Page:Stories from Old English Poetry-1899.djvu/298

272 When they first landed on the island, Prospero heard issuing from the forest which skirted the shores, wailings and lamentations, which seemed to be uttered by some human creature. He entered the wood, and, guided by these cries, came at length to a tall pine, and there in the heart of a living tree, with only the head and shoulders visible, he found imprisoned the body of an exquisite creature, evidently some delicate fairy of the air. He was firmly wedged in the very middle of the trunk of this huge tree, which had grown around and bound him constantly tighter and tighter in its tough, woody fibres. Prospero stopped and conjured him to tell his name, and why he was thus horribly tortured.

On this the spirit ceased his cries, and told the Duke that his name was Ariel, that he belonged to a race of fairies of the air, and that he was thus imprisoned in the entrails of this pine by the power of a vile witch named Sycorax, who had for a time possessed and governed the island. He told Prospero also that the island was now inhabited by the son of this frightful hag,a vicious monster, whose name was Caliban,and that this cruel wretch now occasionally visited his prison to punish and torment him in addition to his present tortures.

When Prospero heard this story, he exacted a solemn vow from Ariel that he would serve