Page:Stories from Old English Poetry-1899.djvu/305

Rh human beings to be equally powerful, he paid them great respect. Stephano, the one who had possession of the bottle, generously gave the monster a drink, and the fumes of the liquor, rising straight to Caliban’s brain, made him partly intoxicated. The stupid monster then concluded that the man who owned so potent a beverage must be even more powerful than his master, and he proposed to them to aid him in a plot to assassinate Prospero, that they might become owners of the island, which he described as abounding in all sorts of natural wealth. Stephano and his companion, Trinculo, readily entered into the plan, and they all journeyed back to the cave, to get possession of Prospero’s magic books and robes, and then to murder him.

When evening came on, all Prospero’s plans were working famously. Ferdinand had told the story of his parentage and rank to Prospero, had besought him that he might have Miranda for his wife, and the old Duke had graciously given his blessing to their love. Alonzo, Sebastian, and Antonio were now close by, in a grove near the entrance of the cave. The drunken fellows and Caliban, whose designs Ariel had overheard and betrayed to his master, were being well pinched and tortured by spirits of the air, whom Prospero set on to harass them. As the King and his followers drew close to