of company," said the friar, "in the high court of
Nature, and in the midst of her own nobility. Is it not so? This goodly
grove is our palace: the oak and the beech are its colonnade and its
canopy: the sun and the moon and the stars are its everlasting lamps:
the grass, and the daisy, and the primrose, and the violet, are its
many-coloured floor of green, white, yellow, and blue; the may-flower,
and the woodbine, and the eglantine, and the ivy, are its decorations,
its curtains, and its tapestry: the lark, and the thrush, and the
linnet, and the nightingale, are its unhired minstrels and musicians.
Robin Hood is king of the forest both by dignity of birth and by virtue
of his standing army: to say nothing of the free choice of his people,
which he has indeed, but I pass it by as an illegitimate basis of power.
He holds his dominion over the forest, and its horned multitude of
citizen-deer, and its swinish multitude or peasantry of wild boars, by
right of conquest and force of arms. He levies contributions among them
by the free consent of his archers, their virtual representatives. If
they should find a voice to complain that we are 'tyrants and usurpers
to kill and cook them up in their assigned and native dwelling-place,'
we should most convincingly admonish them, with point of arrow, that
they have nothing to do with our laws but to obey them. Is it not
written that the fat ribs of the herd shall be fed upon by the mighty in
the land? And have not they withal my blessing? my orthodox, canonical,
and archiepiscopal blessing? Do I not give thanks for them when they
are well roasted and smoking under my nose? What title had William of
Normandy to England, that Robin of Locksley has not to merry Sherwood?
William fought for his claim. So does Robin. With whom, both? With any
that would or will dispute it. William raised contributions. So does
Robin. From whom, both? From all that they could or can make pay them.
Why did any pay them to William? Why do any pay them to Robin? For the
same reason to both: because they could not or cannot help it. They
differ indeed, in this, that William took from the poor and gave to the
rich, and Robin takes from the rich and gives to the poor: and therein
is Robin illegitimate; though in all else he is true prince. Scarlet and
John, are they not peers of the forest? lords temporal of Sherwood? And
am not I lord spiritual? Am I not archbishop? Am I not pope? Do I not
consecrate their bann