hands, which contained an account of
Anthonio's ships, that were supposed lost, being safely arrived in the
harbour. So these tragical beginnings of this rich merchant's story
were all forgotten in the unexpected good fortune which ensued; and
there was leisure to laugh at the comical adventure of the rings,
and the husbands that did not know their own wives: Gratiano merrily
swearing, in a sort of rhyming speech, that

--while he liv'd, he'd fear no other thing
So sore, as keeping safe Nerissa's ring.

CYMBELINE

(_By Mary Lamb_)

During the time of Augustus Caesar, emperor of Rome, there reigned
in England (which was then called Britain) a king whose name was
Cymbeline.

Cymbeline's first wife died when his three children (two sons and a
daughter) were very young. Imogen, the eldest of these children, was
brought up in her father's court; but by a strange chance the two sons
of Cymbeline were stolen out of their nursery, when the eldest was but
three years of age, and the youngest quite an infant: and Cymbeline
could never discover what was become of them, or by whom they were
conveyed away.

Cymbeline was twice married: his second wife was a wicked, plotting
woman, and a cruel stepmother to Imogen, Cymbeline's daughter by his
first wife.

The queen, though she hated Imogen, yet wished her to marry a son of
her own by a former husband (she also having been twice married): for
by this means she hoped upon the death of Cymbeline to place the crown
of Britain upon the head of her son Cloten; for she knew that, if the
king's sons were not found, the princess Imogen must be the king's
heir. But this design was prevented by Imogen herself, who married
without the consent or even knowledge of her father or the queen.

Posthumus (for that was the name of Imogen's husband) was the best
scholar and most accomplished gentleman of that age. His father died
fighting in the wars for Cymbeline, and soon after his birth his
mother died also for grief at the loss of her husband.

Cymbeline, pitying the helpless state of this orphan, took Posthumus
(Cymbeline having given him that name because he was born after his
father's death), and educated him in his own court.

Imogen and Posthumus were both taught by the same masters, and were
play-fellows from their infancy: they loved each other tenderly when
they were children, and their affection continuing to increase with
their years, when they grew up they priva