Volume II Part 44 (1/2)

How blows the wind from fairyland, t.i.tania?

t.i.tANIA

Shadow-of-a-Leaf, the wicked queen has heard Your master's plan for saving poor Will Scarlet.

She knows Maid Marian will be left alone, Unguarded in these woods. The wicked Prince Will steal upon her loneliness. He plots To carry her away.

SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF

What can we do?

Can I not break my fairy vows and tell?

t.i.tANIA

No, no; you cannot, even if you would, Convey our fairy lore to mortal ears.

When have they heard our honeysuckle bugles Blowing reveille to the crimson dawn?

We can but speak by dreams; and, if you spoke, They'd whip you, for your words would all ring false Like sweet bells out of tune.

SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF

What can we do?

t.i.tANIA

Nothing, except on pain of death, to stay The course of Time and Tide. There's Oberon!

SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF

Oberon!

t.i.tANIA

He can tell you more than I.

[_Enter OBERON._]

OBERON

Where's Orchis? Where's our fairy trumpeter To call the court together?

ORCHIS

Here, my liege.

OBERON

Bugle them hither; let thy red cheeks puff Until thy curled petallic trumpet thrill More loudly than a yellow-banded bee Thro' all the clover clumps and boughs of thyme.

They are scattered far abroad.

ORCHIS