The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
by Howard Pyle
PREFACE
FROM THE AUTHOR TO THE READER
You who so plod amid serious things that you feel it shame to give
yourself up even for a few short moments to mirth and joyousness
in the land of Fancy; you who think that life hath nought to do with
innocent laughter that can harm no one; these pages are not for you.
Clap to the leaves and go no farther than this, for I tell you plainly
that if you go farther you will be scandalized by seeing good,
sober folks of real history so frisk and caper in gay colors and motley
that you would not know them but for the names tagged to them.
Here is a stout, lusty fellow with a quick temper, yet none so ill
for all that, who goes by the name of Henry II. Here is a fair,
gentle lady before whom all the others bow and call her
Queen Eleanor. Here is a fat rogue of a fellow, dressed up in rich
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