his cup-bearer to poison the prince, who is informed by the cup-bearer of
the design against his life.

"For fear of the king the prince dare not stay:
The wind being fair, he sailed away,
Saying, I will escape from his blood-thirsty hand
By steering away to my native land."

Not long after his departure, the queen, "who had never conceived before"
(which varies both from Greene and Shakspeare), produces a daughter, which
the king resolves to get rid of by turning it adrift at sea in "a little
boat." He so informs the queen, and she in great grief provides the outfit
for the infant voyager:

"A purse of rare jewels she placed next her skin,
And fasten'd it likewise securely within;
A chain round her neck, and a mantle of gold,
Because she her infant no more should behold."

It is revealed to the king in a dream that his wife is innocent, but she
soon dies of a broken-heart. Meanwhile, the prince, on his return to his
own dominions, marries, and has a son. The infant princess is driven on
shore in his kingdom, and is saved by an old shepherd, and brought up by
him and his wife as their own child, they carefully concealing the riches
they had found in the "little boat."

"This child grew up, endued with grace,
A modest behaviour, a sweet comely face;
And being arrived at the age of fifteen,
For beauty and wisdom few like _her_ were seen."