The king must grieve, the queen must take it ill: 
Ely must mourn, aged Fitzwater weep,
Prince John, the lords, his yeomen must lament,
And wring their woful hands for Robin’s woe. 
Then must the sick man, fainting by degrees,
Speak hollow words, and yield his Marian,
Chaste maid Matilda, to her father’s hands;
And give her, with King Richard’s full consent,
His lands, his goods, late seiz’d on by the Prior,
Now by the Prior’s treason made the king’s. 
Skelton, there are a many other things,
That ask long time to tell them lineally;
But ten times longer will the action be.

SKEL.  Sir John, i’ faith, I know not what to do,
And I confess that all you say is true. 
Will you do one thing for me?  Crave the king
To see two parts:  say, ’tis a pretty thing. 
I know you can do much; if you excuse me,
While Skelton lives, Sir John, be bold to use me.

SIR JOHN.  I will persuade the king; but how can you
Persuade all these beholders to content?

SKEL.  Stay, Sir John Eltham:  what to them I say,
Deliver to the king from me, I pray. 
Well-judging hearers, for a while suspend
Your censures of this play’s unfinish’d end,
And Skelton promises for this offence
The second part shall presently be penn’d. 
There shall you see, as late my friend did note,
King Richard’s revels at Earl Robert’s bower;
The purpos’d mirth and the performed moan;
The death of Robin and his murderers. 
For interest of your stay, this will I add: 
King Richard’s voyage back to Austria,
The swift-returned tidings of his death,
The manner of his royal funeral.[246]
Then John shall be a lawful crowned king,
But to Matilda bear unlawful love. 
Aged Fitzwater’s final banishment;
His piteous end, of power tears to move
From marble pillars.  The catastrophe
Shall show you fair Matilda’s tragedy,
Who (shunning John’s pursuit) became a nun,
At Dunmow[247] Abbey, where she constantly
Chose death to save her spotless chastity. 
Take but my word, and if I fail in this,
Then let my pains be baffled with a hiss.

FINIS.

EDITION.

The Death of Robert Earle of Huntington.  Otherwise called Robin Hood of merrie Sherwodde:  with the lamentable Tragedie of chaste Matilda, his faire maid Marian, poysoned at Dunmowe by King Iohn.  Acted by the Right Honourable the Earle of Notingham, Lord high Admirall of England, his seruants.  Imprinted at London, for William Leake 1601. 4to.  B.L.

INTRODUCTION.