he hath sold himself to that beast Jolm 
 — they must be paid in a year and a month, or I 
 lose the land. There is one that should be grateful 
 to me overseas, a Count in Brittany — he lives near 
 Quimper. I saved his life once in battle. He has 
 monies. I will go to him. I saved him. I will try 
 him. I am all but sure of him. I will go to him. 
 
 Marian. 
 And I will follow thee, and (lod help us both. 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 Child, thou shouldst marry one who will pay the 
 mortgage. This Robin, this Earl of Iluiuingdon — 
 he is a friend of Richard — I know not, but he may 
 save the land, he may save the land. 
 
 Marian {s/iowini^ a cross hiaig round her neck). 
 Father, you see this cross?
 
 14 THE FORESTERS act i 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 Ay the King, thy godfother, gave it thee when a 
 baby. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 And he said that whenever I married he would 
 give me away, and on this cross I have sworn \kisses 
 ii\ that till I myself pass away, there is no other man 
 that shall give me away. 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 Lo there — thou art fool again — I am all as loyal 
 as thyself, but what a vow ! what a vow ! 
 
 Rc-cnttr Little John. 
 
 Little John. 
 
 My Lady Marian, your woman so flustered me that 
 I forgot my message from the ]Carl. '^I'o-day he liath 
 accomplished his thirtieth birthday, and he prays 
 your ladyship and your ladyship's father to be present 
 at his banquet to-night. 
 
 .\Iakian. 
 Say, we will come. 
 
 Little John. 
 
 And I pray you, my lady, to stand bet\NCCn mc 
 and your woman, Kate.
 
 SCENE I THE 10 R ESTERS 15 
 
 Marian. 
 1 will speak with her. 
 
 I.irn.i'; John. 
 
 1 thank you, my lady, and I wi.sh you and your 
 ladyship's fothcr a most exceedingly good morning. 
 
 \Exit. 
 
 SiK Richard. 
 
 Thou hast answered for mc, hut I know not if I 
 will let thee go. 
 
 Marian. 
 1 mean to go. 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 Not if I barred thee up in thy chamber, like a bird 
 in a cage. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Then 1 would drop from the casement, like a 
 spider. 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 Eut 1 would hoist the drawbridge, like thy master. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 And 1 would swim tlic moat, like an otter
 
 1 6 THE FORESTERS act i 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 But I would set my men-at-arms to oppose thee, 
 like the Lord of the Castle. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 And I would break through them all, like the 
 King of England. 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 Well, ihou shalt go, but O the land ! the land ! 
 my great great great grandfather, my great great 
 grandfather, my great grandfather, my grandfather 
 and my own father — they were born and bred on it 
 — it was their mother — they have trodden it for half 
 a thousand years, and whenever I set my own foot 
 on it I say to it, 'i'hou art mine, and it answers, I am 
 thine to the very heart of the earth — but now 1 have 
 lost my gold, 1 have lost iny son, and I shall lose my 
 land also. Down to the devil with this bond that 
 beggars me ! \^l'lings down ihc iiond. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Take it again, dear father, be not wroth at the 
 dumb parchment. Sufficient fur the day, dear father! 
 let us be merry to-night ;il the banquet.
 
 SCENE ir THE FORESTERS 17 
 
 Scene II. — A Jiall in tJie Jiousc ^y Robin Hood the 
 Earl of Huntingdon. Doors open into a banqycting- 
 hall ivhere he is nt feast ivith his friends. 
 
 DRINKING SONG. 
 
 Long live Richard, 
 
 Robin and Richard ! 
 Long live Richard ! 
 
 Dotvn 7viih John ! 
 Drink to the Lion-heart 
 
 Every one / 
 Pledge the Plantagetiet, 
 
 Him that is gone. 
 Who knoivs whither ? 
 
 God's good Angel 
 Help him back hither. 
 
 And down with Jolin ! 
 Long live Robin, 
 
 Robin and Richard 1 
 Long live Robin, 
 
 And down icith John ! 
 
 Enter Prince John disguised as a monk and the 
 Sheriff of Nottingham. Cries of ' Down luith 
 John,' ' Long live King Richard,' ' Dowfi with 
 John. ' 
 
 C
 
 i8 THE FORESTERS ACT i 
 
 Prince John. 
 
 Down with John ! ha. Shall I be known ? is my 
 disguise perfect ? 
 
 Sheriff. 
 
 Perfect — who should know you for Prince Johji, 
 so that you keep the cowl down and speak not ? 
 
 [Shouts from the banquet-room. 
 
 Prince John. 
 
 Thou and T will still these revelries presently. 
 
 [Shouts, ' Long live King Richard ! ' 
 
 I come here to see this daughter of Sir Richard of 
 the Lea and if her beauties answer their report. If 
 so — 
 
 Sheriff. 
 
 Tf so — [Shouts, ' Down with John ! ' 
 
 Prince John. 
 
 You hear ! 
 
 Sheriff. 
 Yes, my lord, fear not. T will answer for you. 
 
 Enter Little John, Scarlet, Much, Cs^c, from 
 the banquet sin^^ini:; a snatch of the Drinking 
 Song.
 
 SCENE II THE FORESTERS 19 
 
 Little John. 
 
 I am a silent man myself, and all the more wonder 
 at our Earl. What a wealth of words — O Lord, I 
 will live and die for King Richard — not so much for 
 the cause as for the Earl. O Lord, I am easily led 
 hy words, hut I think the Earl hath right. Scarlet, 
 hath not the Ivul right ? What makes thee so down 
 in the mouth ? 
 
 SCARLF.T. 
 
 I doubt not, I doubt not, and though I be down 
 in the mouth, T will swear by the head of the Earl. 
 
 Little John. 
 Thou Much, miller's son, hath not the Earl right? 
 
 Much. 
 
 More water goes by the mill than the miller wots 
 of, and more goes to make right than I know of, but 
 for all that I will swear the Earl hath right. IJut they 
 are coming hither for the dance — 
 
 Enter Friar Tuck. 
 
 be they not, Friar Tuck ? Thou art the Earl's con- 
 fessor and shouldst know.
 
 20 THE FORESTERS act i 
 
 Tuck. 
 
 Ay, ay, and but that I am a man of weight, and 
 the weight of the church to boot on my shoulders, T 
 would dance too. Fa, la, la, fa, la, la. \Capering. 
 
 Much. 
 
 But doth not the weight of the flesh at odd times 
 overbalance the weight of the church, ha friar ? 
 
 Tuck. 
 
 Homo sum. I love my dinner — but I can fast, I 
 can fast ; and as to other frailties of the flesh — out 
 upon thee ! Homo sum, sed virgo sum, I am a virgin, 
 my masters, I am a virgin. 
 
 Much. 
 
 And a virgin, my masters, three yards about the 
 waist is like to remain a virgin, for who could embrace 
 such an armful of joy? 
 
 Tuck. 
 
 Knave, there is a lot of wild fellows in Sherwood 
 Forest who hold by King Richard. If ever I meet 
 thee there, I will break thy sconce with my quarter- 
 staff
 
 SCENE II THE FORESTERS 2i 
 
 Enter from tJie banqueting-hall Sir Richard Lea, 
 Robin Hood, 6^<-. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 My guests and friends, Sir Richard, all of you 
 ^^ ho deign to lioiiour this my thirtieth year, 
 And some of you were prophets that I might be 
 Now that the sun our King is gone, the hght 
 Of these dark hours; but this new moon, I fear, 
 Is darkness. Nay, this may be the last time 
 When I shall hold my birthday in this hall : 
 I may be outlaw'd, I have heard a rumour. 
 
 All. 
 
 God forbid ! 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Nay, but we have no news of Richard yet, 
 And ye did wrong in crying 'Down with John;' 
 For be he dead, then John may be our King. 
 
 All. 
 
 God forl)id ! 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Ay Ciod forbid. 
 
 But if it be so we must bear with fohn.
 
 22 THE FORESTERS act i 
 
 The man is able enough — no lack of wit, 
 
 And apt at arms and shrewd in policy. 
 
 Courteous enough too when he wills ; and yet 
 
 I hate him for his want of chivalry. 
 
 He that can pluck the flower of maidenhood 
 
 From off the stalk and trample it in the mire, 
 
 And boast that he hath trampled it. I hate him, 
 
 I hate the man. I may not hate the King 
 
 For aught I know, 
 
 So that our Barons bring his baseness under. 
 
 I think they will be mightier than the king. 
 
 \I)ance music. 
 (Marian enters with other damsels.) 
 
 Robin. 
 
 The high Heaven guard thee from his wantonness, 
 \\lio art the fairest flower of maidenhood 
 That ever blossom'd on this English isle. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Cloud not thy birthday willi one fear for mc. 
 My lord, myself and my good father pray 
 Thy thirtieth summer may be thirty-fold 
 As happy as any of those that went before.
 
 SCENIC II THE FORESTERS 23 
 
 Robin. 
 
 My Lady Marian you can make it so 
 
 If you will deign to tread ;i measure wiUi inc. 
 
 Makian. 
 
 Full willingly, my lord. 
 
 \They dance. 
 
 ROHIN {after dance). 
 My Lady, will you answer me a question ? 
 
 Marian. 
 Any that you may ask. 
 
 RoniN. 
 
 A question that every true man asks of a woman 
 once in his life. 
 
 Makian. 
 
 1 will not answer it, my lord, till King Richard 
 come home again. 
 
 Princk John (Jo Sukkiff). 
 
 How she looks u^) at him, how she holds her face ! 
 Now if she kiss him, I will have his head.
 
 24 THE FORESTERS act i 
 
 Sheriff. 
 
 Peace, my lord ^ the Earl and Sir Richard come 
 this way. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Must you have these monies before the year and 
 the month end ? 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 Or I forfeit my land to the Abbot. I must pass 
 overseas to one that I trust will help me. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Leaving )our fair Marian alone here. 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 Ay, for she hath somewhat of the lioness in her, 
 and there be men-at-arms to guard her. 
 
 [Robin, Sir Richard, and Marian /^^.r on. 
 
 Prince John {Io Sheriff). 
 
 Why thai will be our opportunity 
 
 ^Vhen I and thou will rob the nest of her. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 Good Prince, art thou in need of any gold ?
 
 sciiNK II THE FORESTERS 25 
 
 Prince John. 
 (lold ? why ? not now. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 
 I would give thee any gold 
 So that myself alone might rob the nest. 
 
 Prince John. 
 Well, well then, tluni shalt rob the nest alone. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 Swear to me by that relic on thy neck. 
 
 Prince John. 
 I swear then by this relic on my neck — 
 No, no, 1 will not swear by this ; I keep it 
 For holy vows made to the blessed Saints 
 Not pleasures, women's matters. 
 Dost thou mistrust me? Am I not thy friend? 
 Beware, man, lest thou lose thy faiili in me. 
 1 love thee much ; and as I a)ii thy friend, 
 1 promise thee to make this Marian thine. 
 Go now and ask the maid to dance with thee, 
 And learn from her if she do love this Earl. 
 
 Sheriff {advancing toward Marian atid Robin). 
 Pretty mistress !
 
 26 THE FORESTERS act i 
 
 Robin. 
 
 What art thou, man ? Sheriff of Nottingham ? 
 
 Sheriff. 
 
 Ay, my lord. I and my friend, this monk, were 
 here belated, and seeing the hospitable lights in your 
 castle, and knowing the fame of your hospitality, we 
 ventured in uninvited. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 You are welcome, though I fear you be of those 
 who hold more by John than Richard. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 
 True, for through John 1 had my sheriffship. I 
 am John's till Richard come back again, and then I 
 am Richard's. Pretty mistress, will you dance ? 
 
 \TIiey dance. 
 
 Robin {talking to Prince John). 
 
 What monk of what convent art thou ? Why 
 wearest thou thy cowl \.o hide tliy face? 
 
 [Prince John shakes his head. 
 Is he deaf, or dumb, or daft, or drunk belike? 
 
 [Prince John shakes his head.
 
 scENK II THE FORESTERS 27 
 
 Why comcsl thou Hkc a death's head at my feast? 
 
 [Tkinck John /f/Vz/'i' to tJic Sulkiff, 
 who is dancing with Marian. 
 Is he thy inoutlipiccc, thine interpreter? 
 
 [Prince John nods. 
 
 Sheruk {to Marian as they pass). 
 iJcware of John ! 
 
 Marian. 
 I hate him. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 
 A\'ould you cast 
 
 An eye of favour on nic, I would pay 
 
 My brother all his debt and save the land. 
 
 Marian. 
 1 cannot answer thee till Richard come. 
 
 Sheriff. • 
 And when he comes ? 
 
 Marian. 
 Well, you must wait till then. 
 
 Little John {dancing with Kate). 
 Is it made uj) ? \\\\\ you kiss me?
 
 28 THE FORESTERS ACT I 
 
 Kate. 
 You shall give me the first kiss. 
 
 Little John. 
 There {kisses her). Now thine. 
 
 Kate. 
 
 You shall wait for mine till Sir Richard has paid 
 the Abbot. [They pass on. 
 
 [The Sheriff kaves Marian ivith her father 
 and comes toward Robin. 
 
 Robin {to Sheriff, Prince John standing by). 
 
 Sheriff, thy fncnd, this monk, is but a statue. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 Pardon him, my lord : he is a holy Palmer, bounden 
 by a vow not to show his face, nor to speak word to 
 anyone; till he join King Richard in the Holy Land. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Going to the Holy Land to Richard! Give me 
 
 thy hand and tell him Why, what a cold grasp 
 
 is thine— as if thou didst repent thy courtesy even in 
 the doing it. That is no true man's hand. I hate 
 hidden faces.
 
 SCENK II THE FORESTERS 29 
 
 Sheriff. 
 
 Pardon liim again, I pray you ; but the twilight 
 of the coming day already glimmers in the east. A\'e 
 thank you, and farewell. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Farewell, farewell. I hate hidden faces. 
 
 \Exeu7it Prince John a7id Sheriff. 
 
 Sir Richard {cflining forward with Maid Marian). 
 
 How close the Sheriff pccr'd into thine eyes ! 
 What did he say to thee ? 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Bade me beware 
 Of John : what maid but would beware of John ? 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 What else ? 
 
 Marian. 
 I care not what he said. 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 What else? 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Tliat if I cast an eye of favour on him, 
 Himself would pay this mortgage to his brother, 
 And save the land.
 
 30 THE FORESTERS act i 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 Did he say so, the Sheriff? 
 
 Robin. 
 
 I fear this Abbot is a heart of flint, 
 Hard as the stones of his abbey. 
 
 good Sir Richard, 
 
 1 am sorry my exchequer runs so low 
 I cannot help you in this exigency ; 
 
 For though my men and I flash out at times 
 Of festival like burnish'd summer-flies, 
 We make but one hour's buzz, are only like 
 The rainbow of a momentary sun. 
 I am mortgaged as thyself 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 Ay ! I warrant thee — thou canst not be sorrier than 
 I am. Come away, daughter. 
 
 Robin. 
 Farewell, Sir Richard ; farewell, sweet Marian. 
 
 Marian. 
 Till better times. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 But if the better times should never come ?
 
 SCENE 11 THE FORESTERS 31 
 
 Marian. 
 Then I shall be no worse. 
 
 R0131N. 
 And if the worst time come ? 
 
 Marian. 
 Why then I will be better than the time. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 This ring my mother gave me : it was her own 
 Betrothal ring. She pray'd mc when I loved 
 A maid with all my heart to pass it down 
 A finger of that hand which should be mine 
 Thereafter. ^Vill you have it ? A\'ill you wear it ? 
 
 Marian. 
 Ay, noble Earl, and never part with it. 
 
 Sir Richard Lea {coming uf). 
 
 Not till she clean forget thee, noble Earl. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Forget ////// — never — by this Holy Cross 
 
 Which good King Richard gave me when a child — 
 
 Never !
 
 32 THE FORESTERS act i 
 
 Not while the swallow skims along the ground, 
 And while the lark flies up and touches heaven ! 
 Not while the smoke floats from the cottage roof, 
 And the white cloud is roU'd along the sky ! 
 Not while the rivulet babbles by the door, 
 And the great breaker beats upon the beach ! 
 Never — 
 
 Till Nature, high and low, and great and small 
 Forgets herself, and all her loves and hates 
 Sink again into chaos. 
 
 Sir Richard Lea. 
 Away ! away ! 
 
 \^Exeunt to music. 
 
 Scene III. — Savie as Scene II. 
 Robin and his men. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 All gone I — my ring — I am happy — should bo happy. 
 She took my ring. I trust she loves me — yet 
 I heard this SherilT IcU her he would pay 
 The mortgage if she favour'd him. 1 fear 
 Not her, the father's power upon her. 
 
 Friends, (A^ /lis men) 
 I am only merry for an hour or two
 
 SCENE III THE F0RES7ERS 33 
 
 Upon a birthday : if this life of ours 
 
 Be a good glad thing, why should we make us merry 
 
 Because a year of it is gone ? but Hope 
 
 Smiles from the threshold of the year to come 
 
 Whispering ' it will be happier,' and old faces 
 
 I'ress round us, and warm hands close with warm 
 
 hands, 
 And thro' the blood the wine leaps to the brain 
 Like April sap to the topmost tree, that shoots 
 New buds to heaven, whereon the throstle rock'd 
 Sings a new song to the new year — and you 
 Strike up a song, my friends, and then to bed. 
 
 Little John. 
 What will you have, my lord? 
 
 Robin. 
 
 ' To sleep ! to sleep ! ' 
 
 Little John. 
 
 There is a touch of sadness in it, my lord, 
 But ill befitting such a festal day. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 I have a touch of sadness in myself. 
 Sing.
 
 34 THE FORESTERS act i 
 
 SONG. 
 
 To sleep ! to sleep / The long bright day is doJie^ 
 
 Atid darkness rises from the fallen sun. 
 
 To sleep ! to sleep I 
 
 Whatever thy Joys, they vanish with the day ; 
 
 Whate'er thy griefs, in sleep they fade away. 
 
 To sleep I to sleep / 
 
 Sleep, mournful heart, and let the past be past I 
 
 Sleep, happy soul .' all life will sleep at last. 
 
 To sleep ' to sleep / 
 
 \_A tnwipet blown at the gates. 
 
 Robin. 
 Who breaks the stilhiess of the morning thus ? 
 
 LiTTLK John (going out and returning). 
 
 Tt is a royal messenger, ni)- lord : 
 
 I trust he brings us news of the King's coming. 
 
 Enter a Pursuivant who reads. 
 
 O yes, O yes, O yes ! In the name of the Regent. 
 Thou, Robin Hood Earl of Huntingdon, art attainted 
 and hast lost thine earldom of Huntingdon. More- 
 over thou art dispossessed of all thy lands, goods, 
 and chattels ; and by virtue of this writ, whereas
 
 SCENE III THE FORESTERS 35 
 
 Robin Hood Earl of Huntingdon by force and arms 
 liath trespassed against the king in divers manners, 
 therefore by the judgment of the officers of the said 
 lord king, according to the law and custom of the 
 kingdom of England Robin Hood Earl of Hunting- 
 don is outlawed and banished. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 T have shelter'd some that broke the forest laws. 
 This is irregular and the work of John. 
 
 [' Irregular, irregular ! {tumu/f) Down with 
 him, tear his coat from his back ! ' 
 
 Messenger. 
 Ho there I ho there, the Sheriffs men without ! 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Nay, let them be, man, let them be. We yield. 
 How should we cope with John ? The London 
 
 folkmote 
 Has made him all l)ut king, and he hatli seized 
 On half the royal castles. Let him alone ! {to his men) 
 A worthy messenger ! how should he help it ? 
 Shall 7c>e too work injustice ? what, thou shakest ! 
 Here, here — a cup of wine — drink and begone ! 
 
 [^Exit Messenger.
 
 36 THE FORESTERS act i 
 
 We will away in four-and-twenty hours, 
 But shall we leave our England ? 
 
 Tuck. 
 
 Robin, Earl — • 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Let be the Earl. Henceforth I am no more 
 Than plain man to plain man. 
 
 Tuck. 
 
 Well, then, plain man, 
 There be good fellows there in merry Sherwood 
 That hold by Richard, tho' they kill his deer. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 In Sherwood Forest. I have heard of them. 
 Have they no leader ? 
 
 Tuck. 
 
 Each man for his own. 
 Be thou their leader and they will all of them 
 Swarm to thy voice like bees to the brass pan. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 They hold by Richard — the wild wood ! to cast 
 All threadbare household iiabil, mix with all
 
 SCENE III THE FORESTERS 37 
 
 The lusty life of wood and underwood, 
 Hawk, buzzard, jay, the mavis and the merle. 
 The tawny squirrel vaulting thro' the boughs. 
 The deer, the highback'd polecat, the wild boar, 
 The burrowing badger — By St. Nicholas 
 I have a sudden passion for the wild wood — 
 We should be free as air in the wild wood — 
 What say you ? shall we go ? Your hands, your hands ! 
 
 \Gives /lis hand to each. 
 You, Scarlet, you are always moody here. 
 
 Scarlet. 
 'Tis for no lack of love to you, my lord, 
 But lack of happiness in a blatant wife. 
 She broke my head on Tuesday with a dish. 
 I would have thwack'd the woman, but I did not. 
 Because thou sayest such fine things of women 
 But I shall have to thwack her if I stay. 
 
 Robin. 
 Would it be better for thee in the wood .'' 
 
 Scarlet. 
 Ay, so she did not follow me to the wood. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Then, Scarlet, thou at least wilt go with me. 
 Thou, Much, llie miller's son, I knew thy father:
 
 38 THE FORESTERS act i 
 
 He was a manly man, as thou art, Much, 
 And gray before his time as thou art. Much. 
 
 Much. 
 
 It is the trick of the family, my lord. 
 
 There was a song he made to the turning wheel — 
 
 Robin. 
 ' Turn ! turn ! ' but I forget it. 
 
 Much. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 I can sing it. 
 
 Not now, good Much ! And thou, dear Little John, 
 
 Who hast that worship for me which Heaven knows 
 
 I ill deserve — you love me, all of you. 
 
 But I am outlaw'd, and if caught, I die. 
 
 Your hands again. All thanks for all your service ; 
 
 But if you follow me, you may die with me. 
 
 All. 
 
 We will live and die with thee, we will live and die 
 with thee. 
 
 END OF ACT I.
 
 ACT II 
 
 THE FLIGHT OF MARIAN
 
 ACT II 
 
 Scene 1. — A broad forest glade, woodman's hut at one 
 side with half-door. Foresters are looking to 
 their I'oivs and arroics, or polishing their sivords. 
 
 Foresters sing (as tliey disperse to their work). 
 
 There is no lafid like Efigland 
 
 Where'er the light of day be ; 
 There are no hearts like English hearts 
 
 Such hearts of oak as they be. 
 There is no land like England 
 
 Where'er the light of day be ; 
 There are no men like Englishmen 
 
 So tall and bold as they be.
 
 42 -THE FORESTERS act ii 
 
 (Full chorus.) And these will strike for England 
 And man and maid be free 
 To foil and spoil the tyrant 
 Beneath the greemuood tree. 
 
 There is no land like England 
 
 Wherever the light of day be ; 
 There are no wives like Ettglish wives 
 
 So fair and chaste as they be. 
 There is no land like England 
 
 Where'er the light of day be ; 
 There are no maids like English maids 
 
 So beautifid as they be. 
 
 (Full chorus.) yind these shall wed 7vith freemen, 
 And all their sons be free. 
 To sing the songs of Efigland 
 Beneath the greenwood tree. 
 
 Robin {alone). 
 
 My lonely hour ! 
 
 The king of day hath stept from off his throne, 
 Flung by the golden mantle of the cloud, 
 And sets, a naked fire. The King of England 
 Perchance this day may sink as gloriously.
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 43 
 
 Red with his own and enemy's blood — but no ! 
 
 We hear he is in prison. It is my birthday. 
 
 I have reign'd one year in the wild wood. My mother, 
 
 For whose sake, and the blessed Queen of Heaven, 
 
 I reverence all women, bad me, dying, 
 
 Whene'er this day should come about, to carve 
 
 One lone hour from it, so to meditate 
 
 Upon my greater nearness to the birthday 
 
 Of the after-life, when all the sheeted dead 
 
 Are shaken from their stillness in the grave 
 
 By the last trumpet. 
 
 Am I worse or better? 
 I am outlaw'd. I am none the worse for that. 
 I held for Richard, and I hated John. 
 I am a thief, ay, and a king of thieves. 
 Ay ! but we rob the robber, wrong the wTonger, 
 And what we wring from them we give the poor. 
 I am none the worse for that, and all the better 
 For this free forest-life, for while I sat 
 Among my thralls in my baronial hall 
 The groining hid the heavens ; but since I breathed, 
 A houseless head beneath the sun and stars. 
 The soul of the woods hath stricken thro' my blood. 
 The love of freedom, the desire of God, 
 The hope of larger life hereafter, more 
 Tenfold than under roof. \Horn blown. 
 
 True, were I taken
 
 44 THE FORESTERS act ii 
 
 They would prick out my sight. A price is set 
 On this poor head ; but I beheve there Hves 
 No man who truly loves and truly rules 
 His following, but can keep his followers true. 
 I am one with mine. Traitors are rarely bred 
 Save under traitor kings. Our vice-king John, 
 True king of vice — true play on words — our John 
 By his Norman arrogance and dissoluteness. 
 Hath made ine king of all the discontent 
 Of England up thro' all the forest land 
 North to the Tyne : being outlaw'd in a land 
 Where law lies dead, we make ourselves the law. 
 Why break you thus upon my lonely hour ? 
 
 Eyiter Little John a)id Kate. 
 
 Little John. 
 I found this white doe wandering thro' the wood, 
 Not thine, but mine. 1 have shot her thro' the heart. 
 
 Katk. 
 He lies, my lord. I have shot him thro' the heart. 
 
 Robin. 
 My God, thou art the very woman who waits 
 On my dear Marian. Tell me, tell mc of her. 
 Thou comest a very angel out of heaven. 
 Where is she ? and how flircs she ?
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 45 
 
 Kate. 
 
 O my good lord, 
 I am but an angel by reflected light. 
 Your heaven is vacant of your angel. John — 
 Shame on him 1 — 
 
 Stole on her, she was walking in the garden, 
 And after some slight speech about the Sheriff 
 He caught her round the waist, whereon she struck him, 
 And fled into the castle. She and Sir Richard 
 Have past away, I know not where ; and I 
 Was left alone, and knowing as I did 
 That I had shot him thro' the heart, I came 
 To eat him up and make an end of him. 
 
 Little John. 
 
 In kisses? 
 
 Kate. 
 
 You, how dare you mention kisses ? 
 But I am weary pacing thro' the wood. 
 Show me some cave or cabin where I may rest. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 C}o with him. I will talk with thee anon. 
 
 \Exeii>tt I.iTTi.K John and Kate. 
 She struck him, my brave Marian, struck the Prince, 
 The serpent that had crept into the garden
 
 46 THE FORESTERS act ii 
 
 And coil'd himself about her sacred waist. , 
 
 I think I should have stricken him to the death. 
 He never will forgive her. 
 
 O the Sheriff 
 Would pay this cursed mortgage to his brother 
 If Marian would marry him ; and the son 
 Is most like dead — if so the land may come 
 To Marian, and they rate the land five-fold 
 The worth of the mortgage, and who marries her 
 Marries the land. Most honourable Sheriff! 
 (Passionately) Gone, and it may be gone for evermore ! 
 
 would that I could see her for a moment 
 Glide like a light across these woodland ways ! 
 Tho' in one moment she should glance away, 
 
 1 should be happier for it all the year. 
 
 O would she moved beside me like my shadow ! 
 O would she stood before me as my queen, 
 To make this Sherwood Eden o'er again, 
 And these rough oaks the palms of Paradise ! 
 
 Ah ! but who be those three yonder with bows ? — 
 not of my band — the Sheriff, and by heaven, Prince 
 John himself and one of those mercenaries that suck 
 the blood of England. My people arc all scattered I 
 know not where. Have they come for me ? Here 
 is the witch's hut. 'I'he fool-people call her a witch 
 — a good witch to me ! 1 will shelter here. 
 
 \Kiiocks at the iloor oj tlw hut.
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 47 
 
 Old Woman comes out. 
 
 Old ^^'o.^L-\N {kisses his hand). 
 Ah dear Robin ! ah nolilc captain, friend of the 
 
 poor ! 
 
 Robin. 
 
 I am chased by my foes. I have forgotten my 
 horn that calls my men together. Disguise me — thy 
 gown and thy coif 
 
 Old Woman, 
 
 Come in, come in ; I would give my life for thee, 
 
 for when the Sheriff had taken all our goods for 
 
 the King without paying, our horse and our little 
 
 cart 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Quick, good mother, quick ! 
 
 Old Woman. 
 
 Ay, ay, gown, coif, and petticoat, and the old 
 woman's blessing with them to the last fringe. 
 
 \They go in. 
 
 Enter Prince John, Sheriff of Nottingham, 
 and Mercenary. 
 
 Prince John. 
 Did we not liear the two would pass this way ? 
 They must have past. Here is a woodman's hut.
 
 48 THE FORESTERS act ir 
 
 Mercenary. 
 
 Take heed, take heed ! in Nottingham they say 
 There bides a foul witch somewhere hereabout. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 Not in this hut I take it. 
 
 Prince John. 
 
 Why not here? 
 
 Sheriff. 
 I saw a man go in, my lord. 
 
 Prince John. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 No, my lord, one. 
 
 Prince John. 
 
 Not two ? 
 
 Make for the cottasie then ! 
 
 o^ 
 
 Interior of the hut. 
 Robin disguised as old woman. 
 
 Prince John {7vit/ioi/t). 
 Knock again ! knock again !
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 49 
 
 Robin {to Old Woman). 
 
 Get thee into the closet there, and make a 
 ghostly wail ever and anon to scare 'em. 
 
 Old "Woman. 
 I will, I will, good Robin. \Goes into closet. 
 
 Prince John {tvithout). 
 
 Open, open, or I will drive the door from the 
 doorpost. 
 
 Robin {opens door). 
 Come in, come in. 
 
 Prince John. 
 Why did ye keep us at the door so long ? 
 
 Robin {curtseying). 
 I was afear'd it was the ghost, your worship. 
 
 Prince John. 
 Ghost ! did one in wliite pass ? 
 
 Robln {curtseying). 
 
 No, your worship. 
 
 Prince John. 
 Did two knights pass ?
 
 50 THE FORESTERS act :i 
 
 Robin {curtseying). 
 No, your worship. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 I fear mc we have lost our labour, then. 
 
 Prince John. 
 Except this old hag have been bribed to lie. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 We old hags should be bribed to speak truth, for, 
 God help us, we lie by nature. 
 
 Prince John. 
 There was a man just now that enter'd here? 
 
 Robin. 
 
 There is but one old woman in the Init. 
 
 [Old Woman yei/s. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 I crave your worship's pardon. There is yet an- 
 other old woman. She was murdered here a hundred 
 year ago, and whenever a murder is to be done 
 again she yells out i' tliis w-ay — so they say, your 
 worship.
 
 SCENIC I TUL FOKES'J'ERS 51 
 
 Mkrcenaky. 
 
 Now, it I hadn't a sprig o' vvickentrec sewn into 
 my dress, I should run. 
 
 Prince John. 
 
 Tut ! tul ! the scream of some wild woodland thing. 
 How came we to be parted from our men ? 
 We shouted, and they shouted, as I thought, 
 But shout and echo play'd into each other 
 So hollowly we knew not which was which. 
 
 ROBI X. 
 
 The wood is full of echoes, owls, elfs, ouphes, oafs, 
 ghosts o' the mist, wills-o'-the-wisp ; only they that 
 be bred in it can find their way a-nights in it. 
 
 Prince John. 
 
 1 am footsore and famish'd thcrewilhal. 
 
 Is there aught there ? \Poinliiig to cupboard. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Naught for the likes o' you. 
 
 J'kince John. 
 Speak straight out, crookback.
 
 52 THE FORESTERS act ii 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Sour milk and black bread. 
 
 Prince John. 
 
 Well, set them forth. I could eat anything. 
 
 \He sets out a table with black bread. 
 This is mere marble. Old hag, how should thy 
 one tooth drill thro' this ? 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Nay, by St. Gemini, I ha' two ; and since the 
 Sheriff left me naught but an empty belly, they can 
 meet upon anything thro' a millstone. You gentles 
 that live upo' manchet-bread and marchpane, what 
 should you know o' the food o' the poor ? Look you 
 here, before you can eat it you must hack it with a 
 hatchet, break it all to pieces, as you break the poor, 
 as you would hack at Robin Hood if you could light 
 upon him {hacks it and flings two pieces). There's for 
 you, and there's for you — and the old woman's 
 welcome. 
 
 Prince John. 
 
 The old wretch is mad, and her bread is beyond 
 me : and the milk — faugh ! Hast thou anything to 
 sweeten this ?
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS S3 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Here's a pot o' wild honey from an old oak, saving 
 your sweet reverences. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 Thou hast a cow then, hast thou ? 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Ay, for when the Sheriff took my little horse for 
 the King without paying for it 
 
 Sheriff. 
 How hadst thou then the means to buy a cow ? 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Eh, 1 would ha' given my whole body to the King 
 had he asked for it, like the woman at Acre when the 
 Turk shot her as she was helping to build the mound 
 against the city. I ha' served the King living, says 
 she, and let me serve him dead, says she ; let me go 
 to make the mound : bury me in the mound, says the 
 woman. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 
 Ay, but the cow ? 
 
 Robin. 
 She was given me.
 
 54 777^ FORESTERS act ii 
 
 Sheriff. 
 By whom ? 
 
 Robin. 
 By a thief. 
 
 Sheriff, 
 ^^'ho, woman, who ? 
 
 Robin {sings). 
 
 He was a forester good ; 
 He was the cock <?' the walk ; 
 He was the king o' the ivood. 
 
 Your worship may find another rhyme if you care 
 to drag your brains for sucli a minnow. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 
 That cow was mine. T have lost a cow from my 
 meadow. Rol)in Hood was il ? I Uiouglit as much. 
 He will come to the gibbet at last. 
 
 [Old Woman yells. 
 Mercenary. 
 
 O sweet sir, talk not of cows. You anger the 
 
 spirit. 
 
 Prince John. 
 
 Anger the scrilch-owl. 
 
 Mercenary. 
 But, my lord, the scrilch-owl bodes death, my lord.
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 55 
 
 Robin. 
 
 I beseech you all to speak lower. Robin may be 
 hard by wi' three-score of his men. He often looks 
 in here by the moonshine. Beware of Robin. 
 
 [Old Woman yells. 
 
 Mercenary. 
 Ay, do you hear ? There may be murder done. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 Have you not finished, my lord ? 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Thou hast crost him in love, and I have heard 
 him swear he will bo even wi' thcc. 
 
 [Old Woman jr/A. 
 
 Mercenary. 
 
 Now is my heart so down in my heels that if I 
 stay, I can't run. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 Shall we not go ? 
 
 Robin. 
 
 And, old hag tho' I be, I can spell the hand, 
 r.ive me thine. Ay, ay, the line o' life is marked 
 enow ; but look, there is a cross line o' sudden death.
 
 56 THE FORESTERS act ii 
 
 I pray thee go, go, for tho' thou wouldst bar me fro' 
 the milk o' my cow, I wouldn't have thy blood on 
 my hearth. 
 
 Prince John. 
 Why do you listen, man, to the old fool ? 
 
 Sheriff. 
 I will give thee a silver penny if thou wilt show us 
 the way back to Nottingham. 
 
 Robin (ivith a very low curtsey). 
 
 All the sweet saints bless your worship for your 
 alms to the old woman ! but make haste then, and 
 be silent in the wood. Follow me. 
 
 \Takes his bow. 
 
 (They cojne out of the hut and close the door carefully.) 
 
 Outside hut. 
 
 Robin, 
 
 Sofily ! softly ! there may be a thief in every bush. 
 
 Prince John. 
 
 How should this old lamester guide us? Where 
 is thy goodman ?
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 57 
 
 Robin. 
 
 The saints were so kind to both on us that he 
 was dead before he was born. 
 
 Prince John. 
 
 Half-witted and a witch to boot ! Mislead us, 
 and I will have thy life ! and what doest thou with 
 that who art more bow-bent than the very bow thou 
 carriest ? 
 
 Robin. 
 
 I keep it to kill nightingales. 
 
 Nightingales ! 
 
 Prince John. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 You see, they are so fond o' their own voices that 
 I cannot sleep o' nights by cause on 'em. 
 
 Prince John. 
 
 True soul of the Saxon churl for whom song has 
 no charm. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Then I roast 'em, for I have nought else to live on 
 {whities). O your honour, I pray you too to give me 
 an alms. {To Prince John.)
 
 S8 THE FORESTERS act ii 
 
 Sheriff. 
 
 This is no bow to hit nightingales ; this is a true 
 woodman's bow of the best yew -wood to slay the 
 deer. Look, my lord, there goes one in the moon- 
 light. Shoot ! 
 
 Prince John {shoots). 
 
 Missed! There goes another. Shoot, Sheriff! 
 
 Sheriff {s/ioots). 
 Missed ! 
 
 Robin. 
 
 And here comes another. Why, an old woman 
 
 can shoot closer than you two. 
 
 Prince John. 
 Shoot then, and if thou miss I will fasten thee to 
 thine own doorpost and make thine old carcase a 
 target for us three. 
 
 Robin {raises /nmse/f upright, shoots, and hits). 
 Hit ! Did I not tell you an old woman could 
 shoot better? 
 
 Prince John. 
 
 Thou standest straight. Thou spcakcst manlike. 
 Thou art no old woman — thou art disguised — thou 
 art one of the thieves. 
 
 \^Ma/iis a clutch at the gowv, which comes in pieces 
 and falls, showing Robin /// his forester's dress.
 
 SCENK I rilE rORESTEKS 59 
 
 Sheriff. 
 It is the very captain of the thieves ! 
 
 Prince John. 
 We have him at last ; we have liini at advantage. 
 Strike, Sheriff! Strike, mercenary! 
 
 [ They draw swords and attack Jiim; 
 he defefids himself with his. 
 
 Etifer Little John. 
 
 Little John. 
 I have lodged my pretty Katekin in her bower. 
 
 How now ? Clashing of swords — three ui)on one, 
 and that one our Robin ! Rogues, have you no man- 
 hood ? \praws afid defe?ids Robin. 
 
 Enter SiR Richard Lea {drains his sword). 
 
 Sir Richard Lea. 
 Old as I am, I will not brook to see 
 Three upon two. 
 
 [Maid Marian in tJie armour of a Redcross Knight 
 follows, half inisheathi7ig her sword and half-seen. 
 
 Back ! back ! I charge thee, back ! 
 Is this a game for thee to play at? Away. 
 
 \^She retires to thr fringe of the copse. He fights 
 on Robin's side. The other three are beaten 
 off and exeunt.
 
 6o THE FORESTERS act ii 
 
 Enter Friar Tuck. 
 
 Friar Tuck. 
 I am too late then with my quarterstaff ! 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Quick, friar, follow them : 
 
 See whether there be more of 'em in the wood. 
 
 Friar Tuck. 
 
 On the gallop, on the gallop, Robin, like a deer 
 from a dog, or a colt from a gad-fly, or a stump- 
 tailed ox in May-time, or the cow that jumped over 
 the moon. \Exit. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Nay, nay, but softly, lest they spy thee, friar ! 
 
 \To Sir Richard Lea who reels. 
 Take thou mine arm. Who art thou, gallant knight ? 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 Robin, I am Sir Richard of the Lea. 
 
 Who be those three that I have fought withal ? 
 
 Robin. 
 Prince John, the Sheriff, and a mercenary.
 
 SCENE I 
 
 THE FORESTERS 6i 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 Prince John again. We are flying from this John. 
 The Sheriff — I am grieved it was the Sheriff ; 
 For, Robin, he must be my son-in-law. 
 Thou art an outlaw, and couldst never jiay 
 The mortgage on my land. Thou wilt not see 
 My Marian more. So — so — I have presumed 
 Beyond my strength. Give me a draught of wine. 
 
 [Marian comes forward. 
 This is my son but late escaped from prison, 
 For whom I ran into my debt to the Abbot, 
 Two thousand marks in gold. I have paid him half. 
 That other thousand — shall I ever pay it ? 
 A draught of wine. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Our cellar is hard by. 
 Take him, good Little John, and give him wine. 
 
 \_Exit Sir Richard leaning on Little John. 
 A brave old fellow but he angers me. 
 
 \To Maid Marian ivho is following her father. 
 Young Walter, nay, I pray thee, stay a moment. 
 
 Marian. 
 A moment for some matter of no moment ! 
 Well — take and use your moment, while you may. 
 
 Robin. 
 Thou art her brother, and her voice is thine,
 
 62 THE FORESTERS act ii 
 
 Her face is thine, and if thou be as gentle 
 Give me some news of my sweet Marian. 
 Where is she ? 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Thy sweet Marian ? I bcheve 
 She came with me into the forest here. 
 
 Robin. 
 She foUow'd thee into the forest here ? 
 
 Marian. 
 Nay — that, my friend, I am sure I did not say. 
 
 Robin. 
 Thou blowest hot and cold. Where is she then ? 
 
 Marian. 
 Is she not here with thcc ? 
 
 Robin. 
 
 ^Vould God she were ! 
 
 Marian. 
 
 If not with thee I know not where she is. 
 She may have lighted on your fairies here, 
 And now be skipping in llicir fairy-rings, 
 And capering hand in hand with 01)cron.
 
 SCENIC I THE FORESTERS 63 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Peace ! 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Or learning witchcraft of your woodland witch 
 And how to charm and waste the hearts of men. 
 
 Robin. 
 That is not brother-like. 
 
 Marian {pointing to the sky). 
 
 Or there perchance 
 Up yonder with the man i' the moon. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 No more ! 
 
 Marian. 
 Or haply fallen a victim to the wolf. 
 
 Robin. 
 Tut ! be there wolves in Sherwood ? 
 
 Marian. 
 
 The wolf, John ! 
 Robin. 
 
 Curse him ! l)ul thou art mocking me. Thou art 
 Her brother — 1 forgive thee. Come be thou 
 My brother too. She loves me.
 
 64 THE FORESTERS act il 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Doth she so ? 
 
 Robin. 
 Do you doubt me when I say she loves me, man ? 
 
 Marian. 
 
 No, but my father will not lose his land. 
 Rather than that would wed her with the Sheriff. 
 
 Robin. 
 Thou hold'st with him ? 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Yes, in some sort I do. 
 He is old and almost mad to keep the land. 
 
 Robin. 
 Thou hold'st with him ? 
 
 iNlARIAN. 
 
 I tell thee, in some sort. 
 
 Robin {angrily). 
 
 Sort ! sort ! what sort ? what sort of man art thou 
 For land, not love? Thou wilt inherit the land, 
 And so wouldst sell thy sister to the Sheriff,
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 65 
 
 O thou unworthy brother of my dear Marian ! 
 And now, I do bethink me, thou wast by 
 And never drewest sword to help the old man 
 When he was fighting. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 There were three to three. 
 
 Robin. 
 Thou shouldst have ta'en his place, and fought for him. 
 
 Marian. 
 He did it so well there was no call for me. 
 
 Robin. 
 My God ! 
 
 That such a brother — she marry the Sheriff ! 
 
 Come now, I fain would have a bout with thee. 
 
 It is but pastime — nay, I will not harm thee. 
 
 Draw ! 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Earl, I would fight with any man but thee. 
 
 Robin. 
 Ay, ay, because I have a name for prowess. 
 
 Marian. 
 It is not that.
 
 66 THE FORESTERS act ii 
 
 Robin. 
 
 That ! I believe thou fell'st into the hands 
 Of these same Moors thro' nature's baseness, criedst 
 ' I yield ' almost before the thing was ask'd, 
 And thro' thy lack of manhood hast betray'd 
 Thy father to the losing of his land. 
 Come, boy ! 'tis but to see if thou canst fence. 
 Draw ! \pratvs. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 No, Sir Earl, I will not fight to-day. 
 
 Robin. 
 To-morrow then ? 
 
 Marian. 
 Well, I will fight to-morrow. 
 
 Robin. 
 Give me thy glove upon it. 
 
 Marian {pulls off her glove and gives it to him). 
 
 There ! 
 
 Robin. 
 
 O God! 
 What sparkles in the moonlight on thy hand ? 
 
 [ Takes her hand.
 
 sciCNE 1 THE FORESTERS 67 
 
 In that great heat to wed her to the Sheriff 
 Thou hast robb'd my girl of her betrothal ring. 
 
 Marian. 
 No, no ! 
 
 Robin. 
 
 What ! do 1 not know mine own rmg ? 
 
 Marian. 
 I keep it for her. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Nay, she swore it never 
 Should leave her finger. Give it me, by heaven, 
 Or 1 will force it from thee. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 O Robin, Robin ! 
 
 Robin. 
 O my dear Marian, 
 
 Is it thou ? is it thou ? I fall before thee, clasp 
 Thy knees. I am ashamed. Thou shalt not marry 
 The Sheriff, but abide with me who love thee. 
 
 \She moves from him, the moonlight falls upon her. 
 O look ! before the shadow of these dark oaks 
 Thou seem'st a saintly splendour out from heaven,
 
 68 THE FORESTERS act ii 
 
 Clothed with the mystic silver of her moon. 
 Speak but one word not only of forgiveness, 
 But to show thou art mortal. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Mortal enough, 
 If love for thee be mortal. Lovers hold 
 True love immortal. Robin, tho' I love thee, 
 We cannot come together in this world. 
 Not mortal ! after death, if after death 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Life, life. I know not death. Why do you vex me 
 With raven-croaks of death and after death ? 
 
 Marian. 
 
 And I and he are passing overseas : 
 
 He has a friend there will advance the monies. 
 
 So now the forest lawns are all as bright 
 
 As ways to heaven, I pray thee give us guides 
 
 To lead us thro' the windings of the wood. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Must it be so ? If it were so, myself 
 
 Would guide you thro' the forest to the sea. 
 
 But go not yet, stay with us, and when thy brother
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 69 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Robin, I ever held that saying false 
 
 That Love is blind, but thou hast proven it true. 
 
 Why — even your woodland squirrel sees the nut 
 
 Behind the shell, and thee however mask'd 
 
 I should have known. But thou — to dream that he 
 
 My brother, my dear Walter — now, perhaps, 
 
 Fetter'd and lash'd, a galley-slave, or closed 
 
 For ever in a Moorish tower, or wreckt 
 
 And dead beneath the midland ocean, he 
 
 As gentle as he's brave — that such as he 
 
 Would wrest from me the precious ring I promised 
 
 Never to part with — No, not he, nor any. 
 
 I would have battled for it to the death. 
 
 [/// her excilement she draws her sword. 
 See, thou hast wrong'd my brother and myself 
 
 Robin {liueeling). 
 See then, I kneel once more to be forgiven. 
 
 Enter Scarlet, Much, several of the Foresters, 
 rushing on. 
 
 Scarlet. 
 
 Look ! look ! he kneels ! he has anger'd the foul witch, 
 
 Who melts a waxen image by the fire. 
 
 And drains the heart and marrow from a man.
 
 70 THE FORESTERS act ii 
 
 Much, 
 
 Our Robin beaten, pleading for his life ! 
 
 Seize on the knight ! wrench his sword from him ! 
 
 \They all rush on Marian. 
 
 Robin (springing up and waving his hand). 
 
 Back! 
 Back all of you ! this is Maid Marian 
 Flying from John — disguised. 
 
 Men. 
 
 Maid Marian ? she ? 
 
 Scarlet. 
 
 Captain, we saw thee cowering to a knight 
 And thought thou wert bewitch'd. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 You dared to dream 
 That our great Earl, the bravest English heart 
 Since Hereward the Wake, would cower to any 
 Of mortal build, ^^'cak natures that impute 
 Themselves to their unlikes, and their own want 
 Of manhood to their leader ! he would break, 
 Far as he might, the power of John — but you — 
 AVhat rightful cause could grow to such a heat 
 As burns a wrong to ashes, if the followers
 
 SCENE II THE FORESTERS 71 
 
 Of him, who heads the movement, held him craven ? 
 Robin — I know not, can I trust myself 
 With your brave band ? in some of these may lodge 
 That baseness which for fear or monies, might 
 Betray me to the wild Prince. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 No, love, no ! 
 Not any of these, I swear. 
 
 Men. 
 
 No, no, we swear. 
 
 Scene II. — Another Glade m the Forest. 
 Robin and Marian passing. Enter Forester. 
 
 Forester. 
 
 Knight, your good father had his draught of wine 
 And then he swoon'd away. He had been hurt, 
 And bled beneath his armour. Now he cries 
 ' The land ! the land ! ' Come to him. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 O my poor father !
 
 72 THE FORESTERS act ii 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Stay with us in this wood, till he recover. 
 
 We know all balms and simples of the field 
 
 To help a wound. Stay with us here, sweet love, 
 
 Maid Marian, till thou wed what man thou wilt. 
 
 All here will prize thee, honour, worship thee, 
 
 Crown thee with flowers ; and he will soon be well : 
 
 All will be well. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 O lead me to my father ! 
 \As they are going out enter Little John and 
 Kate who falls on t/ie neck ^Marian. 
 
 Kate. 
 
 No, no, false knight, thou canst not hide thyself 
 From her who loves thee. 
 
 Little John. 
 
 ^Vhat ! 
 By all the devils in and out of Hell ! 
 Wilt thou embrace thy sweetheart 'fore my face ? 
 Quick with thy sword ! the yeoman braves the knight. 
 There ! {strikes her with the flat of his sivord). 
 
 Marian (laying about her). 
 Are the men all mad ? there then, and there !
 
 SCENE II THE FORESTERS 73 
 
 Kate. 
 O hold tliy hand ! this is our Marian. 
 
 LiTTLK John. 
 What ! with this skill of fence ! let go mine arm. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Down with thy sword ! She is my queen and thine, 
 The mistress of the band. 
 
 Marian {sheathing her sword), 
 
 A maiden now 
 Were ill-bested in these dark days of John, 
 Except she could defend her innocence. 
 
 lead me to my father. 
 
 \Exeunt Robin atjd Marian. 
 
 Little John. 
 
 Speak to me, 
 
 1 am like a boy now going to be whipt ; 
 
 I know I have done amiss, have been a fool, 
 Speak to me, Kate, and say you pardon me ! 
 
 Kate. 
 
 I never will speak word to thee again. 
 What ? to mistrust the girl you say you love
 
 74 THE FORESTERS act ii 
 
 Is to mistrust your own love for your girl ! 
 How should you love if you mistrust your love ? 
 
 Little John. 
 
 Kate, true love and jealousy are twins, 
 And love is joyful, innocent, beautiful. 
 And jealousy is wither'd, sour and ugly : 
 Yet are they twins and always go together. 
 
 Kate. 
 
 Well, well, until they cease to go together, 
 
 1 am but a stone and a dead stock to thee. 
 
 Little John. 
 
 I thought I saw thee clasp and kiss a man 
 And it was but a woman. Pardon me. 
 
 Kate. 
 
 Ay, for I much disdain thee, but if ever 
 
 Thou see me clasp and kiss a man indeed, 
 
 I will again be thine, and not till then. \Exit. 
 
 Little John. 
 I have been a fool and I have lost my Kate. \Exit. 
 
 Re-enter Robin.
 
 SCENE II THE FORESTERS 75 
 
 Robin. 
 
 He dozes. I have left her watching him. 
 
 She will not marry till her father yield. 
 
 The old man dotes. 
 
 Nay — and she will not marry till Richard come, 
 
 And that's at latter Lammas — never perhaps. 
 
 Besides^ tho' Friar Tuck might make us one, 
 
 An outlaw's bride may not be wife in law. 
 
 I am weary. \Lying dozvn on a bank. 
 
 What's here ? a dead bat in the fairy ring — 
 
 Yes, I remember, Scarlet hacking down 
 
 A hollow ash, a bat flew out at him 
 
 In the clear noon, and hook'd him by the hair. 
 
 And he was scared and slpw it. My men say 
 
 The fairies haunt this glade ; — if one could catch 
 
 A glimpse of them and of their fairy Queen — 
 
 Have our loud pastimes driven them all away ? 
 
 I never saw them : yet I could believe 
 
 There came some evil fairy at my birth 
 
 And cursed me, as the last heir of my race : 
 
 ' This boy will never wed the maid he loves. 
 
 Nor leave a child behind him ' [yawns). Weary — 
 
 weary 
 As tho' a spell were on me {he dfeams). 
 \The ivhoh stage lights up., and fairies are seen swing- 
 ing on boughs and nestling iti holloiv trunks.
 
 76 THE FORESTERS act ii 
 
 TiTANiA on a hill, Fairies 07i either side of her, 
 the moon above the hill. 
 
 First Fairy. 
 
 Evil fairy ! do you hear ? 
 So he said who lieth here. 
 
 Second Fairy, 
 
 We be fairies of the wood, 
 We be neither bad nor good. 
 
 First Fairy. 
 
 Back and side and hip atid rib, 
 Nip, nip him for his fib. 
 
 TiTANIA. 
 
 Nip him not, but let hitn snore. 
 ]]'e must flit for evermore. 
 
 First Fairy. 
 
 Tit, my queen, must it be so ? 
 Wherefore, wlm-efore should 7ve go ? 
 
 TiTANIA. 
 
 / Titania bid you flit. 
 
 And you dare to call me Tit.
 
 SCENE II THE FORESTERS 77 
 
 First Fairy. 
 
 Tit, for love and brevity, 
 Not for love of levity. 
 
 TiTANIA. 
 
 Pertest of our flickering mob, 
 Wouldst thou call my Oberon Ob ? 
 
 First Fairy. 
 
 Nay, an please your Elfin Grace, 
 Never Ob before his face. 
 
 TiTANIA. 
 
 Fairy realm is breaking down 
 When the fairy slights the crown. 
 
 First Fairy. 
 
 A^o, by wisp and glowworm, tio. 
 Only wherefore should we go ? 
 
 TiTANIA. 
 
 We must fly from Robin Hood 
 And this new queen of the wood. 
 
 First Fairy. 
 
 True, she is a goodly thing. 
 Jealousy, jealousy of tlie king.
 
 78 THE FORESTERS act ii 
 
 TiTANIA. 
 
 Nay ^ for Oberon fled aivay 
 Twenty thousatid leagues to-day. 
 
 Chorus, 
 
 Look, there comes a deputation 
 From our finikin fairy nation. 
 
 Efiter several Fairies. 
 
 Third Fairy. 
 
 Crushed my bat tuhereoti I flew ! 
 Found Mm dead and drench' d in dew, 
 
 Queen. 
 
 Fourth Fairy. 
 
 QuasKd my frog that used to quack 
 JV/ien I vaulted on his back, 
 
 Queen. 
 
 Fifth Fairy, 
 
 KilPd the sward zvhere'er they sat, 
 
 Queen. 
 
 Sixth Fairy. 
 
 Lusty bracken beaten flat, 
 
 Queefi.
 
 SCENE 11 THE FORESTERS 79 
 
 Seventh Fairy. 
 
 Honest daisy deadly bruised, 
 
 Queen. 
 
 Eighth Fairy. 
 
 Modest maiden lily abused, 
 
 Queen. 
 
 Ninth Fairy. 
 
 Beetle's jeivel armour crack V, 
 
 Queen. 
 
 Tenth Fairy. 
 
 Reed I rocked upon broken-backed, 
 
 Queen. 
 
 Fairies (/« chorus^. 
 
 We be scared with song and shout. 
 Arrows whistle all about. 
 All our games be put to rout. 
 All our rings be trampled out. 
 Lead us thou to some deep glen. 
 Far from solid foot of men. 
 Never to return again. 
 
 Queen.
 
 8o THE FORESTERS act ii 
 
 TiTANiA {to First Fairy). 
 
 Elf^ with spiteful heart and eye, 
 Talk of jealousy ? You see why 
 IVe JHUst leave the wood and fly. 
 
 {To all the Fairies, who sing at intervals with 
 
 TiTANIA.) 
 
 Up with you, out of the forest and over the hills and 
 
 away, 
 And over this Robin Hood's bay I 
 Up thrd the light of the seas by the moon's long-silverifig 
 
 ray ! 
 To a land where the fay, 
 Not an eye to survey. 
 In the night, in the day, 
 Can have frolic and play. 
 
 Up with you, all of you, out of it f hear and obey. 
 Man, lyiftg here alone, 
 Afoody creature. 
 Of a fiature 
 
 Stronger, sadder than my own, 
 Were I humaji, were I human, 
 I could love you like a woman. 
 Man, man. 
 
 You shall wed your Marian. 
 She is true, and you are true. 
 And you love her and she loves you ;
 
 SCENE II THE FORESTERS 8i 
 
 Both be ha/>/>}\ and adieu for ever and for evermore — 
 adieu. 
 
 Robin {half waking). 
 Shall I be happy ? Happy vision, stay. 
 
 TiTANIA. 
 
 Up with you, ail of you, off with you, out of it, over the 
 ivood and away ! 
 
 END OF ACT II
 
 ACT III 
 
 THE CROWNING OF MARIAN
 
 ACT 111 
 
 Scene I. — Heart of the forest. 
 Marian and Kate {in Foresters' green). 
 
 Kate. 
 ^^'hat makes you seem so cold to Robin, lady ? 
 
 Marian. 
 What makes thee think I seem so cold to Robin ? 
 
 Kate. 
 
 You never whisper close as lovers do, 
 Nor care to leap into each other's arms. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 There is a fence I cannot overleap, 
 My father's will.
 
 86 THE FORESTERS act hi 
 
 Kate. 
 Then you will wed the Sheriff^ 
 
 Marian. 
 
 When heaven falls, I may light on such a lark ! 
 But who art thou to catechize me — thou 
 That hast not made it up with Little John ! 
 
 Kate. 
 I wait till Little John makes up to me. 
 
 ALVUIAN. 
 
 AVhy, my good Robin fancied me a man, 
 And drew his sword upon me, and Little John 
 Fancied he saw thee clasp and kiss a man. 
 
 Kate. 
 Well, if he fancied that / fancy a man 
 Other than hiin^ he is 7wt the man for me. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 And that would quite ?^//man him, heart and soul. 
 
 For both are thine 
 
 {Looking up.) 
 
 But listen — overhead — •
 
 SCENE 1 
 
 11 IE r OK ESTERS 87 
 
 Fluting, and piping and luting ' Love, love, love ' — 
 Those sweet tree-Cupids half-way up in heaven. 
 The birds — would I were one of "cm ! O good Kate — 
 If my man-Robin were but a bird-Robin, 
 How happily would wc lilt among the leaves 
 * Love, love, love, love ' — what merry madness — listen ! 
 And let them warm thy heart to Little John. 
 Look where he eomes ! 
 
 Kate. 
 I will not meet him yet, 
 ril watch him from behind the trees, but call 
 Kate when you will, for I am close at hand. 
 
 Kate sta7idi aside and enter Robin, and after him at 
 a little distance Little John, Much the Miller's 
 son, and Scarlet tvith an oaken chaplet, and 
 other Foresters. 
 
 Little John. 
 
 My lord^ Robin — I crave pardon — you always 
 seem to me my lord — I Little John, he Much the 
 miller's son, and he Scarlet, honouring all womankind, 
 and more especially my lady Marian, do here, in the 
 name of all our woodmen, present her with this 
 oaken chaplet as Queen of the wood, I Little John,
 
 88 THE FORESTERS act ii 
 
 he, young Scarlet, and he, old Much, and all the rest 
 of us. 
 
 Much. 
 
 And I, old Much, say as much, for being every 
 inch a man I honour every inch of a woman. 
 
 Robin. ^ 
 
 Friend Scarlet, art thou less a man than Much } 
 Why art thou mute ? Dost thou not honour woman ? 
 
 Scarlet. 
 Robin, I do, but I have a bad wife. 
 
 Robin. 
 Then let her pass as an exception. Scarlet. 
 
 Scarlet. 
 So I would, Robin, if any man would accept her. 
 
 Marian {puts on the chapkt). 
 
 Had I a bulrush now in this right hand 
 For sceptre, I were like a queen indeed. 
 Comrades, I thank )ou for your loyalty, 
 And take and wear this symbol of your love; 
 And were my kindly father sound again. 
 Could live as happy as the larks in heaven,
 
 « 
 SCENK I rilE FOKESTERS 89 
 
 And join your feasts and all your forest games 
 As far as maiden might. Farewell, good fellows ! 
 
 \Exaint several Foresters, the others withdraiv 
 to the back. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Sit here by me, where the most beaten track 
 Runs thro' the forest, hundreds of huge oaks, 
 Gnarl'd — older than the thrones of Europe — look, 
 What breadth, height, strength — torrents of eddying 
 
 bark! 
 Some hollow-hearted from exceeding age — 
 That never be thy lot or mine ! — and some 
 Pillaring a leaf-sky on their monstrous boles, 
 Sound at the core as we are. Fifty leagues 
 Of woodland hear and know my horn, that scares 
 The Baron at the torture of his churls. 
 The pillage of his vassals. 
 
 O maiden-wife. 
 The oppression of our people moves me so. 
 That when I think of it hody. Love himself 
 Seems but a ghost, but when thou feel'st with me 
 The ghost returns to Marian, clothes itself 
 In maiden flesh and blood, and looks at once 
 Maid Marian, and that maiden freedom which 
 Would never brook the tyrant. Live thou maiden ! 
 Thou art more my wife so feeling, than if my wife
 
 90 THE FORESTERS act in 
 
 And siding with these proud priests, and these 
 
 Barons, 
 Devils, that make this blessed England hell. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Earl ■ 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Nay, no Earl am I. I am English yeoman. 
 
 Marian. 
 Then / am yeo-woman. O the clumsy word ! 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Take thou tliis light kiss for thy clumsy word. 
 
 Kiss me again. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Robin, I will not kiss thee, 
 For that belongs to marriage ; but I hold thee 
 The husband of my heart, the noblest light 
 That ever flash'd across my life, and I 
 Embrace thee with the kisses of the soul. 
 
 Robin, 
 I thank thee. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Scarlet told mc — is it true ? — 
 That John last week return'd to Nottingham, 
 And all the foolish world is pressing thither.
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 91 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Sit here, my queen, and judge the world with nic. 
 Doubtless, Hke judges of another bench. 
 However wise, we must at times have wrought 
 Some great injustice, yet, far as we knew. 
 We never robb'd one friend of the true King. 
 We robb'd the traitors that are leagued with John ; 
 We robb'd the lawyer who went against the law ; 
 We spared the craftsman, chapman, all that live 
 By their own hands, the labourer, the poor priest ; 
 We spoil'd the prior, friar, abbot, monk. 
 For playing upside down with Holy ^^'rit. 
 ' Sell all thou hast and give it to the poor ; ' 
 Take all they have and give it to thyself! 
 Then after we have eased them of their coins 
 It is our forest custom they should revel 
 Along with Robin. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 And if a woman pass 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Dear, in these days of Norman license, when 
 Our English maidens are their prey, if ever 
 A Norman damsel fell into our hands. 
 In this dark wood when all was in our power 
 We never wrong'd a woman.
 
 92 THE FORESTERS act in 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Noble Robin. 
 
 Little John {comhig forivard). 
 Here come three beggars. 
 
 Enter the three Beggars. 
 
 Little John. 
 
 Toll! 
 
 First Beggar. 
 
 Eh ! we be beggars, we come to ask o' you. Wc 
 ha' nothing. 
 
 Second Beggar. 
 
 Rags, nothing but our rags. 
 
 Third Beggar. 
 
 I have but one penny in pouch, and so you would 
 make it two I should be grateful. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Beggars, you are sturdy rogues that should be set 
 to work. You arc those that tramp the country, filch 
 the linen from the hawthorn, poison the house-dog,
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 93 
 
 and scare lonely maidens at the farmstead. Search 
 them, Little John. 
 
 Little John. 
 
 These two have forty gold marks between them, 
 Robin. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Cast them into our treasury, the beggars' mites. 
 Part shall go to the almshouses at Nottingham, part 
 to the shrine of our Lady. Search this other. 
 
 Little John. 
 He hath, as he said, but one penny. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Leave it with him and add a gold mark thereto. 
 He hath spoken truth in a world of lies. 
 
 Third Beggar. 
 I thank you, my lord. 
 
 Little John. 
 
 A fine, a fine ! he hath called plain Robin a lord. 
 How much for a beggar ? 
 
 Robin. 
 Take his penny and leave him his gold mark.
 
 94 THE FORESTERS act iii 
 
 Little John. 
 Sit there, knaves, till the captain call for you. 
 \They pass behind the trunk of ati oak on the right. 
 
 Marian. 
 Art thou not liard upon them, my good Robin ? 
 
 Robin. 
 
 They might be harder upon thee, if met in a black 
 lane at midnight : the throat might gape before the 
 tongue could cry who ? 
 
 Little John. 
 Here comes a citizen, and I think his wife. 
 
 Enter Citizen and Wife. 
 
 Citizen. 
 That business which we have in Nottingham 
 
 Little John. 
 Halt! 
 
 Citizen. 
 
 O dear wife, we have fallen into the hands 
 Of Robin Hood.
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 95 
 
 Marian. 
 
 And Robin Hood hath sworn — 
 Shame on thee, Little John, thou hast forgotten — 
 Hiat by the blessed Mother no man, so 
 His own true wife came with him, should be stay'd 
 From passing onward. Fare you well, fair lady ! 
 
 \Botving to her. 
 Robin. 
 And may your business thrive in Nottingham ! 
 
 Citizen. 
 
 I thank you, noble sir, the very blossom 
 
 Of bandits. Curtsey to him, wife, and thank him. 
 
 Wife. 
 
 I thank you, noble sir, and will pray for you 
 That you may thrive, but in some kindlier trade. 
 
 Citizen. 
 Away, away, wife, wilt thou anger him ? 
 
 \Exeuni Citizen and Iiis Wife. 
 
 Little John. 
 Here come three friars.
 
 96 THE FORESTERS act hi 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Marian, thou and thy woman {looking roufid), 
 Why, where is Kate ? 
 
 Marian {calling. 
 Kate! 
 
 Kate. 
 Here! 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Thou and thy woman are a match for three 
 friars. Take thou my bow and arrow and compel 
 them to pay toll. 
 
 Marian. 
 Toll! 
 
 Enter three Friars. 
 First Friar {advancing). 
 
 Behold a pretty Dian of the wood. 
 
 Prettier than that same widow which you wot of 
 
 Ha, brother. Toll, my dear ? the toll of love. 
 
 Marian {drawing boiv). 
 Back ! how much money hast thou in thy purse ? 
 
 First Friar. 
 
 Thou art playing with us. How should poor friars 
 have money ?
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 97 
 
 Marian. 
 How much ? how much ? Speak, or the arrow flies. 
 
 First Friar. 
 
 How much ? well, now I bctliiiik me, I have one 
 mark in gold which a pious son of the Church gave 
 me this morning on my setting forth. 
 
 Mariatst {bending bow at the second). 
 
 And thou ? 
 
 Second Friar. 
 
 Well, as he said, one mark in gold. 
 
 Marian {bending bow at the third). 
 And thou ? 
 
 TlURl) 1""riar. 
 
 One mark in gold. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Search them, Kutc, and see if they have spoken 
 truth. 
 
 Kate. 
 
 They are all mark'd men. They have told but a 
 tenth of the truth : they have each ten marks in gold. 
 
 H
 
 98 THE FORESTERS act hi 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Leave them each what they say is theirs, and take 
 the twenty- seven marks to the captain's treasury. 
 Sit there till you be called for. 
 
 First Friar. 
 
 We have fall'n into the hands of Robin Hood. 
 
 [Marian and Kate return to Robin. 
 \TJie Friars pass hehhid an oak on t/ie left. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Honour to thee, brave Marian, and thy Kate. 
 
 I know them arrant knaves in Nottingham. 
 
 One half of this shall go to those they have wrong'd, 
 
 One half shall pass into our treasury. 
 
 Where lies that cask of wine whereof we plunder'd 
 
 The Norman prelate? 
 
 Little John. 
 
 In that oak, where twelve 
 Can stand upright, nor touch each other. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Good ! 
 Roll it in Ikic. These friars, thieves, and liars. 
 Shall drink the health of our new woodland Queen.
 
 SCENK I THE FORESTERS 99 
 
 And they shall pledge thee, Marian, loud enough 
 To fright the wild swan passing overhead, 
 The mouldwarp underfoot. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 They pledge me, Robin ? 
 The silent blessing of one honest man 
 Is heard in heaven — the wassail yells of thief 
 And rogue and liar echo down in Hell, 
 And wake the Devil, and I may sicken by 'em. 
 Well, well, be it so, thou strongest thief of all, 
 For thou hast stolen my will, and made it thine. 
 
 Friar Tuck, Little John, Much, 
 and Scarlet roll In cask. 
 
 Friar Tuck. 
 I marvel is it sack or Malroisie? 
 
 Robin. 
 Do me the service to tap it, and thou wilt know. 
 
 Friar Tuck. 
 I would tap myself in thy service, Robin. 
 
 Robin. 
 And thou wouldst run more wine than blood.
 
 loo THE FORESTERS act hi 
 
 Friar Tuck. 
 
 And both at thy service, Robin. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 I believe thee, thou art a good fellow, though a 
 friar. \They pour the wine into cups. 
 
 Friar Tuck. 
 
 Fill to the brim. Our Robin, King o' the woods, 
 AVherever the horn sound, and the buck bound, 
 Robin, the people's friend, the King o' the woods ! 
 
 \They drink. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 To the brim and over till the green earth drink 
 Her health along with us in this rich draught, 
 And answer it in flowers. The Queen o' the woods, 
 Wherever the buck bound, and the horn sound, 
 Maid Marian, Queen o' the woods ! \They drink. 
 
 Here, you three rogues, 
 \To the Beggars. They come out. 
 You caught a lonely woodman of our band, 
 And bruised him almost to the death, and took 
 His monies. 
 
 TiiikD Br.or.Ak. 
 Captain, nay, it wasn't me.
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS loi 
 
 Roi'.lX. 
 
 You ought to dangle w\^ iherc among the crows. 
 Drink to the health of our new Queen o' the woods, 
 Or else be bound and beaten. 
 
 First Beggar. 
 
 Sir, sir — well, 
 AV'e drink the health of thy new Queen o' the woods. 
 
 Rodin. 
 Louder ! louder ! Maid INfarian, Queen o' the woods ! 
 
 Beggars {shouting). 
 
 Maid Marian, Queen o' tlie woods : Queen o' the 
 woods ! 
 
 First and Second Beggars {aside). 
 
 The black fiend grip her ! 
 
 \They drink. 
 
 Robin {to the Friars). 
 
 And you three holy men, 
 
 \They come out. 
 You worshippers of the Virgin, one of you 
 Shamed a too trustful widow whom you heard 
 In her confession ; and another — worse ! — 
 An innocent maid. Drink to the Queen o' the woods, 
 Or else be bound and beaten.
 
 I02 . THE FORESTERS act hi 
 
 First Friar. 
 
 Robin Hood, 
 These be the Ues the people tell of us, 
 Because we seek to curb their viciousness. 
 However — to this maid, this Queen o' the woods. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Louder, louder, ye knaves. Maid Marian ! 
 Queen o' the woods ! 
 
 Friars {shoufi?ig). 
 Maid Marian, Queen o' the woods. 
 
 First Friar {aside). 
 Maid? 
 
 Second Friar {aside). 
 
 Paramour ! 
 
 Third Friar {aside). 
 
 Hell take her ! 
 
 \_T/iey drink. 
 
 Friar Tuck. 
 
 Robin, will you not hear one of these beggars' 
 catches? They can do it. I have heard 'cm in the 
 market at Mansfield.
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 103 
 
 Little John. 
 No, my lord, hear ours — Robin — I crave pardon, 
 I always think of you as my lord, but I may still say 
 my lady ; and, my lady, Kate and I have fallen out 
 again, and I pray you to come between us again, for, 
 my lady, we have made a song in your honour, so 
 your ladyship care to listen. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Sing, and by St. Mary these beggars and these 
 friars shall join you. Play the air. Little John. 
 
 Little John. 
 
 Air and word, my lady, are maid and man. Join 
 them and the)' are a true marriage ; and so, I pray 
 you, my lady, come between me and my Kate and 
 make us one again. Scarlet, begin. 
 
 \Playing i/ie air on his viol. 
 
 Scarlet. 
 By ail the deer that spring 
 Thrd wood and laivn atid ling^ 
 
 When all the leaves are green ; 
 By arroiv and gray goosewtng, 
 When horn and echo ring, 
 We care so much for a King ; 
 
 We care not much for a Queen — 
 For a Queen, for a Queen d the U'oods.
 
 I04 THE FORESTERS act hi 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Do you call that m my honoui ? 
 
 Scarlet. 
 
 Bitters before dinner, my lady, to give you a relish. 
 The first part — made before you came among us — 
 they put it upon me because I have a bad wife. I 
 love you all the same. Proceed. \_All the rest sing. 
 
 By all the leaves of spring, 
 And all the birds that sing 
 
 When all the leaves are gree?i ; 
 By arrow and by bowstring. 
 We care so nmch for a King 
 
 That ive would die for a Queen — 
 
 For a Queen, for a Queen d the zvoods. 
 
 Enter Forester. 
 
 Forester. 
 
 Black news, black news from Nottingham ! I grieve 
 I am the Raven who croaks it. INIy lord John, 
 In wrath because you drove him from the forest, 
 Is coming witli a swarm of mercenaries 
 To break our band and scatter us to the winds. 
 
 Marian. 
 O Robin, Robin ! See that nicii be set
 
 SCENE I THE I'ORESrERS 105 
 
 Along the glades and passes of the wood 
 To warn us of his coming ! then each man 
 That owns a wife or daughter, let him l)ury her 
 Even in the bowels of the earth to 'scape 
 The glance of John 
 
 Robin. 
 
 You hear your Queen, obey ! 
 
 END OF ACT III
 
 ACT IV 
 THE CONCLUSION
 
 ACT IV 
 
 Scene. — A forest bower, cavern in background. 
 Sunrise. 
 
 Marian {rising to meet Robin). 
 
 Robin, the sweet light of a mother's eye, 
 That beam of dawn upon the opening flower. 
 Has never glanced upon me when a child. 
 He was my father, mother, both in one. 
 The love that children owe to both I give 
 To him alone. 
 
 (Robin ojfers to caress her.) 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Quiet, good Robin, quiet ! 
 
 You lovers are such clumsy summer-flies 
 
 For ever buzzing at your lady's face. 
 
 Rodin. 
 Bees rather, flying to the flower for honey.
 
 no THE FORESTERS act iv 
 
 Marian {sings). 
 
 The bee huzz'd up ifi the heat. 
 ^ I am faint for your honey, my stveet.' 
 The flower said ' Take it, my dear, 
 For noiv is the spring of the year. 
 So come, come ! ' 
 ' Hum ! ' 
 And the bee buzzed down from the heat. 
 
 And the bee buzz'd up in the cold 
 When the flower was zvither''d and old. 
 ' Have you still any honey, my dear ? ' 
 She said ' It's the fall of the year. 
 But come, come / ' . 
 ' Hum ! ' 
 And the bee buzzed off in the cold. 
 
 Out on thy song ! 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Marian. 
 Did I not sing it in tune ? 
 
 Robin. 
 No, sweetheart ! out of tunc with Love and me. 
 
 Marian. 
 And yet in tune with Nature and the bees.
 
 SCENE 1 THE FORESTERS in 
 
 Robin. 
 Out on it, I say, as out of tune and time ! 
 
 Marian. 
 Till thou thyself shalt come to sing it — in time. 
 
 Rop.ix {taking a tress of her hair in his hand). 
 Time I if his backward-working alchemy 
 Should change this gold to silver, why, the silver 
 Were dear as gold, the wrinkle as the dimple. 
 Thy bee should buzz about the Court of John. 
 No ribald John is Love, no wanton Prince, 
 The ruler of an hour, but lawful King, 
 \Miose writ will run thro' all the range of life. 
 Out upon all hard-hearted maidenhood I 
 
 Marian. 
 And out upon all simple batchelors ! 
 Ah, well ! thou seest the land has come between us. 
 And my sick father here has come between us. 
 And this rich Sheriff too has come between us ; 
 So, is it not all over now between us ? 
 Gone, like a deer that hath escaped thine arrow ! 
 
 Robin. 
 
 What deer when I have mark'd him c\-cr yet 
 Escaped mine arrow? over is it? wilt thou 
 Give me thy hand on that?
 
 112 THE FORESTERS act iv 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Take it. 
 
 Robin (kisses her ha?id). 
 
 The Sheriff ! 
 This ring cries out against thee. Say it again, 
 And by this ring the Ups that never breathed 
 Love's falsehood to true maid will seal Love's truth 
 On those sweet lips that dare to dally with it. 
 
 ]\Iarian. 
 Quiet, quiet ! or I will to my tather. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 So, then, thy father will not grace our feast 
 With his white beard to-day. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Being so sick 
 
 How should he, Robin ? 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Then that bond he liath 
 Of the Abbot — wilt thou ask him for it ? 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Why ?
 
 scENii 1 'JlIE J'OKES'J'EKS 113 
 
 Robin. 
 
 I have sent to the Abbot and justiciary 
 'I'o bring their counter-bond into the forest. 
 
 Mari.\n. 
 But will they come? 
 
 Robin. 
 
 If not I have let them know 
 Their lives unsafe in any of these our woods, 
 And in the winter I will fire their farms^ 
 But I have sworn by our Lady if they come 
 I will not tear the bond, but see fair play 
 Betwixt them and Sir Richard — promised too, 
 So that they deal with us like honest men, 
 They shall be handled with all courteousness. 
 
 Marian. 
 What wilt thou do with the bond then ? 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Wait and see. 
 
 What wilt thou do with the Sheriff? 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Wait and see. 
 1 bring the bond. \Exit Marian.
 
 114 
 
 THE FORESTERS act iv 
 
 Enter Little John, Friar Tuck, and Much, and 
 Foresters and Peasants laiigliifig and talking. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Have ye glanced down thro' all the forest ways 
 And mark'd if those two knaves from York be 
 coming ? 
 
 Little John. 
 
 Not yet, but here comes one of bigger mould. 
 
 [Enter King Richard. 
 
 Art thou a knight ? 
 
 King Richard. 
 I am. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 And walkcst here 
 Unarmour'd ? all these walks are Robin Hood's 
 And sometimes perilous. 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 Good ! but having lived 
 For twenty days and nights in mail, at last 
 I crawl'd like a sick crab from my old shell, 
 That I might breathe for a moment free of shield 
 And cuirass in this forest where I drcam'd
 
 S(FNF. I THE FORESTERS 115 
 
 That all was peace — not even a Robin Hood — 
 i^Aside) A\'hat if these knaves should know me for 
 their King? 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Art thou for Richard, or allied to John ? 
 
 King Richard. 
 I am allied to John. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 The worse for thee. 
 
 KiNc; Richard. 
 
 Art thou that banishd lord of Huntingdon, 
 The chief of these outlaws who break the law ? 
 
 Robin. 
 
 I am the yeoman, plain Robin Hood, and being 
 out of the law how sliould we break the law ? if we 
 broke into it again we should break the law, and then 
 we were no longer outlaws. 
 
 King Richard. 
 But, Earl, if thou be he 
 
 Friar Tuck. 
 
 Fine him ! fine him ! he hath called plain Robin 
 an earl. How much is il, Robin, for a knight?
 
 ii6 THE FORESTERS act iv 
 
 Robin. 
 A mark. 
 
 King Richard {gives it). 
 There. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Thou payest easily, hke a good fellow, 
 
 But being o' John's side we must have thy gold. 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 But I am more for Richard than for John. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 What, what, a truckler ! a word-eating coward ! 
 Nay, search him then. How much hast thou about 
 thee? 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 I had one mark. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 What more ? 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 No more, I think. 
 But how then if I will not bide to be search'd? 
 
 Robin. 
 Wc arc four to one.
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 1 1 7 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 And I might deal with four. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Good, good, I love thee for that ! but if I wind 
 This forest-horn of mine I can bring down 
 Fourscore tall fellows on thee. 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 Search me then. 
 I should be hard beset with thy fourscore. 
 
 Little John {searchifig King Richard). 
 Robin, he hath no more. " He hath spoken truth. 
 
 Robin. 
 I am glad of it. Gi\e him back his gold again. 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 But I had liefer than this gold again — 
 Not having broken fast the livelong day — 
 Something to cat. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 And thou shalt have it, man. 
 Our feast is yonder, spread beneath an oak,
 
 ii8 THE FORESTERS act iv 
 
 Venison, and wild boar, wild goose, besides 
 Hedge-pigs, a savoury viand, so thou be 
 Squeamish at eating the King's venison. 
 
 King Richard. 
 Nay, Robin, I am like thyself in that 
 I look on the King's venison as my own. 
 
 Friar Tuck. 
 Ay, ay, Robin, but let him know our forest laws : 
 he that pays not for his dinner must fight for it. In 
 the sweat of thy brow, says Holy 'Writ, shalt thou 
 eat bread, but in the sweat of thy brow and thy breast, 
 and thine arms, and thy legs, and thy heart, and thy 
 liver, and in the fear of thy life shalt thou eat the 
 King's venison — ay, and so thou fight at quarterstaff 
 for thy dinner with our Robin, that will give thee a 
 new zest for it, though thou wcrt like a bottle full up 
 to the cork, or as hollow as a kex, or the shambles- 
 oak, or a weasel-sucked egg, or the head of a fool, or 
 the heart of Prince John, or any other symbol of 
 vacuity. 
 \TJiey bring out the quarterstaffs, ami the Foresters 
 
 a?id Peasants crowd round to see the gomes, and 
 
 applaud at intervals. 
 
 King Richard. 
 Great woodland king, I know not quarterstaff.
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 119 
 
 LiTTi.K John. 
 A fine! a fine! He hath called i)lain Robin a 
 king. 
 
 RoiiiN. 
 
 A shadow, a poetical fiction — did yc not call mc 
 king in your song ? — a mere figure. T.et it go by. 
 
 Fri.ar Tuck. 
 
 No figure, no fiction, Robin. Wliat, is not man 
 a hunting animal ? And look you now, if we kill a 
 stag, our dogs have their paws cut off, and the hunters, 
 if caught, are blinded, or worse than blinded. Is 
 that to be a king? If the king and the law work 
 injustice, is not he that goes against the king and the 
 law the true king in the sight of the King of kings ? 
 Thou art the king of the forest, and I would thou 
 wert the king of the land. 
 
 King Rich.\rij. 
 This friar is of much boldness, noble captain. 
 
 Robin. 
 He hath got it from the bottle, noble knight. 
 
 Friar Tuck. 
 
 Boldness out of the bottle ! I defy thee. 
 Boldness is in the blood. Truth in the bottle.
 
 I20 THE FORESTERS act iv 
 
 She lay so long at the bottom of her well 
 
 In the cold water that she lost her voice, 
 
 And so she glided up into the heart 
 
 O' the bottle, the warm wine, and found it again. 
 
 I7i vino Veritas. Shall I undertake 
 
 The knight at quarterstaff, or thou ? 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Peace, magpie ! 
 
 Give him the quarterstaff. Nay, but thyself 
 Shalt play a bout with me, that he may see 
 The fashion of it. 
 
 [Plays with Little John at quarterstajf. 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 Well, then, let me try. \They play, 
 I yield, I yield. I know no quarterstaff. 
 
 Robin. 
 Then thou shalt play the game of buffets with us. 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 What's that ? 
 
 Robin. 
 
 I stand uj) here, thou there. I give thee 
 A buffet, an<l llum me. The Holy Virgin
 
 SCENE I THE r OR ESTERS 121 
 
 Stand by the strongest. I am overbreathed, 
 Friar, l)y my two bouts at quarterstaff. 
 Take him and try him, friar. 
 
 Friar Tuck, 
 There ! {Strikes. 
 
 King Richard {strikes). 
 There! \Vk\\k falls. 
 
 Friar Tuck. 
 
 There ! 
 
 Thou hast roU'd over the Church mihtant 
 Like a tod of wool from wagon into warehouse. 
 Nay, I defy thee still. Try me an hour hence. 
 I am misty with my thimbleful of ale. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Thou seest, Sir Knight, our friar is so holy 
 That he's a miracle-monger, and can make 
 Five quarts pass into a thimble. Up, good Much. 
 
 Friar Tuck. 
 
 And show thyself more of a man llian me. 
 
 Much. 
 Well, no man yet has ever bowl'd me down.
 
 122 THE FORESTERS act iv 
 
 Scarlet. 
 Ay, for old Much is every inch a man. 
 
 Robin. 
 We should be all the more beholden to him. 
 
 Much. 
 
 Much and more ! much and more ! I am the 
 oldest of thy men, and thou and thy youngsters arc 
 always muching and moreing me. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Because thou art always so much more of a man 
 than my youngsters, old Much. 
 
 Much. 
 Well, we Muches be old. 
 
 Robin. 
 Old as the hills. 
 
 Much. 
 
 Old as the mill. We had it i' the Red King's 
 time, and so I ))iay be more of a man than to be 
 bowled over like a ninepin. There ! \Strikes. 
 
 Kino Richard. 
 There ! [Much falls.
 
 SCENE I -l-fTF. FOR ESTERS 123 
 
 Robin. 
 
 ' Much would have more,' says the proverb ; Ijut 
 Much Iiaih liad more tlian enough. Give me thy 
 hand, Much ; I love thee {lifts hivi up). At him, 
 Scarlet ! 
 
 Scarlet. 
 
 I cannot cope with him : my wrist is strain'd. 
 
 King Richard. 
 Try, thyself, valorous Robin ! 
 
 Robin. 
 
 I am mortally afear'd o' thee, thou big man, 
 But seeing valour is one against all odds. 
 There ! 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 There ! [Robin falls back, and is caught in 
 
 the anus of Little John. 
 
 Robin. 
 Good, now I love thee mightily, thou tall fellow. 
 Break thine alliance with this faithless John, 
 And live with us and the birds in the green wood. 
 
 King Richard. 
 I cannot break it, Robin, if I wish'd. 
 Still T am more for Richard than for John.
 
 124 THE FORESTERS ACT \\r 
 
 Little John. 
 
 Look, Robin, at the far end of the glade 
 I see two figures crawhng up the hill. 
 
 \Distant sou fid of trumpets. 
 
 Robin. 
 The Abbot of York and his justiciar)-. 
 
 King Richard {aside). 
 
 They know me. I must not as yet be known. 
 Friends, your free sports have swallow'd my free 
 
 hour. 
 Farewell at once, for I must hence upon 
 The King's affair. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Not taste his venison first ? 
 
 Friar Tuck. 
 
 Hast thou not fought for it, and earn'd"it? Stay, 
 Dine with my brethren here, and on thine own. 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 And which be they ? 
 
 Friar Tuck. 
 
 Wild geese, for how canst tliou be thus allied 
 With John, and seiTC King Richard save thou be
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 125 
 
 A traitor or a goose ? but stay with Robin ; 
 For Robin is no scatterbrains like Richard, 
 Robin's a wise man, Richard a wiseacre, 
 Robin's an outlaw, but he helps the poor. 
 AVhile Richard hath outlaw'd himself, and helps 
 Nor rich, nor poor. Richard's the king of courtesy, 
 ^ For if he did me the good grace to kick me 
 I could but sneak and smile and call it courtesy. 
 For he's a king. 
 
 And that is only courtesy by courtesy — 
 But Robin is a thief of courtesy 
 ^^'hom they that suffer by him call the blossom 
 Of bandits. There — to be a thief of courtesy — 
 There is a trade of genius, there's glory ! 
 Again, this Richard sacks and wastes a town 
 With random pillage, but our Robin takes 
 From whom he knows are hypocrites and liars. 
 Again this Richard risks his life for a straw. 
 So lies in prison — while our Robin's life 
 Hangs by a thread, but he is a free man. 
 Richard, again, is king over a realm 
 He hardly knows, and Robin king of Sherwood, 
 And loves and doats on every dingle of it. 
 Again this Richard is the lion of Cyprus, 
 Robin, the lion of Sherwood — may this mouth 
 Never suck grape again, if our true Robin 
 Be not the nobler lion of the twain.
 
 126 THE FORESTERS act iv 
 
 King Richard. 
 Gramercy for thy preachment ! if the land 
 Were ruleable by tongue, thou shouldst be king. 
 And yet thou know'st how Httlc of thy king ! 
 What was this reahii of England, all the crowns 
 Of all this world, to Richard when he flung 
 His life, heart, soul into those holy wars 
 That sought to free the tomb-place of the King 
 Of all the world ? thou, that art churchman too 
 In a fashion, and shouldst feel with him. Farewell ! 
 I left mine horse and armour with a Squire, 
 And T must see to 'em. 
 
 RoiilN. 
 
 When wilt thou return ? 
 
 King Richard. 
 Return, I ? when ? when Richard will return. 
 
 ROP.IN. 
 
 No sooner? when will that be? canst thou tell? 
 Rut I have ta'en a sudden fancy to thee. 
 Accept this horn ! if e'er thou be assail'd 
 In any of our forests, blow upon it 
 Three mots, this fashion — listen ! {Idmvs) Canst thou 
 doit? [King Richard Mm'^-. 
 
 Blown like a true son of the woods, l-'arcwcll ! 
 
 [TTavV King Richard.
 
 scKNii I THE I-ORESTERS 127 
 
 Enter Abbot and Justiciary. 
 
 Friar Tuck. 
 Church and Law, luili and pay toll ! 
 
 Justiciary. 
 
 Rogue, we have thy captain's safe-conduct; though 
 he be the chief of rogues, he hath never broken his 
 word. 
 
 Abbot. 
 There is our bond. 
 
 \ Gives it to Robin. 
 Robin. 
 I thank thee. 
 
 Justiciary. 
 
 Ay, bill where. 
 Where is this old Sir Richard of the Lea ? 
 Thou told'st us we should meet him in the forest, 
 Where he would pay us down his thousand marks. 
 
 Rodin. 
 Give him another month, and he will pay it. 
 
 Justiciary. 
 We cannot give a month.
 
 128 THE FORESTERS act iv 
 
 Robin. 
 
 ^^'hy then a week. 
 
 Justiciary. 
 No, not an hour : the debt is due to-day. 
 
 Abbot. 
 Where is this laggard Richard of the Lea ? 
 
 Robin. 
 He hath been hurt, was growing whole again, 
 Only this morning in his agony 
 Lest he should fail to pay these thousand marks 
 He is stricken with a slight paralysis. 
 Have you no pity ? must you see the man ? 
 
 Justiciary. 
 Ay, ay, what else ? how else can this Ije settled ? 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Go men, and fetch him hither on the litter. 
 
 [Sir Richard Lea is brought in. 
 Marian comes ivitii him. 
 
 Marian. 
 Here is my father's bond. {Gives it to Robin Hood. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 I thank thee, dear.
 
 SCICNK I THE FORES'IFRS 129 
 
 Justiciary. 
 
 Sir Richard, it was agreed when you borrowed 
 these monies from the Abbot that if tliey were not 
 repaid within a hmited time your land should be 
 forfeit. 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 The land ! the land. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 You sec he is past himself 
 A\'hat would you more ? 
 
 Abbot. 
 
 What more ? one thousand marks, 
 Or else the land. 
 You hide this damsel in your forest here, 
 
 [^Pointing to Marian. 
 You hope to hold and keep her for yourself. 
 You heed not how you soil her maiden fame, 
 You scheme against her father's weal and hers, 
 For so this maid would wed our brother, he 
 Would pay us all the debt at once, and thus 
 This old Sir Richard might redeem his land. 
 He is all for love, he cares not for the land. 
 
 K
 
 I30 THE FORESTERS act iv 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 The land, the land ! 
 
 Robin {giving two bags to the Abbot). 
 
 Here be one thousand marks 
 Out of our treasury to redeem the land. 
 
 \_Pointi7ig to each of the bags. 
 Half here, half there. \Plaudits from his band. 
 
 Justiciary. 
 Ay, ay, but there is use, four hundred marks. 
 
 Robin {giving a bag to Justiciary). 
 There then, four hundred marks. [Plaudits. 
 
 Justiciary. 
 
 What did I say ? 
 Nay, my tongue tript — five hundred marks for use. 
 
 Robin {giving another bag to him). 
 
 A hundred more ? There then, a hundred more. 
 
 [P/aiidits. 
 Justiciary. 
 
 Ay, ay, but you sec the bond and the letter of the 
 law. It is stated there that these monies should be 
 paid in to the Abbot at ^'ork, at the end of the 
 montli at noon, and they are delivered here in the 
 wild wood an hour after noon.
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 131 
 
 Marian. 
 The letter — O how often justice drowns 
 Between the law and letter of the law ! 
 O God, I would the letter of the law 
 Were some strong fellow here in the wild wood, 
 That tliou niightst beat him down at quarterstaff \ 
 Have you no pity ? 
 
 Justiciary. 
 
 You run down your game, 
 We ours. What pity ha\-e you for jour game ? 
 
 Robin. 
 
 We needs must live. Our bowmen are so true 
 They strike the deer at once to death — he falls 
 And knows no more. 
 
 Marian. 
 Pity, pity ! — There was a man of ours 
 Up in the north, a goodly fellow too, 
 He met a stag there on so narrow a ledge — 
 A precipice above, and one below — 
 There was no room to advance or to retire. 
 The man lay down — the delicate-footed creature 
 Came stepping o'er him, so as not to harm him — 
 The hunter's passion flash'd into the man, 
 He drove his knife into the heart of the deer. 
 The deer fell dead to the bottom, and the man
 
 132 THE FORESTERS act iv 
 
 Fell with him, and was crippled ever after. 
 I fear I had small pity for that man. — 
 You have the monies and the use of them. 
 What would you more ? 
 
 Justiciary. 
 What ? must wc dance attendance all the day ? 
 
 Robin. 
 Dance ! ay, by all the saints and all the devils ye 
 shall dance. When the Church and the law have 
 forgotten God's music, they shall dance to the music 
 of the wild wood. Let the birds sing, and do you 
 dance to their song. What, you will not ? Strike 
 up our music. Little John. {He plays.) They will 
 not ! Prick 'em in the calves with the arrow-points — 
 prick 'em in the calves. 
 
 Akbot. 
 Rogue, I am full of gout. 1 cannot dance. 
 
 Robin. 
 And Sir Richard cannot redeem his land. Sweat 
 out your gout, friend, for by my life, you shall dance 
 till he can. Prick him in the calves ! 
 
 Justiciary. 
 
 Rogue, I have a swollen vein in my right leg, and 
 if thou prick mc there I shall die.
 
 scF.Nr: I THE FORESTERS 133 
 
 ROHIN. 
 Prick him where thou wilt, so that he dance. 
 
 Abbot. 
 Rogue, we come not alone. 
 
 TUSTICIARY. 
 
 Not the right. 
 
 Abbot. 
 We told the Prince and the Sheriff of our coming. 
 
 Justiciary. 
 Take the left leg for the love of God. 
 
 Abbot. 
 They follow us. 
 
 Justiciary. 
 
 You will all of you hang. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Let us hang, so thou dance meanwhile ; or by 
 that same love of God we will hang thee^ prince or no 
 prince, sheriff or no sheriff.
 
 134 THE FORESTERS act iv 
 
 Justiciary. 
 
 Take care, take care ! I dance — I will dance — I 
 dance. [Abbot afid Justiciary dance to music, 
 
 each holding a bag in each hand. 
 
 Enter Scarlet. 
 
 Scarlet. 
 
 The Sheriff! the Sheriff, follow'd by Prince John 
 
 And all his mercenaries ! We sighted 'em 
 
 Only this moment. By St. Nicholas 
 
 They must have sprung like Ghosts from underground, 
 
 Or, like the Devils they are, straight u}) from Hell. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Crouch all into the Ijush ! 
 
 [The Foresters and Peasants hide behind the 
 bushes. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Take up the litter ! 
 
 .^iR Richard. 
 Move me no more ! I am sick and faiiil with pain ! 
 
 Marian. 
 But, Sir, the Sheriff
 
 scene 1 the foresters 135 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 Let me be, I say ! 
 The Sheriff will be welcome ! let me be ! 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Give me my l)ow and arrows. I remain 
 Beside my Father's litter. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 And fear not thou ! 
 Each of us has an arrow on the cord ; 
 We all keep watch. 
 
 Enter Sheriff of Nottingham. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 Marian ! 
 
 Marian. 
 Speak not. I wait upon a dying father. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 
 The debt hath not been paid. She will be mine. 
 What are you capering for? By old St. Vitus 
 Have you gone mad ? Has it been paid ? 
 
 Abbot (dancing). 
 
 O yes.
 
 136 THE FORESTERS act iv 
 
 Sheriff. 
 Have I lost her then ? 
 
 Justiciary {dancijig). 
 
 Lost her ? O no, we took 
 Advantage of the letter — O Lord, the vein ! 
 Not paid at York — the wood — prick nie no more ! 
 
 Sheriff. 
 What pricks thee save it be thy conscience, man ? 
 
 Justiciary. 
 
 By my halidome I felt him at my leg still. Where 
 be they gone to ? 
 
 Sheriff. 
 Thou art alone in the silence of the forest 
 Save for this maiden and thy brother Abbot, 
 And this old crazeling in the litter there. 
 
 Etiter on 07ie side Friar Tuck from the bush, and on 
 the other Prince John and his Spearmen, 7vith 
 banners and trumpets, etc. 
 
 Justiciary {examining:; his /eg). 
 They have missed the vein.
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 137 
 
 Abbot. 
 And we shall keep the land. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 
 Sweet Marian, by the letter of the law 
 It seems thy father's land is forfeited. 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 No ! let me out of the litter. He shall wed thee : 
 The land shall still be mine. Child, thou shalt wed 
 
 him, 
 Or thine old father will go mad — he will, 
 He will— he feels it in his head. 
 
 Marian. 
 
 O peace ! 
 
 Father, I cannot marry till Richard comes. 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 And then the Sheriff! 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Ay, the Sheriff, father, 
 \\'ould buy me for a thousand marks in gold — 
 Sell me again perchance for twice as much. 
 A woman's heart is but a little thing. 
 Much lighter than a thousand marks in gold ;
 
 138 THE FORESTERS act iv 
 
 But pity for a father, it may be, 
 
 Is weightier than a thousand marks in gold. 
 
 I cannot love the Sheriff. 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 But thou wilt wed him ? 
 
 jNIarian. 
 
 Ay, save King Richard, when he comes, forbid me. 
 Sweet heavens, I could wish that all the land 
 Were plunged beneath the waters of the sea, 
 Tho' all the world should go about in boats. 
 
 Friar Tuck. 
 Why, so should all the love-sick be sea-sick. 
 
 Marian. 
 Better than heart-sick, friar. 
 
 Prince John {io Sheriff). 
 See you not 
 They are jesting at us yonder, mocking us? 
 Carry her off, and let the old man die. 
 
 \Advancuig to Marian. 
 Come, girl, thou shalt along with us on the instant. 
 
 Friar Tuck {h-andishiti-g his sf(jff). 
 Then on the instant T will break thy lienil.
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 139 
 
 Sherii K. 
 Back, thou fool-friar ! Knowest thou not the Prince ? 
 
 Friar Tuck {muttering). 
 He may be prince ; he is not gentleman. 
 
 Prince John. 
 Look ! I will take the rope from off thy waist 
 And twist it round thy neck and hang thee by it. 
 Seize him and truss him uj), and carry her off. 
 
 [Friar Tuck slips into the bush. 
 
 Marian {drawing the boiv). 
 No nearer to me ! back ! My hand is firm, 
 Mine eye most true to one hair's-breadth of aim. 
 You, Prince, our king to come — you that dishonour 
 The daughters and the wives of your own faction — 
 ^^'h() hunger for the body, not the soul — 
 This gallant Prince would have me of his — what ? 
 Household ? or shall I call it by that new term 
 Brought from the sacred East, his harem ? Never, 
 Tho' you should queen me over all the realms 
 Held b\- King Richard, could I stoop so low 
 As mate with one that holds no love is pure. 
 No friendship sacred, values neither man 
 Nor woman save as tools — God help the mark — 
 To his own unprincely ends. And you, you, Sheriff, 
 
 \Turmng to the Sheriff.
 
 I40 THE FORESTERS act iv 
 
 Who thought to buy your marrying me with gold, 
 
 Marriage is of the soul, not of the body. 
 
 Win me you cannot, murder me you may, 
 
 And all I love, Robin, and all his men, 
 
 For I am one with him and his ; but while 
 
 I breathe Heaven's air, and Heaven looks down on 
 
 me, 
 And smiles at my best meanings, I remain 
 Mistress of mine own self and mine own soul. 
 
 \_Retreating, with bow drawn, to the bush. 
 Robin ! 
 
 Robin. 
 I am here, my arrow on the cord. 
 He dies who dares to touch thee. 
 
 Prince John. 
 
 Advance, advance ! 
 What, daunted by a garrulous, arrogant girl ! 
 Seize her and carry her off into my castle. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 Thy castle ! 
 
 Prince John. 
 
 Said I not, 1 loved thee, man ? 
 Risk not the love I bear thee for a girl. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 Thy castle !
 
 SCENE I I'lIE FORESTENS 141 
 
 I'kixck John. 
 
 See thou thwart me not, thou fool ! 
 \Vhen Richard comes he is soft enough to pardon 
 His brother ; but all those that held with him, 
 Except I plead for them, will hang as high 
 As Haman. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 
 She is mine. I have thy promise. 
 
 Prince John. 
 
 O ay, she shall be thine — first mine, then thine, 
 For she shall spend her honeymoon with me. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 Woe to thai land shall own thee for her king ! 
 
 Prince John. 
 Advance, advance ! 
 
 \They advance shouting. The King in 
 armour reappears from the wood. 
 
 King Richard. 
 What shouts are these that ring along the wood ? 
 
 Friar Tuck {coming forivard). 
 Hail, knight, and help us. Here is one would clutch 
 Our pretty Marian for his paramour, 
 This other, willy-nilly, for his bride.
 
 142 THE FORESTERS act iv 
 
 King Richard. 
 Damsel, is this the truth ? 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Ay, noble knight. 
 
 Friar Tuck. 
 Ay, and she will not marry till Richard come. 
 
 King Richard {raising his vizor). 
 I am here, and I am he. 
 
 Prince John (Jo^verifig his, andzvhispering to his meti). 
 
 It is not he — his face — tho' very like — 
 
 No, no ! we have certain news he died in prison. 
 
 Make at him, all of you, a traitor coming 
 
 In Richard's name — it is not he — not he. 
 
 [ TJie men stand amazed. 
 
 Friar Tuck {going back to the bush). 
 Robin, shall we not move ? 
 
 Robin. 
 
 It is the King 
 Who bears all down. Let him alone awhile. 
 He loves the chivalry of his single arm. 
 Wait till he blow the horn.
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 143 
 
 Friar Tuck {coming back). 
 
 If thou be king, 
 Be not a fool ! \\'hy blowest thou not the horn ? 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 I that have turn'd their Moslem crescent pale — 
 
 I blow the horn against this rascal rout ! 
 
 [Friar Tuck plucks the horn from him and blows. 
 Richard dashes alone against the Sheriff 
 and John's men, and is almost borne dozvn, 
 ivhen Robin and his men rush in a?id rescue him. 
 
 King Richard {to Robin Hood). 
 Thou hast saved my head at the peril of thine own. 
 
 Prince John. 
 
 A horse ! a horse ! I must away at once ; 
 
 I cannot meet his eyes. I go to Nottingham. 
 
 Sheriff, thou wilt find me at Nottingham. [Exit. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 
 If anywhere, I shall find thee in hell. 
 
 What ! go to slay his brother, and make me 
 
 The monkey that should roast his chestnuts for him ! 
 
 King Richard. 
 1 fear to ask who left us even now.
 
 144 THE FORESTERS act iv 
 
 Robin. 
 
 I grieve to say it was thy father's son. 
 Shall I not after him and bring him back ? 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 No, let him be. Sheriff of Nottingham, 
 
 [Sheriff kneels. 
 I have been away from England all these years, 
 Heading the holy war against the Moslem, 
 A\'hile thou and others in our kingless realms 
 Were fighting underhand unholy wars 
 Against your lawful king. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 
 My liege. Prince John — 
 
 King Richard. 
 Say thou no word against my brother John. 
 
 Sheriff. 
 ^\'hy then, my liege, 1 have no word to say. 
 
 King Richard {to Robin). 
 
 My good friend Robin, Earl of Huntingdon, 
 For Earl thou art again, hast thou no fetters 
 For those of tliinc own band who would betray thee?
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 145 
 
 Robin. 
 
 I have ; but these were never worn as yet. 
 I never found one traitor in my band. 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 Thou art happier than thy king. Put him in chains. 
 
 {They fetter the Sheriff. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Look o'er these bonds, my hege. 
 
 \Shaws the King the bonds. They talk together. 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 You, my lord Abbot, you Justiciary, 
 
 \TIie Abbot ««// Justiciary kneel. 
 I made you Abbot, you Justiciary : 
 You both are utter traitors to your king. 
 
 Justiciary. 
 O my good Hege, we did believe you dead. 
 
 ROBIX. 
 
 Was justice dead because the King was dead ? 
 Sir Richard paid his monies to the Abbot. 
 You crost him with a quibble of your law.
 
 146 THE FORESTERS act iv 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 But on the faith and honour of a king 
 The land is his again. 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 The land ! the land ! 
 I am crazed no longer, so I have the land. 
 
 [ Comes out of the litter and kneels. 
 God save the King ! 
 
 King Richard {raising Sir Richard). 
 
 I thank thee, good Sir Richard. 
 Maid Marian. 
 
 Marian. 
 Yes, King Richard. 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 Thou wouldst marry 
 This Sheriff when King Richard came again 
 Except — 
 
 Marian. 
 The King forbad it. 'I'ruc, my liege. 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 How if the King command it ?
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 147 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Then, my liege, 
 If you would marry me with a traitor sheriff, 
 I fear I might prove traitor with the sheriff 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 But if the King forbid thy marrying 
 
 With Robin, our good Earl of Huntingdon. 
 
 Marian. 
 Then will I live for ever in the wild wood. 
 
 Robin {coming forivari). 
 And I with thee. 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 On nuts and acorns, ha ! 
 Or the King's deer ? Earl, thou when we were hence 
 Hast broken all our Norman forest-laws, 
 And scruplest not to flaunt it to our face 
 That thou wilt break our forest laws again 
 When we are here. Thou art overbold. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 My king, 
 
 I am but tlie echo of the lips of love. 
 
 L 2
 
 148 THE FORESTERS act iv 
 
 King Richard. 
 Thou hast risk'd thy life for mine : bind these two 
 men. 
 \They take the bags from the Abbot and Justiciary, 
 and proceed to fetter them. 
 
 Justiciary. 
 But will the King, then, judge us all unheard ? 
 I can defend my cause against the traitors 
 Who fain would make me traitor. If the King 
 Condemn us without trial, men will call him 
 An Eastern tyrant, not an English king. 
 
 Abbot. 
 Besides, my licgc, these men are ouilaws, thieves, 
 They break thy forest laws — nay, by the rood 
 They have done far worse — they plunder — yea, ev'n 
 
 bishops, 
 Yea, ev'n archbishops — if thou side with these. 
 Beware, O King, the vengeance of the Church. 
 
 Friar Tuck {hrandisliing his staff). 
 
 I pray you, my licgo, let mc execute the vengeance 
 of tlic Church upon them. I liavc a stout crabstick 
 here, which longs to break itself across their backs. 
 
 Robin. 
 Keep silence, bully friar, before the King.
 
 sciiNii: I THE FORESTERS 149 
 
 Friar Tuck. 
 
 If a cat may luuk at u king, may not a friar speak 
 
 to one ? 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 I have had a year of prison-silence, Robin, 
 And heed him not — the vengeance of the Church ! 
 Thou shalt pronounce the blessing of the Church 
 On those two here, Robin and Marian. 
 
 Marian. 
 He is but hedge-priest, Sir King. 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 And thou their Queen. 
 Our rebel Abbot then shall join your hands, 
 Or lose all hope of pardon from us — yet 
 Not now, not now — with after-dinner grace. 
 Nay, by the dragon of St. George, we shall 
 Do some injustice, if you hold us here 
 Longer from our own venison. Where is it ? 
 I scent it in the green leaves of the wood. 
 
 Marian. 
 First, king, a boon ! 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 Why surely ye are pardon'd, 
 Even this brawler of harsh truths — I trust
 
 ISO THE FORESTERS act iv 
 
 Half truths, good friar : ye shall with us to court. 
 Then, if ye cannot breathe but woodland air, 
 Thou Robin shalt be ranger of this forest, 
 And have thy fees, and break the law no more. 
 
 Marian. 
 It is not that, my lord. 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 Then what, my lady ? 
 
 Marian. 
 
 This is the gala-day of thy return. 
 
 I pray thee, for the moment strike the bonds 
 
 From these three men, and let them dine with us, 
 
 And lie with us among the flowers, and drink — 
 
 Ay, whether it be gall or honey to 'em — 
 
 The king's good health in ale and Malvoisie. 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 By Mahound I could dine with Beelzebub ! 
 So now which way to the dinner ? 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Past the bank 
 Of foxglove, then to left by that one yew. 
 You see the darkness thro' the lighter leaf. 
 But look, who comes?
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 151 
 
 Enter Sailor. 
 
 Sailor. 
 
 We heard Sir Richard Lea was here with Robin. 
 
 good Sir Richard, I am hkc the man 
 
 In Holy A\^rit, who brought his talent back ; 
 For tho' we touch'd at many pirate ports, 
 U'e ever fail'd to light upon thy son. 
 Here is thy gold again. I am sorry for it. 
 
 Sir Richarlx 
 
 The gold — my son — my gold, my son, the land — 
 Here Abbot, Sheriff — no — no, Robin Hood. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Sir Richard, let that wait till we have dined. 
 Are all our guests here ? 
 
 King Richard. 
 
 No — there's yet one other : 
 
 1 will not dine without him. Come from out 
 
 \_E71ter Walter Lea. 
 That oak-tree ! This young warrior broke his prison 
 And join'd my banner in the Holy Land, 
 And cleft the Moslem turban at my side. 
 My masters, welcome gallant ^^'alter Lea. 
 Kiss him. Sir Richard — kiss him, my sweet Marian.
 
 152 THE FORESTERS act iv 
 
 Marian. 
 
 Walter, Walter, is it thou indeed 
 Whose ransom was our ruin, whose return 
 Builds up our house again ? I fear I dream. 
 Here — give me one sharp pinch upon the cheek 
 That I may feel thou art no phantom — yet 
 
 Thou art tann'd almost beyond my knowing, brother. 
 
 \They embrace. 
 
 Walter Lea. 
 But thou art fair as ever, my sweet sister. 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 Art thou my son ? 
 
 Walter Lea. 
 I am, good father, I am. 
 
 Sir Richard. 
 
 1 had despair'd of thee — that sent me crazed. 
 Thou art worth thy weight in all those marks of gold, 
 Yea, and the weight of the very land itself, 
 
 Down to the inmost centre. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Walter Lea,
 
 SCENF, I 
 
 THE FORESTERS I53 
 
 Give me that hand which fought for Richard there. 
 Embrace me, Marian, and thou, good Kate, 
 
 \To Kate entering. 
 
 Kiss and congratulate me, my good Kate. 
 
 \She kisses him. 
 
 Little John. 
 
 Lo now ! lo now ! 
 
 I have seen thee clasp and kiss a man indeed, 
 
 For our brave Robin is a man indeed. 
 
 Then by thine own account thou shouldst be mine. 
 
 Kate 
 Well then, who kisses first ? 
 
 Little John. 
 
 Kiss both together. 
 
 \^They kiss each other. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 Then all is well. In this full tide of love, 
 
 Wave heralds wave : thy match shall follow mine {to 
 
 Little John). 
 Would there were more — a hundred lovers more 
 To celebrate this advent of our King ! 
 Our forest games are ended, our free life, 
 And we must hence to the King's court. I trust
 
 154 THE FORESTERS act iv 
 
 We shall return to the wood. Meanwhile, farewell 
 Old friends, old patriarch oaks. A thousand winters 
 Will strip you bare as death, a thousand summers 
 Robe you life-green again. You seem, as it were, 
 Immortal, and we mortal. How few Junes 
 Will heat our pulses quicker ! How few frosts 
 Will chill the hearts that beat for Robin Hood ! 
 
 Marian. 
 
 And yet I think these oaks at dawn and even, 
 
 Or in the balmy breathings of the night, 
 
 Will whisper evermore of Robin Hood. 
 
 We leave but happy memories to the forest. 
 
 We dealt in the wild justice of the woods. 
 
 All those poor serfs whom we have served will bless 
 
 us, 
 All those pale mouths which we have fed will praise 
 
 us — 
 All widows we have holpen pray for us. 
 Our Lady's blessed shrines throughout the land 
 Be all the richer for us. You, good friar, 
 You Much, you Scarlet, you dear Little John, 
 Your names will cling like ivy to the wood. 
 And here perhaps a hundred years away 
 Some hunter in day-dreams or half asleep 
 Will licar our arrows whizzing overhead. 
 And catch the winding of a phantom horn.
 
 SCENE I THE FORESTERS 155 
 
 ROBIX. 
 
 And surely these old oaks will murmur thee 
 Marian along with Robin. 1 am most happy — 
 Art thou not mine ? — and happy that our King 
 Is here again, never I trust to roam 
 So far again, but dwell among his own. 
 Strike up a stave, my masters, all is well. 
 
 SONG WniLIi THEY DANCE .A COUNTRY DANCE. 
 
 Now the King is home agai?i, arid 7ieve7-more to roam 
 
 again, . 
 Now the King is home again, the King will have his 
 
 own again, 
 Home again, home again, and each will have his ozvn 
 
 again, 
 All the birds in merry Sherwood si fig and sifig him 
 
 home again. 
 
 THE END 
 
 Printed by R. & R. Clakk, Edinburgh.
 
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