ROB.  H. Pedlar, I prythee be more plain. 
What brake? what snake? what trap? what train?

FRIAR.  Robin, I am a holy friar,
       Sent by the Prior,
       Who did me hire,
       For to conspire
       Thy endless woe
       And overthrow: 
       But thou shalt know,
       I am the man
       Whom Little John
       From Nottingham
       Desir’d to be
       A clerk to thee;
       For he to me
       Said thou wert free,
       And I did see
       Thy honesty,
       From gallow-tree
       When thou didst free
       Scathlock and Scarlet certainly[210].

ROB.  H. Why, then, it seems that thou art Friar Tuck.

FRIAR.  Master, I am.

ROB.  H. I pray thee, Friar, say,
What treachery is meant to me this day?

FRIAR.  First wind your horn; then draw your sword.
                      [ROBIN HOOD winds his horn. 
For I have given a friar’s word,
To take your body prisoner,
And yield you to Sir Doncaster,
The envious priest of Hothersfield,
Whose power your bushy wood doth shield;
But I will die ere you shall yield.

Enter LITTLE JOHN, &c.

And sith your yeomen do appear,
I’ll give the watchword without fear. 
Take it, I pray thee, though it be more worth.

    Rush in SIR DONCASTER with his crew.

DON.  Smite down! lay hold on outlaw’d Huntington!

LIT.  JOHN.  Soft, hot-spurr’d priest, ’tis not so quickly done.

DON.  Now, out alas! the friar and the maid
Have to false thieves Sir Doncaster betray’d.

[Exeunt omnes.[211]

ACT IV., SCENE 1.

    Enter JOHN crowned, QUEEN ELINOR, CHESTER, SALISBURY,
    LORD PRIOR. Sit down all.  WARMAN stands.

JOHN.  As God’s vicegerent, John ascends this throne,
His head impal’d with England’s diadem,[212]
And in his hand the awful rod of rule,
Giving the humble place of excellence,
And to the low earth casting down the proud.

QUEEN.  Such upright rule is in each realm allow’d.

JOHN.  Chester, you once were Ely’s open friend,
And yet are doubtful whether he deserve
A public trial for his private wrongs.

CHES.  I still am doubtful whether it be fit
To punish private faults with public shame
In such a person as Lord Ely is.

PRIOR.  Yes, honourable Chester, more it fits
To make apparent sins of mighty men,
And on their persons sharply to correct
A little fault, a very small defect,
Than on the poor to practise chastisement: 
For if a poor man die, or suffer shame,
Only the poor and vile respect the same;
But if the mighty fall, fear then besets
The proud heart of the mighty ones, his mates: 
They think the world is garnished with nets,
And traps ordained to entrap their states;
Which fear in them begets a fear of ill,
And makes them good, contrary to their will.