Page:Stories from Old English Poetry-1899.djvu/296



nce upon a time there lived upon an island, far off in Southern seas, a wonderful wise magician, with one only daughter. The island was far away from all inhabited lands, and no human being had ever set foot on its shores, till the magician came there. But it had been the abode of genii and fairies, and all kinds of elfin creatures, ever since it first rose from the bosom of the green sea. It was an isle of more than earthly beauty. All sorts of plants and flowers grew there from spring to winter, and from winter to spring again. Groves of palms and orange-trees, of willows and of oaks, grew side by side, and the island blossomed with color and beauty such as eye never beheld in any other spot.

Here the great magician Prospero lived and reigned over myriads of subjects,not human subjects, but all the creatures of the elements,the fairies of the earth, air, and water, of which the isle was full. Prospero had not always been