_The island in the Middle Seas._
FERDINAND _and_ MIRANDA _discovered sleeping on
a grassy mound. Soft music heard._
FERDINAND [_awaking_] With poppies mix’d--O, I did dream--but where
Am I? ’Tis strange, and yet not strange. This place
I do remember. Here Miranda saw
I first--
MIRANDA [_awaking_]
How say you, husband, I have slept,
And all I look on now is chang’d, and yet
Not so, for surely here I dwelt of old
With Prospero, my father.
FERDINAND. ’Tis naught else
But the same place, and we transported hence
Perchance as playthings of some kindly god,
Hearing thy tale and loving thee.
MIRANDA. Sweet prince,
My Ferdinand, then do we wake indeed,
Or is’t enchantment, and a sleep?
FERDINAND. I deem
It truth, and be it thus, or not, in truth
’Tis pleasant seeming, and we twain will fleet
The time as happily as when each knew
The other first.
[CALIBAN _approaches, groveling_
CALIBAN [_aside_] O Setebos, ’tis she,
Damn’d Prospero’s daughter.--Mistress, if it be
Thou’rt come to rule the isle I’ll serve thee well,
And Prospero be absent. Him I fear
As I do dread the awesome thunderstone.
FERDINAND. Lo! here come other of his company.
[TRINCULO _and_ STEPHANO _approach_.
TRINCULO. Behold us, gentles, two as unhappy wights as ever ’scaped a
hanging, or death by attorney.
STEPHANO. He speaks very true, as ’t were, now and then, and we two
honest men from Naples be now in most wretched case--slaves to the
man-monster, Caliban.
_Thunder heard._ CALIBAN, STEPHANO _and_ TRINCULO _disperse by
several ways and_ FERDINAND _and_ MIRANDA _retire to a cave
near by_.