The hawthorn whitens the wood-land; My lovers, awake, awake, Shake off the grass-green coverlet, Glide, bare-foot, thro' the brake!
The Forest has conquered! The Forest has conquered! The Forest has conquered! And, under the great green boughs, I have found out a place for my lovers, I have built them a beautiful house.
Green ferns in the dawn-red dew-fall, This gift by my death I give,-- They shall wander immortal thro' Sherwood! In my great green house they shall live!
The Forest has conquered! The Forest has conquered! The Forest has conquered! When the first wind blows from the South, They shall meet by the Gates of Faërie! She shall set her mouth to his mouth!
He shall gather her, fold her and keep her; They shall pass thro' the Gates, they shall live! For the Forest, the Forest has conquered! This gift by my death I give!
The Forest has conquered! The Forest has conquered! The Forest has conquered! The world awakes anew; And O, the scent of the hawthorn, And the drip of the healing dew!
[_The song ceases. TITANIA and OBERON come out into the moon-lit glade._]
Yet one night more the gates of fairyland Are opened by a mortal's kindly deed. But Robin Hood and Marian now are driven As we shall soon be driven, from the world Of cruel mortals.
Mortals call them dead; Oberon, what is death?
Only a sleep. But these may dream their happy dreams in death Before they wake to that new lovely life Beyond the shadows; for poor Shadow-of-a-Leaf Has given them this by love's eternal law Of sacrifice, and they shall enter in To dream their lover's dream in fairyland.
He cannot enter now. The gates are closed against him.
OBERON We fairies have not known or heard What waits for those who, like this wandering Fool, Throw all away for love. But I have heard There is a great King, out beyond the world, Not Richard, who is dead, nor yet King John; But a great King who one day will come home Clothed with the clouds of heaven from His Crusade.
[_The crowd of serfs, old men, poor women, and children, begin to enter as the fairy song swells up within the gates again. ROBIN and MARIAN are led along by a crowd of fairies at the end of the procession._]
And there, see, there come Robin and his bride. And the fairies lead them on, strewing their path With ferns and moon-flowers. See, they have entered in!