SCENE II.

_A room in the palace at Naples._

[_Enter_ FERDINAND _and_ MIRANDA.

FERDINAND. Admir’d Miranda, you are sad, and sad Am I you should be sad. Then will you not Declare what canker eats your tender rose That I may kill ’t, or what untoward care Weighs down your spirit, that I may kiss ’t away?

MIRANDA. O, my sweet prince, my husband Ferdinand, In truth I am not well, and yet I am, And yet again I am not. What say I? It is no fever of the blood, no pain That speaks in sharp besetment which doth ail Me now. Not these, and yet ’tis somewhat, still, And when I bid it down ’twill not away.

FERDINAND. O lov’d Miranda, ope thy soul to me.

MIRANDA. ’Tis silly, sooth, too simple for your ear To heed ’t, and I unworthy of your love To waste a single thought on it. O teach Me to forget it utterly.

FERDINAND. O sweet, And so I will, when I do know what is ’t Thou would’st forget.

MIRANDA. And will you then forgive?

FERDINAND. I will, and yet I’m sure it is no fault Needing forgiveness.

MIRANDA. You shall hear. In brief, Since you will have the truth, I fain would see Once more that isle where I beheld you first. Might I behold it once again and but For once, I then were satisfied, so you Were by my side beholding it likewise.

FERDINAND. Would I might bear thee hence within this hour, For that dear isle I love because of thee. But our philosophers declare the spot Was but enchantment rais’d by wizard spells And sunk in ocean’s maw when Prospero, Thy father, will’d it; never yet laid down Good solid earth and rock on mortal map And chart. How this may be I know not, yet Our sailors swear that no such isle there is And truly they should know their own realm best.

MIRANDA. I’m sure ’twas no enchantment.

FERDINAND. Save the maid Who dwelt upon ’t, for she did cast a spell About me when these eyes did first behold Her there, and naught can take ’t away.

MIRANDA. Nay, now, You jest, sweet sir.

FERDINAND. No jest, I swear to thee.

ARIEL [_sings_]

Where, O where, Is the isle so fair? ’Tis far to the east, ’Tis far to the west; ’Tis here, ’tis there, That isle so fair: O where, O where? ’Tis everywhere, That isle so fair.

MIRANDA. ’Tis Ariel’s voice, my Ferdinand, but whence-- [_sleeps._

FERDINAND [_drowsily_] The voice we heard upon the isle long since. Sweet sound, with poppies curiously mix’d-- [_sleeps._