ER
Not at my feet, Margaret, not at my feet.

MARGARET
Yes, till her suit is answer'd.

SIR WALTER
Name it.

MARGARET
A little boon, and yet so great a grace,
She fears to ask it.

SIR WALTER
Some riddle, Margaret?

MARGARET
No riddle, but a plain request.

SIR WALTER
Name it.

MARGARET
Free liberty of Sherwood,
And leave to take her lot with you in the forest.

SIR WALTER
A scant petition, Margaret, but take it,
Seal'd with an old man's tears.--
Rise, daughter of Sir Rowland.

(_Addresses them both._)

O you most worthy,
You constant followers of a man proscribed,
Following poor misery in the throat of danger;
Fast servitors to craz'd and penniless poverty,
Serving poor poverty without hope of gain;
Kind children of a sire unfortunate;
Green clinging tendrils round a trunk decay'd,
Which needs must bring on you timeless decay;
Fair living forms to a dead carcase join'd;--
What shall I say?
Better the dead were gather'd to the dead,
Than death and life in disproportion meet.--
Go, seek your fortunes, children.--

SIMON
Why, whither should we go?

SIR WALTER
_You_ to the Court, where now your brother John
Commits a rape on Fortune.

SIMON
Luck to John!
A light-heel'd strumpet, when the sport is done.

SIR WALTER
_You_ to the sweet society of your equals,
Where the world's fashion smiles on youth and beauty.

MARGARET
Where young men's flatteries cozen young maids' beauty,
There pride oft gets the vantage hand of duty,
There sweet humility withers.

SIMON
Mistress Margaret,
How fared my brother John, when you left Devon?

MARGARET
John was well, Sir.

SIMON
'Tis now nine months almost,
Since I saw home. What new friends has John made?
Or keeps he his first love?--I did suspect
Some foul disloyalty. Now do I know,
John has prov'd false to her, for Margaret weeps.
It is a scurvy brother.

SIR WALTER
Fie upon it.
All men are false, I think. The date of love
Is out, expired, its stories all grown stale,
O'erpast, forgotten, like an antique tale
Of Hero and Leander.

SIMON
I have known some men that are too general-contemplative for the narrow
passion. I am in some sort a _general_ lover.

MARGARET
In