"Tom Varnish." Richard Steele.

One-minute review; Tom Varnish tries to seduce the wife of a merchant, Mr. Balance. She tells her husband about Varnish’s letter of seduction. They arrange to have Varnish jump out the second-story window in fear of the husband’s approach. Next, she locks him in a trunk in fear of her husband’s coming, who, on waking the next day, accompanies the trunk with Varnish still in it to a ship, with strict instructions that if any danger occurs to the ship, the trunk should be thrown overboard because of certain letters in it that might be useful to the enemy.

Comment: Sounds like a Chaucerian story. RayS.

75 Short Masterpieces: Stories from the World’s Literature. Ed. Roger B. Goodman. New York: Bantam Books. 1961. These summaries do not do justice to the vividness of the stories. RayS.