N

Marian!

MARIAN

My lord!

JOHN

[_Drawing close to her._]

I have come to urge a plea
On your behalf as well as on my own!
Listen, you may not know it--I must tell you.
I have watched your beauty growing like a flower,
With--why should I not say it--worship; yes,
Marian, I will not hide it.

MARIAN

Sir, you are mad!
Sir, and your bride, your bride, not three months wedded!
You cannot mean ...

JOHN

Listen to me! Ah, Marian,
You'd be more merciful if you knew all!
D'you think that princes wed to please themselves?

MARIAN

Sir, English maidens do; and I am plighted
Not to a prince, but to an outlawed man.

JOHN

Listen to me! One word! Marian, one word!
I never meant you harm! Indeed, what harm
Could come of this? Is not your father poor?
I'd make him rich! Is not your lover outlawed?
I'd save him from the certain death that waits him.
You say the forest-laws afflict your soul
And his--you say you'd die for their repeal!
Well--I'll repeal them. All the churls in England
Shall bless your name and mix it in their prayers
With heaven itself.

MARIAN

The price?

JOHN

You call it that!
To let me lay the world before your feet,
To let me take this little hand in mine.
Why should I hide my love from you?

MARIAN

No more,
I'll hear no more! You are a prince, you say?

JOHN

One word--suppose it some small sacrifice,
To save those churls for whom you say your heart
Bleeds; yet you will not lift your little finger
To save them! And what hinders you?--A breath,
A dream, a golden rule! Can you not break it
For a much greater end?

MARIAN

I'd die to save them.

JOHN

Then live to save them.

MARIAN

No, you will not let me;
D'you think that bartering my soul will help
To save another? If there's no way but this,
Then through my lips those suffering hundreds cry,
We choose the suffering. All that is good in them,
All you have left, all you have not destroyed,
Cries out against you: and I'll go to them