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] SCENE II. _Enter, as it were in haste, the_ PRIOR OF YORK, _the_ SHERIFF, _Justice_ WARMAN, _Steward to_ ROBIN HOOD. PRIOR. Here, Master Warman, there's a hundred crowns For your good-will and futherance in this. WAR. I thank you, my Lord Prior. I must away, To shun suspicion; but be resolute, And we will take him, have no doubt of it. PRIOR. But is Lord Sentloe and the other come? WAR. Lord Sentloe, Sir Hugh Lacy, and Sir Gilbert Broughton Are there, and as they promis'd you last night, Will help to take him, when the Sheriff comes. [_Exit_ WARMAN. PRIOR. Awhile, farewell, and thanks to them and you. Come, Master Sheriff, the outlawry is proclaim'd, Send therefore quickly for more company, And at the back-gate we will enter in. SHER. We shall have much ado, I am afraid. PRIOR. No, they are very merry at a feast; A feast where Marian, daughter to Lord Lacy, Is troth-plighted to wasteful Huntington; And at the feast are my especial friends, Whom he suspects not. Come, we'll have him, man, And for your pains here is a hundred marks. SHER. I thank your lordship: we'll be diligent. [_Exeunt_. SCENE III. _Enter_ ROBIN HOOD, LITTLE JOHN _following him; the one Earl of Huntington, the other his servant_, ROBIN _having his napkin on his shoulder, as if he were suddenly raised from dinner_. ROB. H. As I am outlaw'd from my fame and state, Be this day outlawed from the name of days. Day luckless, outlaw luckless, both accurs'd! [_Flings away his napkin and hat, and sitteth down_. LIT. JOHN. Do not forget your honourable state, Nor the true noblesse of your worthy house. ROB. H. Do not persuade me; vain as vanity Are all thy comforts: I am comfortless. LIT. JOHN. Hear me, my lord.