KNIGHT

Quickly, get thee gone!

[_PRINCE JOHN goes out, shaken and white._]

ROBIN

We'll think no more of him! It is our rule
That whomsoe'er we meet in merry greenwood
Should dine with us. Will you not be our guest?

KNIGHT

That's a most happy thought! I have not heard
A merrier word than dinner all this day.
I am well-nigh starved.

ROBIN

Will you not raise your visor
And let us know to whose good knightly hand
We are so beholden?

KNIGHT

Sir, you will pardon me,
If, for a little, I remain unknown.
But, tell me, are you not that Robin Hood
Who breaks the forest laws?

ROBIN

That is my name.
We hold this earth as naturally our own
As the glad common air we breathe. We think
No man, no king, can so usurp the world
As not to give us room to live free lives,
But, if you shrink from eating the King's deer--

KNIGHT

Shrink? Ha! ha! ha! I count it as my own!

[_The FORESTERS appear, preparing the dinner on a table of green
turfs, beneath a spreading oak. MARIAN and JENNY
appear at the door of the hut. JENNY goes across to help
at the preparations for dinner._]

ROBIN

Ah, there's my Lady Marian! Will you not come
And speak with her?

[_He and the KNIGHT go and talk to MARIAN in the background._]

LITTLE JOHN

[_At the table._]
The trenchers all are set;
Manchets of wheat, cream, curds and honey-cakes,
Venison pasties, roasted pigeons! Much,
Run to the cave; we'll broach our rarest wine
To-day. Old Much is waiting for thee there
To help him. He is growling roundly, too,
At thy delay.

MUCH

[_Going towards the cave._]

Ah me, my poor old father!

JENNY

I've dressed the salt and strawed the dining hall
With flowers.

[_Enter FRIAR TUCK with several more FORESTERS and WILL
SCARLET._]

ROBIN

Ah, good Will Scarlet, here at last!

FRIAR TUCK

We should ha' been here sooner; but these others
Borrowed a farmer's market cart and galloped
Ahead of us!

ROBIN

Thy mother is in the hut,
Sheer broken down with hope and fearfulness,