Collected Poems Volume II Part 41

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 tw.a.n.ging 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 G.o.d 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?