Many a false churl comes hither, and disburses against his will:
and till there is lack of these, I prey not on true men."
"Thou art thyself a true man, right well I judge, Robin,"
said the stranger knight, "and seemest more like one bred
in court than to thy present outlaw life."
"Our life," said the friar, "is a craft, an art, and a mystery.
How much of it, think you, could be learned at court?"
"Indeed, I cannot say," said the stranger knight:
"but I should apprehend very little."
"And so should I," said the friar: "for we should find very little of our
bold open practice, but should hear abundance of praise of our principles.
To live in seeming fellowship and secret rivalry; to have a hand for all,
and a heart for none; to be everybody's acquaintance, and nobody's friend;
to meditate the ruin of all on whom we smile, and to dread the secret
stratagems of all who smile on us; to pilfer honours and despoil
fortunes, not by fighting in daylight, but by sapping in darkness:
these are arts which the court can teach, but which we, by 'r Lady,
have not learned. But let your court-minstrel tune up his throat
to the praise of your court-hero, then come our principles into play:
then is our practice extolled not by the same name, for their Richard
is a hero, and our Robin is a thief: marry, your hero guts an exchequer,
while your thief disembowels a portmanteau, your hero sacks a city,
while your thief sacks a cellar: your hero marauds on a larger scale,
and that is all the difference, for the principle and the virtue are one:
but two of a trade cannot agree: therefore your hero makes laws to get
rid of your thief, and gives him an ill name that he may hang him:
for might is right, and the strong make laws for the weak, and they
that make laws to serve their own turn do also make morals to give
colour to their laws.
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