Consisting of a landscape of a forest, hills, valleys, cottages, a castle, a river, pastures, herds, Hocks, all full of country simplicity; Robin Hood's bower, his well, the witch's dimble, the swine'ard's oak, the hermit's cell.

THE PROLOGUE.

Wherein if we DISTATE, or be cry'd down.]

Safe on this ground then, we not fear to-day
To tempt your laughter by our rustic
play.

'Wherein if we distaste, or be cry'd down,
We think we therefore shall not leave the
town;
[rest
Nor that the fore-wits that would draw the
Unto their liking, always like the best.
The wise and knowing critick will not say,
This worst, or better is, before he weigh
Wher every piece be perfect in the kind:
And then, though in themselves he diffe
rence fiud,

Yet if the place require it where they stood,
The equal fitting makes them equal good.
You shall have love and hate, and jealousy,
As well as mirth, and rage, and melancholy:
Or whatsoever else may either move,
Or stir affections, and your likings prove.
But that no stile for pastoral should go
Current, but what is stamp'd with Ab
and 0:

Who judgeth so, may singularly err;
As if all poesie had one character:
In which what were not written, were not
right,

Or that the man who made such one poor
flight,

In his whole life, had with his winged skill
Advanc'd him upmost on the muses' hill.
When he like poet yet remains, as those
Are painters who can only make a rose.
From such your wits redeem you, or you
chance,

Lest to a greater height you do advance
Of folly, to contemn those that are known
Artificers, and trust such as are none.

Distate hath no meaning; we must restore

a single letter to give it one. Distaste is the true reading; the sense displease, disgust, common to the writers of this age.

66

The Argument of the First Act.

ROBIN HOOD, having invited all the shepherds and shepherdesses of the valid

Be'voir to a feast in the forest of Sherwood, and trusting to his mistress, maid "Marian, with her woodmen, to kill him venison against the day: having left the like "charge with friar Tuck his chaplain and steward, to command the rest of his merry men "to see the bower made ready, and all things in order for the entertainment: meeting "with his guests at their entrance into the wood, welcomes and conducts them to his "bower. Where, by the way, he receives the relation of the sad shepherd glamour, "who is fallen into a deep melancholy for the loss of his beloved Earine, reported to have "been drowned in passing over the Trent, some few days before. They endeavour in " what they can to comfort him: but his disease having taken such strong root, all is in "vain, and they are forced to leave him. In the mean time, Marian is come from hunting "with the huntsmen, where the lovers interchangeably express their loves. Robin Hood "enquires if she hunted the deer at force, and what sport he made? how long he stood? "and what head he bore? All which is briefly answered, with a relation of breaking him "up, and the raven, and her bone. The suspect had of that raven to be Maudlin the

"witch of Paplewick, whom one of the huntsmen met i' the morning at the rouzing of the “deer, and is confirmed, by her being then in Robin Hood's kitchen, i' the chimney"corner, broiling the same bit which was thrown to the raven at the quarry or fall of the "deer. Marian being gone in to shew the deer to some of the shepherdesses, returns instantly to the scene, discontented; sends away the venison she had killed, to her they "call the witch; quarrels with her love Robin Hood, abuseth him, and his guests the shepherds; and so departs, leaving them all in wonder and perplexity."

66

66

АСТ І.

ERE she was wont to go! and here! [grow: Just where those daisies, pinks, and violets The world may find the spring by following

her;

Here's Little John hath harbour'd you a
I see by his tackling.

2

John. And a hart of ten',

I trow he be, madam, or blame your men:
For by his slot, his entries, and his port,
His frayings, fewmets, he doth promise sport,
And standing 'fore the dogs, he bears a head
Large and well-beam'd; with all rights
somm'd and spread.

Mar. Let's rouze him quickly, and lay on
the hounds.

John. Scathlock is ready with them on the grounds: [found So is his brother Scarlet: now they 'ave His layre, they have him sure within the pound.

Mar. Away then, when my Robin bids 2

feast,

"Twere sin in Marian to defraud a guest.

I trow he be] Mr. Warburton, in his note on Shakspeare's Taming of the Shrew, act 2. scene 6. hath interpreted this phrase, to signify only an extraordinary good one: but with submission to so judicious an authority, the expression is taken from the forest, and relates to the age of the deer. When a hart, says Manwood, is past his sixth year, he is generally to be called a hart of ten; and afterwards according to the increase of his head, whether he be croched, palmed, or crowned. Of the forest laws, p. 28. edit. 4to. 1598. So likewise in the sixth scene we have the expression again, forked! a hart of ten.

2 For by his SLOT, his ENTRIES, &c.] These are all terms of the chase, and should be explained to a common reader. The slot is the print of a stag's foot upon the ground; entries are places through which deer have lately passed, by which their size is guessed at; frayings are the pillings of their horns; and a deer is said to fray her head, when she rubs it against a tree to renew it, or to cause the outward coat of her new horns to fall off; the feromets are the dung of a deer. Whether all these terms are still in use amongst modern sportsmen, or whether the application of them is right, I know not: for the last the poet is answerable.

You, George, must care to make the bald

rick 'trim,

And garland that must crown, or her, or him, Whose flock this year hath brought the earliest lamb.

Geo. Good father Tuck, at your com-
mands I am

To cut the table out o' the green swerd,
Or any other service for my lord;
To carve the guests large seats; and these
lain in
[skin :)
With turfe (as soft and smooth as the mole's
And hang the bulled nosegays 'bove their
heads,

The piper's bank, whereon to sit and play,
And a fair dial to mete out the day".
Our master's feast shall want no just delights:
His entertainments must have all the rites.
Muc. I, and all choice that plenty can

send in;

Bread, wine, acates, fowl, feather, fish or fin,
For which my father's nets have swept the
Trent.

[Eglamour falls in with them. Eg. And ha' you found her?

Muc. Whom?

Eg. My drowned love,
Earine! the sweet Earine!

The bright and beautiful Earine!
Have you not heard of my Earine?
Just by your father's mill (I think I'm right)
Are not you Much the miller's son?
Muc. I am.

Ag. And bailiff to brave Robin Hood?
Muc. The same.

Eg. Close by your father's mills, Earine!
Earine was drown'd! O my Earine!
(Old Maudlin tells me so, and Douce her
daughter)
[found her?
Ha' you swept the river, say you? and not
Muc. For fowl and fish we have.
Eg. O, not for her?
You're goodly friends! right charitable men!
Nay, keep your way; and leave me: make
[all

your toys,

Your tales, your posies, that you talk'd of;
Your entertainments: you not injure me:
Only if I may enjoy my cypress wreath!
And you will let me weep! ('tis all I ask ;)
Till I be turn'd to water, as was she!
And troth, what less suit can you grant a
man?

And weep like Swithin, or those wat'ry signs, The kids that rise then, and drown all the flocks

Of those rich shepherds, dwelling in this vale Those careless shepherds that did let he drown;

[Trent Then I did something: or could make o Drunk with my sorrow, to start out

breaches,

[corn; To drown their herds, their cattle, and the Break down their mills, their dams, o'ertur their wears",

And see their houses and whole livelihood
Wrought into water with her, all were good
I'ld kiss the torrent, and those whirles d
Trent,

That suck'd her in, my sweet Earine!
When they have cast her 'body on the shore,
And it comes up as tainted as themselves,
All pale and bloodless, I will love it still,
For all that they can do, and make 'em mad
To see how I will hug it in mine arms!
And hang upon her looks, dwell on her eye
Feed round about her lips, and eat he

kisses!

To make the BALDRICK trim.] The scarf, belt, or sash.

And hang the BULLED nosegays 'bove their heads.] Bulled, or bolled, signifies a thing swelled, and ready to break its inclosure; and is properly applied to corn, when it is just bursting into ear. Thus it is said in Exodus, ix. 31, "The barley was in the ear, and the "flax was bolled." The learned editor of Junius tells us it is derived from the Cambre Briton boll folliculus; and the bulled nosegays seem to mean a nosegay of flowers that are full blown.

TO MEET out the day.] The letters must here change places; the true word is mete. O'erturn their WARES.] Not goods, or merchandise; but wears, or as the folio reads weeres, heads or sluces of water.

7

When they have cast THEIR body.] It should evidently be read her body: and five liges lower, the looks should be her looks.