And though I here plight my troth at the altar to Robin, in the presence
of this holy priest and pious clerk, yet.... Father, when Richard
returns from Palestine, he will restore you to your barony, and perhaps,
for your sake, your daughter's husband to the earldom of Huntingdon:
should that never be, should it be the will of fate that we must live
and die in the greenwood, I will live and die MAID MARIAN."[4]
[4] And therefore is she called Maid Marian
Because she leads a spotless maiden life
And shall till Robin's outlaw life have end.
Old Play.
"A pretty resolution," said the baron, "if Robin will let you keep it."
"I have sworn it," said Robin. "Should I expose her tenderness
to the perils of maternity, when life and death may hang on shifting
at a moment's notice from Sherwood to Barnsdale, and from Barnsdale
to the sea-shore? And why should I banquet when my merry men starve?
Chastity is our forest law, and even the friar has kept it since
he has been here."
"Truly so," said the friar: "for temptation dwells with ease and luxury:
but the hunter is Hippolytus, and the huntress is Dian. And now,
dearly beloved----"
The friar went through the ceremony with great unction,
and Little John was most clerical in the intonation of his responses.
After which, the friar sang, and Little John fiddled, and the
foresters danced, Robin with Marian, and Scarlet with the baron;
and the venison smoked, and the ale frothed, and the wine sparkled,
and the sun went down on their unwearied festivity:
which they wound up with the following song, the friar leading
and the foresters joining chorus:
Oh! bold Robin Hood is a forester good,
As ever drew bow in the merry greenwood:
At his bugle's shrill singing the echoes are ringing,
The wild deer are springing for many a rood:
Its summons we follow, through brake, over hollow,
The thrice-blown shrill summons of bold Robin Hood.
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