Playbill for "The Sad Shepherd", 1898

              2007-03· Programme Twopence. THE Stage $ociet)2. 
S"aturday A fternoon, JUly 23rd, 1898, At 5 o'clock. " THE SAD SHEPHERD," By BEN ] ONSON, now acted for the first time in the COURTYARD OF FULHAM PALACE, 
kindly lent for the occasion by the RIGHT HON. AND RIGHT 
REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF LONDON, D.D. 
DIRECTOR MR. WM. POEL. The Music under the Direction of 
MR. ARNOLD DOLMETSCH. 
Brgttment of tbe lPla\? Robin Hood has invited some Shepherds and Shepherdesses of the Vale of Belvoir to the Forest of Sherwood, and in his absence has entrusted Mariari to kill venison against the day of their coming. The Shepherds arrive, escorted by Robin Hood, and the venison has been killed by Marian, but unexpected troubles arise to spoil the merry-making. The Witch Maudlin, envious of these festivities, determines to thwart them. She entraps one of the Shepherdesses named Earine, shutting her up in a hollow tree with the intention. of forcing her to marry her uncouth son Lorel, and to that end gives out that the girl has been drowned while crossing the Trent. This news is received with grief by all the Shepherds, and especially by h:glamour, who laments her loss in the opening lines of the play. The Witch afterwards disguises herself in the shape of Marian, and creates consternation amongst the invited guests by abusing Robin Hood, and depriving him of his venison. She makes further mischief by dressing up her daughter Douce in Earine's clothes, who is thus thought by lEglamour to be Earine's ghost. At last the Witch's malice is ended by Robin Hood tearing off her magic girdle. The Witch is finally hunted by Robin Hood's men, and with the help of Puck she escapes in the form of a hare. Earine is heard singing from her tree by iEglamour and is released, and the play ends with a Morris Dance.