to the shoulders;" then he
disappears into a hole, where he dies, and his keys are taken from him.

Arbasto is very happy, and promises Myrania to love and marry her; they
go "covertly out of the citie, passing through France with many
fearefull perils" and reach Denmark. Pelorus and Doralicia are extremely
angry; she even takes to "blaspheming ... but as words breake no bones,
so we cared the lesse for her scolding."

But Arbasto learns to his cost that no man when truly in love can cease
to love as he pleases. Before keeping his word to Myrania he wants once
more to appeal to her fair sister. But the fair sister continues in her
blaspheming mood, and sends a very sharp and contemptuous answer.

Both letters fall into the hands of Myrania, who is so struck by this
piece of treachery that she dies of her sorrow; hearing which Pelorus
rather unexpectedly dies of his sorrow for her death. Doralicia then is
queen, and at last discovers that in the innermost part of her heart
there is love for Arbasto. She writes accordingly, but the Dane this
time returns a contemptuous answer. Receiving which, the poor French
queen dies of her sorrow. And thereupon, for no apparent reason, except
to add yet more sorrow to the conclusion of this tragical tale, the
confidant of the Danish king turns traitor, usurps his crown, and
Arbasto goes to Candia, where Greene had the good fortune to hear from
his own lips this wondrous and authentic tale. "Merry and tragical!
tedious and brief!" as Duke Theseus would think.

However complete the success awarded to Arbasto's adventures, it was
nothing compared with the popularity of "Pandosto." If this was not the
best it was the most famous of Greene's tales. The plot is well known,
for Shakespeare, unmoved by the dying maledictions of his late
companion, drew from it the materials of his "Winter's Tale" (1611?). He
kept many of the improbabilities of Greene, rejected a few, and added
some of his own. But the great change he made was to give life to the
heroes, and as they had been shaped by Greene they sorely needed it.
Rarely did a more unlikely and a cruder tale come from the pen of our
novelist.

The events of the story take place among kings and shepherds: "In the
countrey of Bohemia there raygned a king called Pandosto." This is the
usual beginning of novels of the time; hundreds of them commence in this
manner;[137] the very first lines transport the reader to an unknown
country, and pla