Enter KING RICHARD, _&c_.[159]

Richard, call’d Coeur de Lion, takes his leave,
Like the Lord’s champion, ’gainst the pagan foes,
That spoil Juda and rich Palestine. 
The rule of England and his princely seat
He leaves with Ely, then lord chancellor;
To whom the Mother Queen, her son, Prince John,
Chester, and all the peers are sworn.
               [Exit RICHARD cum militibus. 
    ELY ascends the chair. 
Now reverend Ely, like the deputy
Of God’s great deputy, ascends the throne;
Which the Queen Mother and ambitious John
Repining at, raised many mutinies: 
And how they ended, you anon shall hear.

[Exeunt omnes.

    Enter ROBERT EARL OF HUNTINGTON, leading MARIAN, _&c_.[160]

This youth that leads yon virgin by the hand
(As doth the sun the morning richly clad)
Is our Earl Robert or your Robin Hood,
That in those days was Earl of Huntington. 
The ill-faced miser, bribed in either hand,
Is Warman, once the steward of his house,
Who, Judas-like, betrays his liberal lord
Into the hands of that relentless Prior,
Call’d Gilbert Hood, uncle to Huntington. 
Those two, that seek to part these lovely friends,
Are Elinor the queen and John the prince: 
She loves Earl Robert, he Maid Marian;
But vainly, for their dear affect is such,
As only death can sunder their true loves. 
Long had they lov’d, and now it is agreed,
This day they must be troth-plight, after wed. 
At Huntington’s fair house a feast is held;
But envy turns it to a house of tears;
For those false guests, conspiring with the Prior,
To whom Earl Robert greatly is in debt,
Mean at the banquet to betray the earl
Unto a heavy writ of outlawry. 
The manner and escape you all shall see.

ELT.  Which all, good Skelton?

SKEL.  Why, all these lookers on;
Whom if we please, the king will sure be pleas’d. 
Look to your entrance; get you in, Sir John. [Exit SIR JOHN. 
My shift is long, for I play Friar Tuck;
Wherein, if Skelton have but any luck,
He’ll thank his hearers oft with many a duck. 
For many talk of Robin Hood, that never shot in his bow,
But Skelton writes of Robin Hood what he doth truly know.[161]

    Therefore I pray ye,
    Contentedly stay ye,
    And take no offending,
    But sit to the ending,
    Likewise I desire
    Ye would not admire
    My rhyme, so I shift;
    For this is my drift,
    So mought I well thrive
    To make ye all blithe: 
    But if ye once frown,
    Poor Skelton goes down;
    His labour and cost,
    He thinketh all lost
    In tumbling of books
    Of marry-go-looks. 
    The Sheriff with staves,
    With catchpoles and knaves,
    Are coming, I see: 
    High time ’tis for me,
    To leave off my babble
    And fond ribble-rabble. 
    Therefore with this court’sy
    Awhile I will leave ye.[162]