her
suspect, but Miranda says: "Never till this day saw I him touch'd with
anger so distemper'd," and "My father's a better nature, sir, than he
appears by speech." When he is assured of Ferdinand's worthiness, of the
sincerity of his love for Miranda and of her devotion to her young
lover, he is delighted, and becomes so interested in the entertainment
he is giving them, that he forgets the plot against his life, although
the hour of his danger has arrived. It is true the father stoops to
listening, but his purpose is so worthy, no one is inclined to cavil at
his watchfulness, and, in any event, his exceeding care but justifies
the feeling that his love for Miranda is the mainspring of his every
act.

On this small island Prospero is little less than a god, and controls
affairs with almost supernatural justice and wisdom. Caliban, the
ungrateful, terribly wicked monster, is punished unsparingly but with
justice, for in the end with repentance he is forgiven, and the tortures
cease. Ariel and the other obedient spirits, though reproved at times,
are rewarded by freedom and placed beyond the reach of the evil powers
of earth and air.

The sufferings Prospero has endured, the intensity of his studies, and
the fierceness of his struggles with the supernatural powers of evil,
have given a tinge of sadness to his thought, and have led him to feel
that the result of all his labors may amount to little. The world is to
him but an insubstantial pageant that shall dissolve and fade, leaving
not the trace of the thinnest cloud behind. And as for ourselves,

"We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep."

Yet no sooner does he give way to this feeling than he sees how unkind
it is to trouble the young with such musings, and says pathetically to
Ferdinand,

"Sir, I am vex'd;
Bear with my weakness; my old brain is troubled:
Be not disturbed with my infirmity."

It is, however, at the end of the play, when all his plans have been
carried out successfully, and enemies and friends are alike at his
mercy, that the character of Prospero shines out most gloriously.
Rejoicing at the fruition of his hopes, he asks from his enemies only a
sincere repentance, and then nobly resigning the great arts which have
rendered the plotters powerless, he forgives them one and all: his
brother Antonio; the scheming Seba