Page:Stories from Old English Poetry-1899.djvu/221

Rh hold enshrined the image of his love. He opened and found a skull whose empty eye-socket contained a paper with these verses:

The second suitor was a prince of Arragon, a pompous Spaniard. He read aloud the inscription, “Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves;” and vainly imagining that his deserts were no less than the hand of Portia, he had chosen the silver casket. Within he found the picture of a blinking idiot, and these lines:

These disappointed suitors, with their retinues, Bassanio met issuing from the palace gates as he applied for entrance. He gained fair