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, leaving ROBIN alone with 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!

O, 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 closed. ROBIN goes to the mouth of the cave and throws himself down on a couch of deer-skins. The light grows dimly rich and fairy-like.

SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF

rises to his knees among the ferns.]

SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.

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 fairy-land, Titania?

TITANIA.

Shadow-of-a-Leaf, Prince John has found the clue
Will guide him to the cave. He'll hunt them down.

SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.

Can I not break my fairy vows and warn them!

TITANIA.

No! No! You cannot, even if you would,
Convey our fairy lore to mortal ears!

When have they heard our honeysuckle bugles

Blowing reveillé 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!

Oberon !

SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.

TITANIA.

He can tell you more than I.

SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF.

Here is a king indeed! Hail, Oberon!

King of the fairies, I strew ferns before you!
There are no palms here. Ferns do just as well.

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 magic 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 moon-light, 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.

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.

And if I break my fairy vows and warn them!

OBERON.

'Twill be on pain of what you mortals 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.

I have seen dead men!

They are very cold! But I'd be dead to save 'em!
I am only Shadow-of-a-Leaf.

OBERON.

There is a king

Beyond the seas.

All may be well.

If he come home in time
We fairies only catch

Stray gleams, wandering shadows of things to come.

TITANIA.

O, if the king come 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 evil 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.

For ever! I am only Shadow-of-a-Leaf,
I cannot face it! Is there no hope but this?
No hope for Robin and Maid Marian?

OBERON.

If the great King come home from the Crusade
Betimes! 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! O, I cannot tell them!

I'll wait-perchance the great King will come home; If not-O, hark, a wandering minstrel's voice!

OBERON.

Who is drawing hither? Listen, fairies, listen!

[A song is heard approaching through the wood.]