6
THE BATTALION.
tells her that but for her he would not endure the work her
father has imposed on him, and thus they sit and talk and
the old story is once more repeated until the arrival of Pros-
pero. It is here that Prospero gives Miranda to Ferdindand
with some very good advice as to Ferdinand’s actions toward
his daughter. Here the joy and happiness of Ferdinand and
Mirando must have reached the climax.
Then comes the last scene where we see the happy young
couple together still and a meeting of all the persons on the
island and a reconciliation between all parties concerned and
their preparation for return home. Great must have been
tho King’s surprise to find his son, whom he supposed
drowned, alive and in the company of a beautiful young girl
who was soon to be his wife.
We take the liberty to go on and say that Ferdinand and
Miranda reached Naples safely, were married, and as the
novels say “lived together happily forever afterward.”
Tugs. Carter.
The Tempest.
This play is purely a work of fancy. It is based on no
historical event, though perhaps suggested by some earlier
plays.
It tells how Prcspero, Duke of Milan, having left the man
agement of state affairs too much to his brother Antonia, was
treacherously bereft of his power and turned adrift on the sea
in an open boat. In order to do this Antonio had secured the
aid of Alonso, King of Naples, Prospero’s inveterate enemy.
When Prospero and his only ehild are placed in a rotten
boat and set adrift, Gonzalo, an old courtier, puts into the
boat a supply of food and water and the magic books of Pros
pero.
The boat finally drifts upon an island uninhabited by
man, and here they live for twelve years.
Prospero finds upon the island but one being who approach-