_Enter_ QUEEN ELINOR, MARIAN, SENTLOE, LACY, BROUGHTON, WARMAN, _Robin's steward. As they meet_, LITTLE JOHN _whispers with_ MARIAN, _and exit_. QU. ELIN. How now, my Lord of Huntington? The mistress of your love, fair Marian, Tells us your sudden rising from the banquet Was but a humour which you mean to purge In some high tragic lines or comic jests. ROB. H. Sit down, fair queen (the prologue's part is play'd; Marian hath told ye, what I bad her tell): Sit down, Lord Sentloe, cousin Lacy, sit: Sir Gilbert Broughton, yea, and Warman, sit: Though you my steward be, yet for your gathering wit I give you place: sit down, sit down, I say: God's pity! sit: it must, it must be so, For you will sit when I shall stand, I know. [_Sits them all down_. And, Marian, you may sit among the rest, I pray ye do, or else rise, stand apart: These helps shall be beholders of my smart-- You that with ruthless eyes my sorrows see, And came prepar'd to feast at my sad fall, Whose envy, greediness, and jealousy Afford me sorrow endless, comfort small, Know what you knew before, what you ordain'd To cross the spousal banquet of my love, That I am outlaw'd by the Prior of York, My traitorous uncle and your toothless friend. Smile you, Queen Elinor? laugh'st thou, Lord Sentloe? Lacy, look'st thou so blithe at my lament? Broughton, a smooth brow graceth your stern face; And you are merry, Warman, at my moan. The Queen except, I do you all defy! You are a sort[171] of fawning sycophants, That, while the sunshine of my greatness 'dur'd, Revelled out all my day for your delights; And now ye see the black night of my woe O'ershade the beauty of my smiling good, You to my grief add grief; and are agreed With that false Prior to reprieve my joys From execution of all happiness. WAR. Your honour thinks not ill of me, I hope.