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_ ACT II - SCENE I
[Sherwood Forest: An open glade, showing on the right the
mouth of the outlaw's cave. It is about sunset. The giant
figure of LITTLEJOHN comes out of the cave, singing.]
LITTLE JOHN.
[Sings.]
When Spring comes back to England
And crowns her brows with may,
Round the merry moonlit world
She goes the greenwood way.
[He stops and calls in stentorian tones.]
Much! Much! Much! Where has he vanished now,
Where has that monstrous giant the miller's son
Hidden himself?
[Enter MUCH, a dwarf-like figure, carrying a large bundle of ferns.]
MUCH.
Hush, hush, child, here I am!
And here's our fairy feather-beds, ha! ha!
Come, praise me, praise me, for a thoughtful parent.
There's nothing makes a better bed than ferns
Either for sleeping sound or rosy dreams.
LITTLE JOHN.
Take care the fern-seed that the fairies use
Get not among thy yellow locks, my Titan,
Or thou'lt wake up invisible. There's none
Too much of Much already.
MUCH.
[Looking up at him impudently.]
It would take
Our big barn full of fern-seed, I misdoubt,
To make thee walk invisible, Little John,
My sweet Tom Thumb! And, in this troublous age
Of forest-laws, if we night-walking minions,
We gentlemen of the moon, could only hunt
Invisible, there's many and many of us
With thumbs lopped off, eyes gutted and legs pruned,
Slick, like poor pollarded pear-trees, would be lying
Happy and whole this day beneath the boughs.
LITTLE JOHN.
Invisible? Ay, but what would Jenny say
To such a ghostly midge as thou would'st be
Sipping invisibly at her cherry lips.
MUCH.
Why, there now, that's a teaser. E'en as it is
(Don't joke about it) my poor Jenny takes
The smallness of her Much sorely to heart!
And though I often tell her half a loaf
(Ground in our mill) is better than no bread,
She weeps, poor thing, that an impartial heaven
Bestows on her so small a crumb of bliss
As me! You'd scarce believe, now, half the nostrums,
Possets and strangely nasty herbal juices
That girl has made me gulp, in the vain hope
That I, the frog, should swell to an ox like thee.
I tell her it's all in vain, and she still cheats
Her fancy and swears I've grown well nigh three feet
Already. O Lord, she's desperate. She'll advance
Right inward to the sources of creation,
She'll take the reins of the world in hand. She'll stop
The sun like Joshua, turn the moon to blood,
And if I have to swallow half the herbs
In Sherwood, I shall stalk a giant yet,
Shoulder to shoulder with thee, Little John,
And crack thy head at quarter-staff. But don't,
Don't joke about it. 'Tis a serious matter.
LITTLE JOHN.
Into the cave, then, with thy feather-bed.
Old Much, thy father, waits thee there to make
A table of green turfs for Robin Hood.
We shall have guests anon, O merry times,
Baron and Knight and abbot, all that ride
Through Sherwood, all shall come and dine with him
When they have paid their toll! Old Much is there
Growling at thy delay.
MUCH.
[Going towards the cave.]
O, my poor father.
Now, there's a sad thing, too. He is so ashamed
Of his descendants. Why for some nine years
He shut his eyes whenever he looked at me;
And I have seen him on the village green
Pretend to a stranger, once, who badgered him
With curious questions, that I was the son
Of poor old Gaffer Bramble, the lame sexton.
That self-same afternoon, up comes old Bramble
White hair a-blaze and big red waggling nose
All shaking with the palsy; bangs our door
Clean off its hinges with his crab-tree crutch,
And stands there--framed--against the sunset sky!
He stretches out one quivering fore-finger
At father, like the great Destroying Angel
In the stained window: straight, the milk boiled over,
The cat ran, baby squalled and mother screeched.
Old Bramble asks my father--what--what--what
He meant--he meant--he meant! You should have seen
My father's hopeless face! Lord, how he blushed,
Red as a beet-root! Lord, Lord, how he blushed!
'Tis a hard business when a parent looks
Askance upon his offspring.
[Exit into the cave.]
LITTLE JOHN.
Skip, you chatterer!
Here comes our master.
[Enter ROBIN HOOD.]
Master, where hast thou been?
I feared some harm had come to thee. What's this?
This was a cloth-yard shaft that tore thy coat!
ROBIN.
Oh, ay, they barked my shoulder, devil take them.
I got it on the borders of the wood.
St. Nicholas, my lad, they're on the watch.
LITTLE JOHN.
What didst thou there? They're on the watch, i' faith!
A squirrel could not pass them. Why, my namesake
Prince John would sell his soul to get thy head,
And both his ears for Lady Marian;
And whether his ears or soul be worth the more,
I know not. When the first lark flittered up
To sing, at dawn, I woke; and thou wast gone.
What didst thou there?
ROBIN.
Well, first I went to swim
In the deep pool below the mill.
LITTLE JOHN.
I swam
Enough last night to last me many a day.
What then?
ROBIN.
I could not wash away the thought
Of all you told me. If Prince John should dare!
That helpless girl! No, no, I will not think it.
Why, Little John, I went and tried to shoot
A grey goose wing thro' Lady Marian's casement.
LITTLE JOHN.
Oh, ay, and a pink nosegay tied beneath it.
Now, master, you'll forgive your Little John,--
But that's midsummer madness and the may
Is only half in flower as yet. But why--
You are wounded--why are you so pale?
ROBIN.
No--no--
Not wounded; but oh, my good faithful friend,
She is not there! I wished to send her warning.
I could not creep much closer; but I swear
I think the castle is in the hands of John.
I saw some men upon the battlements,
Not hers--I know--not hers!
LITTLE JOHN.
Hist, who comes here?
[He seizes his bow and stands ready to shoot.]
ROBIN.
Stop, man, it is the fool. Thank God, the fool,
Shadow-of-a-Leaf, my Marian's dainty fool.
How now, good fool, what news? What news?
[Enter SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.]
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.
Good fool!
Should I be bad, sir, if I chanced to bring
No news at all? That is the wise man's way.
Thank heaven, I've lost my wits. I am but a leaf
Dancing upon the wild winds of the world,
A prophet blown before them. Well, this evening,
It is that lovely grey wind from the West
That silvers all the fields and all the seas,
And I'm the herald of May!
ROBIN.
Come, Shadow-of-a-Leaf,
I pray thee, do not jest.
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.
I do not jest.
I am vaunt-courier to a gentleman,
A sweet slim page in Lincoln green who comes,
Wood-knife on hip, and wild rose in his face,
With golden news of Marian. Oh, his news
Is one crammed honeycomb, swelling with sweetness
In twenty thousand cells; but delicate!
So send thy man aside.
ROBIN.
Go, Little John.
[LITTLE JOHN goes into the cave.]
Well, Shadow-of-a-Leaf, where is he?
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.
At this moment
His hair is tangled in a rose bush: hark,
He swears, like a young leopard! Nay, he is free.
Come, master page, here is that thief of love,
Give him your message. I'll to Little John.
[Exit into the cave. Enter MARIAN, as a page in Lincoln
green, her face muffled in a hood.]
ROBIN.
Good even, master page, what is thy news
Of Lady Marian?
[She stands silent.]
Answer me quickly, come,
Hide not thy face!
[She still stands muffled and silent.]
Come, boy, the fool is chartered,
Not thou; and I'll break off this hazel switch
And make thee dance if thou not answer me.
What? Silent still? Sirrah, this hazel wand
Shall lace thee till thou tingle, top to toe.
I'll ...
MARIAN.
[Unmuffling.]
Robin!
ROBIN.
[Catches her in his arms with a cry.]
Marian! Marian!
MARIAN.
Fie upon you,
Robin, you did not know me.
ROBIN.
[Embracing her.]
Oh, you seemed
Ten thousand miles away. This is not moonlight,
And I am not Endymion. Could I dream
My Dian would come wandering through the fern
Before the sunset? Even that rose your face
You muffled in its own green leaves.
MARIAN.
But you,
Were hidden in the heart of Sherwood, Robin,
Hidden behind a million mighty boughs,
And yet I found you.
ROBIN.
Ay, the young moon stole
In pity down to her poor shepherd boy;
But he could never climb the fleecy clouds
Up to her throne, never could print one kiss
On her immortal lips. He lay asleep
Among the poppies and the crags of Latmos,
And she came down to him, his queen stole down.
MARIAN.
Oh, Robin, first a rose and then a moon,
A rose that breaks at a breath and falls to your feet,
The fickle moon--Oh, hide me from the world;
For there they say love goes by the same law!
Let me be outlawed then. I cannot change.
Sweetheart, sweetheart, Prince John will hunt me down!
Prince John--Queen Elinor will hunt me down!
ROBIN.
Queen Elinor! Nay, but tell me what this means?
How came you here?
MARIAN.
The Queen--she came last night,
Made it an odious kind of praise to me
That he, not three months wedded to his bride,
Should--pah!
And then she said five hundred men
Were watching round the borders of the wood;
But she herself would take me safely through them,
Said that I should be safer here with Robin,
She had your name so pat--and I gave way.
[Enter QUEEN ELINOR behind. She conceals herself to listen.]
ROBIN.
Marian, she might have trapped you to Prince John.
MARIAN.
No; no; I think she wanted me to guide her
Here to your hiding place. She wished to see you
Herself, unknown to John, I know not why.
It was my only way. Her skilful tongue
Quite won my father over, made him think,
Poor father, clinging to his lands again,
He yet might save them. And so, without ado
(It will be greatly to the joy of Much,
Your funny little man), I bade my maid
Jenny, go pack her small belongings up
This morning, and to follow with Friar Tuck
And Widow Scarlet. They'll be here anon.
ROBIN.
Where did you leave the Queen?
MARIAN.
Robin, she tried
To kill me! We were deep within the wood
And she began to tell me a wild tale,
Saying that I reminded her of days
When Robin was her page, and how you came
To Court, a breath of April in her life,
And how you worshipped her, and how she grew
To love you. But she saw you loved me best
(So would she mix her gall and lies with honey),
So she would let you go. And then she tried
To turn my heart against you, bade me think
Of all the perils of your outlawry,
Then flamed with anger when she found my heart
Steadfast; and when I told her we drew nigh
The cave, she bade me wait and let her come
First, here, to speak with you. Some devil's trick
Gleamed in her smile, the way some women have
Of smiling with their lips, wreathing the skin
In pleasant ripples, laughing with their teeth,
While the cold eyes watch, cruel as a snake's
That fascinates a bird. I'd not obey her.
She whipped a dagger out. Had it not been
For Shadow-of-a-Leaf, who dogged us all the way,
Poor faithful fool, and leapt out at her hand,
She would have killed me. Then she darted away
Like a wild thing into the woods, trying to find
Your hiding place most like.
ROBIN.
O Marian, why,
Why did you trust her? Listen, who comes here?
[Enter FRIAR TUCK, JENNY and WIDOW SCARLET.]
Ah, Friar Tuck!
MARIAN.
Good Jenny!
ROBIN.
And Widow Scarlet!
FRIAR TUCK.
O children, children, this is thirsty weather!
The heads I have cracked, the ribs I have thwacked, the bones
I have bashed with my good quarter-staff, to bring
These bits of womankind through Sherwood Forest.
ROBIN.
What, was there scuffling, friar?
FRIAR TUCK.
Some two or three
Pounced on us, ha! ha! ha!
JENNY.
A score at least,
Mistress, most unchaste ruffians.
FRIAR TUCK.
They've gone home,
Well chastened by the Church. This pastoral staff
Mine oaken _Pax Vobiscum_, sent 'em home
To think about their sins, with watering eyes.
You never saw a bunch of such blue faces,
Bumpy and juicy as a bunch of grapes
Bruised in a Bacchanalian orgy, dripping
The reddest wine a man could wish to see.
ROBIN.
I picture it--those big brown hands of thine
Grape-gathering at their throttles, ha! ha! ha!
Come, Widow Scarlet, come, look not so sad.
WIDOW SCARLET.
O master, master, they have named the day
For killing of my boy.
ROBIN.
They have named the day
For setting of him free, then, my good dame.
Be not afraid. We shall be there, eh, Friar?
Grape-gathering, eh?
FRIAR.
Thou'lt not be there thyself.
My son, the game's too dangerous now, methinks.
ROBIN.
I shall be there myself. The game's too good
To lose. We'll all be there. You're not afraid,
Marian, to spend a few short hours alone
Here in the woods with Jenny.
MARIAN.
Not for myself,
Robin.
ROBIN.
We shall want every hand that day,
And you'll be safe enough. You know we go
Disguised as gaping yokels, old blind men,
With patches on their eyes, poor wandering beggars,
Pedlars with pins and poking-sticks to sell;
And when the time is come--a merry blast
Rings out upon a bugle and suddenly
The Sheriff is aware that Sherwood Forest
Has thrust its green boughs up beneath his feet.
Off go the cloaks and all is Lincoln green,
Great thwacking clubs and twanging bows of yew.
Oh, we break up like nature thro' the laws
Of that dark world; and then, good Widow Scarlet,
Back to the cave we come and your good Will
Winds his big arm about you once again.
Go, Friar, take her in and make her cosy.
Jenny, your Much will grow three feet at least
With joy to welcome you. He is in the cave.
[FRIAR TUCK and WIDOW SCARLET go towards the cave.]
FRIAR TUCK.
Now for a good bowse at a drinking can.
I've got one cooling in the cave, unless
That rascal, Little John, has drunk it all.
[Exeunt into cave.]
JENNY.
[To MARIAN.]
Mistress, I haven't spoke a word to you
For nigh three hours. 'Tis most unkind, I think.
MARIAN.
Go, little tyrant, and be kind to Much.
JENNY.
Mistress, it isn't Much I want. Don't think
Jenny comes trapesing through these awful woods
For Much. I haven't spoke a word with you
For nigh three hours. 'Tis most unkind, I think.
MARIAN.
Wait, Jenny, then, I'll come and talk with you.
Robin, she is a tyrant; but she loves me.
And if I do not go, she'll pout and sulk
Three days on end. But she's a wondrous girl.
She'd work until she dropped for me. Poor Jenny!
ROBIN.
That's a quaint tyranny. Go, dear Marian, go;
But not for long. We have so much to say.
Come quickly back.
[Exit MARIAN. ROBIN paces thoughtfully across the glade.
QUEEN ELINOR steals out of her hiding place and
stands before him.]
You here!
ELINOR.
Robin, can you
Believe that girl? Am I so treacherous?
ROBIN.
It seems you have heard whate'er I had to say.
ELINOR.
Surely you cannot quite forget those days
When you were kind to me. Do you remember
The sunset through that oriel?
ROBIN.
Ay, a god
Grinning thro' a horse-collar at a pitiful page,
Dazed with the first red gleam of what he thought
Life, as the trouveres find it! I am ashamed,
Remembering how your quick tears blinded me!
ELINOR.
Ashamed! You--you--that in my bitter grief
When Rosamund--
ROBIN.
I know! I thought your woes,
Those tawdry relics of your treacheries,
Wrongs quite unparalleled. I would have fought
Roland himself to prove you spotless then.
ELINOR.
Oh, you speak thus to me! Robin, beware!
I have come to you, I have trampled on my pride,
Set all on this one cast! If you should now
Reject me, humble me to the dust before
That girl, beware! I never forget, I warn you;
I never forgive.
ROBIN.
Are you so proud of that?
ELINOR.
Ah, well, forgive me, Robin. I'll save you yet
From all these troubles of your outlawry!
Trust me--for I can wind my poor Prince John
Around my little finger. Who knows--with me
To help you--there are but my two sons' lives
That greatly hinder it--why, yourself might reign
Upon the throne of England.
ROBIN.
Are you so wrapped
In treacheries, helplessly false, even to yourself,
That now you do not know falsehood from truth,
Darkness from light?
ELINOR.
O Robin, I was true
At least to you. If I were false to others,
At least I--
ROBIN.
No--not that--that sickening plea
Of truth in treachery. Treachery cannot live
With truth. The soul wherein they are wedded dies
Of leprosy.
ELINOR.
[Coming closer to him.]
Have you no pity, Robin,
No kinder word than this for the poor creature
That crept--Ah, feel my heart, feel how it beats!
No pity?
ROBIN.
Five years ago this might have moved me!
ELINOR.
No pity?
ROBIN.
None. There is no more to say.
My men shall guide you safely through the wood.
ELINOR.
I never forgive!
[Enter MARIAN from the cave; she stands silent and startled.]
ROBIN.
My men shall guide you back.
[Calls.]
Ho, there, my lads!
[Enter several of the OUTLAWS.]
This lady needs a guide
Back thro' the wood.
ELINOR.
Good-bye, then, Robin, and good-bye to you,
Sweet mistress! You have wronged me! What of that?
For--when we meet--Come, lead on, foresters!
[Exeunt the QUEEN and her guides.]
MARIAN.
O Robin, Robin, how the clouds begin
To gather--how that woman seems to have brought
A nightmare on these woods.
ROBIN.
Forget it all!
She is so tangled in those lies the world
Draws round some men and women, none can help her.
Marian, for God's sake, let us quite forget
That nightmare! Oh, that perfect brow of yours,
Those perfect eyes, pure as the violet wells
That only mirror heaven and are not dimmed
Except by clouds that drift thro' heaven and catch
God's glory in the sunset and the dawn.
MARIAN.
It is enough for them simply to speak
The love they hold for you. But--I still fear.
Robin--think you--she might have overheard
Your plan--the rescue of Will Scarlet?
ROBIN.
Why--
No--No--some time had passed, and yet--she seemed
To have heard your charge against her! No, she guessed it.
Come--let us brush these cobwebs from our minds.
Look how the first white star begins to tremble
Like a big blossom in that sycamore.
Now you shall hear our forest ritual.
Ho, Little John! Summon the lads together!
[The OUTLAWS come out of the cave. LITTLE JOHN blows
a bugle and others come in from the forest.]
Friar, read us the rules.
FRIAR TUCK.
First, shall no man
Presume to call our Robin Hood or any
By name of Earl, lord, baron, knight or squire,
But simply by their names as men and brothers:
Second, that Lady Marian while she shares
Our outlaw life in Sherwood shall be called
Simply Maid Marian. Thirdly, we that follow
Robin, shall never in thought or word or deed
Do harm to widow, wife or maid; but hold,
Each, for his mother's or sister's or sweetheart's sake,
The glory of womanhood, a sacred thing,
A star twixt earth and heaven. Fourth, whomsoever
Ye meet in Sherwood ye shall bring to dine
With Robin, saving carriers, posts and folk
That ride with food to serve the market towns
Or any, indeed, that serve their fellow men.
Fifth, you shall never do the poor man wrong,
Nor spare a priest or usurer. You shall take
The waste wealth of the rich to help the poor,
The baron's gold to stock the widow's cupboard,
The naked ye shall clothe, the hungry feed,
And lastly shall defend with all your power
All that are trampled under by the world,
The old, the sick and all men in distress.
ROBIN.
So, if it be no dream, we shall at last
Hasten the kingdom of God's will on earth.
There shall be no more talk of rich and poor,
Norman and Saxon. We shall be one people,
One family, clustering all with happy hands
And faces round that glowing hearth, the sun.
Now let the bugle sound a golden challenge
To the great world. Greenleaf, a forest call!
[REYNOLD GREENLEAF blows a resounding call.]
Now let the guards be set; and then, to sleep!
To-morrow there'll be work enough for all.
The hut for Jenny and Maid Marian!
Come, you shall see how what we lack in halls
We find in bowers. Look how from every branch
Such tapestries as kings could never buy
Wave in the starlight. You'll be waked at dawn
By feathered choirs whose notes were taught in heaven.
MUCH.
Come, Jenny, come, we must prepare the hut
For Mistress Marian. Here's a bundle of ferns!
[They go into the hut. The light is growing dimmer and richer.]
LITTLE JOHN.
And here's a red cramoisy cloak, a baron
[Handing them in at the door.]
Dropt, as he fled one night from Robin Hood;
And here's a green, and here's a midnight blue,
All soft as down. But wait, I'll get you more.
[Two of the Outlaws appear at the door with deerskins.
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF stands behind them with a great bunch of
flowers and ferns.]
FIRST OUTLAW.
Here's fawn-skins, milder than a maiden's cheek.
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.
Oh, you should talk in rhyme! The world should sing
Just for this once in tune, if Love were king!
SECOND OUTLAW.
Here's deer-skins, for a carpet, smooth and meek.
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.
I knew you would! Ha! ha! Now look at what I bring!
[He throws flowers into the hut, spray by
spray, speaking in a kind of ecstasy.]
Here's lavender and love and sweet wild thyme,
And dreams and blue-bells that the fairies chime,
Here's meadow-sweet and moonlight, bound in posies,
With ragged robin, traveller's joy and roses,
And here--just three leaves from a weeping willow;
And here--that's best--deep poppies for your pillow.
MUCH.
And here's a pillow that I made myself,
Stuffed with dry rose-leaves and grey pigeon's down,
The softest thing on earth except my heart!
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.
[Going aside and throwing himself down among the ferns to watch.]
Just three sweet breaths and then the song is flown!
[MUCH looks at him for a moment with
a puzzled face, then turns to the hut again.]
MUCH.
Jenny, here, take it--though I'm fond of comforts,
Take it and give it to Maid Marian.
JENNY.
Why, Much, 'tis bigger than thyself.
MUCH.
Hush, child.
I meant to use it lengthways. 'Twould have made
A feather-bed complete for your poor Much,
Take it!
[The OUTLAWS all go into the cave.]
MARIAN.
O Robin, what a fairy palace!
How cold and grey the walls of castles seem
Beside your forest's fragrant halls and bowers.
I do not think that I shall be afraid
To sleep this night, as I have often been
Beneath our square bleak battlements.
ROBIN.
And look,
Between the boughs, there is your guard, all night,
That great white star, white as an angel's wings,
White as the star that shone on Bethlehem!
Good-night, sweetheart, good-night!
MARIAN.
Good-night!
ROBIN.
One kiss!
Oh, clear bright eyes, dear heavens of sweeter stars,
Where angels play, and your own sweeter soul
Smiles like a child into the face of God,
Good-night! Good-night!
[MARIAN goes into the hut. The door is shut. ROBIN goes to
the mouth of the cave and throws himself down on a
couch of deerskins. The light grows dimly rich and
fairy-like.]
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.
[Rising to his knees.]
Here comes the little cloud!
[A little moonlit cloud comes floating down between the
tree-tops into the glade. TITANIA is seen reposing upon it.
She steps to earth. The cloud melts away.]
How blows the wind from fairyland, Titania?
TITANIA.
Shadow-of-a-Leaf, the wicked queen has heard
Your master's plan for saving poor Will Scarlet.
She knows Maid Marian will be left alone,
Unguarded in these woods. The wicked Prince
Will steal upon her loneliness. He plots
To carry her away.
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.
What can we do?
Can I not break my fairy vows and tell?
TITANIA.
No, no; you cannot, even if you would,
Convey our fairy lore to mortal ears.
When have they heard our honeysuckle bugles
Blowing reveille to the crimson dawn?
We can but speak by dreams; and, if you spoke,
They'd whip you, for your words would all ring false
Like sweet bells out of tune.
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.
What can we do?
TITANIA.
Nothing, except on pain of death, to stay
The course of Time and Tide. There's Oberon!
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.
Oberon!
TITANIA.
He can tell you more than I.
[Enter OBERON.]
OBERON.
Where's Orchis? Where's our fairy trumpeter
To call the court together?
ORCHIS.
Here, my liege.
OBERON.
Bugle them hither; let thy red cheeks puff
Until thy curled petallic trumpet thrill
More loudly than a yellow-banded bee
Thro' all the clover clumps and boughs of thyme.
They are scattered far abroad.
ORCHIS.
My liege, it shall
Outroar the very wasp!
[Exit.]
OBERON.
[As he speaks, the fairies come flocking from all sides into the glade.]
Methinks they grow
Too fond of feasting. As I passed this way
I saw the fairy halls of hollowed oaks
All lighted with their pale green glow-worm lamps.
And under great festoons of maiden-hair
Their brilliant mushroom tables groaned with food.
Hundreds of rose-winged fairies banqueted!
All Sherwood glittered with their prismy goblets
Brimming the thrice refined and luscious dew
Not only of our own most purplest violets,
But of strange fragrance, wild exotic nectars,
Drawn from the fairy blossoms of some star
Beyond our tree-tops! Ay, beyond that moon
Which is our natural limit--the big lamp
Heaven lights upon our boundary.
ORCHIS.
Mighty King,
The Court is all attendant on thy word.
OBERON.
[With great dignity.]
Elves, pixies, nixies, gnomes and leprechauns,
[He pauses.]
We are met, this moonlight, for momentous councils
Concerning those two drowsy human lovers,
Maid Marian and her outlawed Robin Hood.
They are in dire peril; yet we may not break
Our vows of silence. Many a time
Has Robin Hood by kindly words and deeds
Done in his human world, sent a new breath
Of life and joy like Spring to fairyland;
And at the moth-hour of this very dew-fall,
He saved a fairy, whom he thought, poor soul,
Only a may-fly in a spider's web,
He saved her from the clutches of that Wizard,
That Cruel Thing, that dark old Mystery,
Whom ye all know and shrink from--
[Exclamations of horror from the fairies.]
Plucked her forth,
So gently that not one bright rainbow gleam
Upon her wings was clouded, not one flake
Of bloom brushed off--there lies the broken web.
Go, look at it; and here is pale Perilla
To tell you all the tale.
[The fairies cluster to look at the web, etc.]
A FAIRY.
Can we not make them free
Of fairyland, like Shadow-of-a-Leaf, to come
And go, at will, upon the wings of dreams?
OBERON.
Not till they lose their wits like Shadow-of-a-Leaf.
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.
Can I not break my fairy vows and tell?
OBERON.
Only on pain of what we fairies call
Death!
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.
Death?
OBERON.
Never to join our happy revels,
Never to pass the gates of fairyland
Again, but die like mortals. What that means
We do not know--who knows?
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.
If I could save them!--
I am only Shadow-of-a-Leaf!
OBERON.
There is a King
Beyond the seas. If he came home in time,
All might be well. We fairies only catch
Stray gleams, wandering shadows of things to come.
TITANIA.
Oh, if the King came home from the Crusade!
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.
Why will he fight for graves beyond the sea?
OBERON.
Our elfin couriers brought the news at dusk
That Lion-Heart, while wandering home thro' Europe,
In jet-black armour, like an errant knight,
Despite the great red cross upon his shield,
Was captured by some wicked prince and thrust
Into a dungeon. Only a song, they say,
Can break those prison-bars. There is a minstrel
That loves his King. If he should roam the world
Singing until from that dark tower he hears
The King reply, the King would be set free.
TITANIA.
Only a song, only a minstrel?
OBERON.
Ay;
And Blondel is his name.
[A long, low sound of wailing is heard in the distance. The
fairies shudder and creep together.]
TITANIA.
Hark, what is that?
OBERON.
The cry of the poor, the cry of the oppressed,
The sound of women weeping for their children,
The victims of the forest laws. The moan
Of that dark world where mortals live and die
Sweeps like an icy wind thro' fairyland.
And oh, it may grow bitterer yet, that sound!
'Twas Merlin's darkest prophecy that earth
Should all be wrapped in smoke and fire, the woods
Hewn down, the flowers discoloured and the sun
Begrimed, until the rows of lifeless trees
Against the greasy sunset seemed no more
Than sooty smudges of an ogre's thumbs
Upon the sweating forehead of a slave.
While, all night long, fed with the souls of men,
And bodies, too, great forges blast and burn
Till the great ogre's cauldrons brim with gold.
[The wailing sound is heard again in the distance.]
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.
To be shut out for ever, only to hear
Those cries! I am only Shadow-of-a-Leaf, the fool,
I cannot face it! Is there no hope but this?
No hope for Robin and Maid Marian?
OBERON.
If the great King comes home from the Crusade
In time! If not,--there is another King
Beyond the world, they say.
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.
Death, that dark death!
To leave the sunlight and the flowers for ever!
I cannot bear it! Oh, I cannot tell them.
I'll wait--perhaps the great King will come home,
If not--Oh, hark, a wandering minstrel's voice?
OBERON.
Who is drawing hither? Listen, fairies, listen!
[Song heard approaching thro' the wood.]
Knight on the narrow way,
Where wouldst thou ride?
"Onward," I heard him say,
"Love, to thy side!"
"Nay," sang a bird above;
"Stay, for I see
Death in the mask of love,
Waiting for thee."
[The song breaks off. Enter a MINSTREL, leading a great
white steed. He pauses, confronted by the fairy host. The
moonlight dazzles him.]
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.
Minstrel, art thou, too, free of fairyland?
Where wouldst thou ride? What is thy name?
MINSTREL.
My name
Is Blondel.
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.
Blondel!
THE FAIRIES.
Blondel!
MINSTREL.
And I ride
Through all the world to seek and find my King!
[He passes through the fairy host and goes into the woods
on the further side of the glade, continuing his song, which
dies away in the distance.]
[Song.]
"Death? What is death?" he cried.
"I must ride on,
On to my true love's side,
Up to her throne!"
[Curtain.] _
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