It is reasonable to suppose the miser thereupon departed cursing the law and leaving the merchant alive.
There is, also, a famous ballad called "King Leir and His Daughters," which embodies the story of Shakespeare's tragedy of Lear. It commences thus:
So on a time it pleased the king
A question thus to move,
Which of his daughters to his grace
Could show the dearest love;
For to my age you bring content,
Quoth he, then let me hear,
Which of you three in plighted troth
The kindest will appear.