Only love
And love's kind sacrifice can open them.
For when a mortal hurts himself to help
Another, then he thrusts the gates wide open
Between his world and ours.

OBERON

Ay, but that's rare,
That kind of love, Titania, for the gates
Are almost always closed.

TITANIA

Yet one night more!
Hark, how the fairy host begins to sing
Within the gates. Wait here and we shall see
What weary souls by grace of Robin Hood
This night shall enter Dreamland. See, they come!

[_The soft light deepens in the hollow among the ferns and the ivory
gates of Dreamland are seen swinging open. The fairy
host is heard, singing to invite the mortals to enter._]

[_Song of the fairies._]

The Forest shall conquer! The Forest shall conquer!
The Forest shall conquer!
Your world is growing old;
But a Princess sleeps in the greenwood,
Whose hair is brighter than gold.

The Forest shall conquer! The Forest shall conquer!
The Forest shall conquer!
O hearts that bleed and burn,
Her lips are redder than roses,
Who sleeps in the faery fern.

The Forest shall conquer! The Forest shall conquer!
The Forest shall conquer!
By the Beauty that wakes anew
Milk-white with the fragrant hawthorn
In the drip of the dawn-red dew.

The Forest shall conquer! The Forest shall conquer!
The Forest shall conquer!
O hearts that are weary of pain,
Come back to your home in Faerie
And wait till she wakes again.

[_The victims of the forest-laws steal out of the thicket once
more--dark, distorted, lame, blind, serfs with iron collars
round their necks, old men, women and children; and as the fairy
song breaks into chorus they pass in procession thro' the
beautiful gates. The gates slowly close. The fairy song is heard
as dying away in the distance._]

TITANIA

[_Coming out into the glade and holding up her hands to the evening
star beyond the tree-tops._]

Shine, shine, dear star of Love, yet one night more.

SCENE II. _A banqueting hall in FITZWALTER'S castle. The guests are
assembling for the betrothal feast of ROBIN and MARIAN. Some of ROBIN
HOOD'S men, clad in Lincoln green, are just arriving at the doors.
SHADOW-OF-