ACT II

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.]