THE BATTALION.
15
The pine and cedar. Graves at my command
Have waked their sleepers, ope’d and let them forth
By my so potent art. But this rough magic
I here objure; and when I have required
Some heavenly music (which even now I do)
To work mine end upon their senses that
This airy charm is for,I’ll break my staff—
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I’ll drown my book.”
His enemies, who treated him so badly years before are
now brought to his feet and made truly repentant, as much
by his kindness and willingness to forgive as by his art.
They agree to give Prospero his rightful place as Duke of
Milan and to serve him faithfully.
All these scenes are interspersed with words and sentences
of truest poetry.
The story now goes back to Ferdinand and Miranda, and
they are discovered within the cell. Alonzo and Ferdinand
are surprised to see each other, each believing the other to
be drowned. There is, of course, an animated scene, and
after the explanation, old Gonzalo expresses the feelings of
all:
“1 have wept,
Or should have spoke ere this;
Look down, you gods,
And on this couple drop a blessed crown,
For it is you that have chalked forth the way
Which brought us hither!”