KING. Why, Robin Hood? be brief and answer me.
I am amazed at thy troubled looks.
ROB. H. Long will not my ill-looks amaze your grace;
I shortly look never to look again.
MAR. Never to look! What, will it still be night?
If thou look never, day can never be.
What ails my Robin? Wherefore dost thou faint?
ROB. H. Because I cannot stand: yet now I can.
[KING and MARIAN support him.
Thanks to my king, and thanks to Marian.
KING. Robin, be brief, and tell us what hath chanc'd.
ROB. H. I must be brief, for I am sure of death,
Before a long tale can be half-way told.
FITZ. Of death, my son! bright sun of all my joy!
Death cannot have the power of[279] virtuous life.
ROB. H. Not o'er[280] the virtues, but the life it can.
KING. What, dost thou speak of death? how shouldst thou die?
ROB. H. By poison and the Prior's treachery.