30 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



lavishes upon Ferdinand, the innocent preference of her lover's company to strict 

 filial obedience, all indicate the one induction, that Miranda is instinctively pervaded 

 by the feminine idea of rewarding danger, exertion, endurance, all means of progress, 

 by sympathy and love. It does not follow that sympathy may not show in exertion, 

 intelligence, activity. She offers to bear the logs herself; but in its ideal stage her 

 character is sympathetic rather than active, and we confidently regard her as a type 

 of feminine romance and chivalry. 



"I am your wife, if you will marr>' me; 

 If not I'll die your maid." 



Devotion, constancy, romance, childlike trust and admiration, and childlike bold- 

 ness and innocence, are some abstract terms corresponding to concrete facts set forth 

 concerning the heroine. The scene suggests that the more willing Miranda is to 

 assist in Ferdinand's log-bearing, the more able Ferdinand is to support the toil for 

 himself and the more unwilling to accept her proffered aid. 



In the eighth scene Miranda shows her quick knowledge of her father's moods; 

 in spite of her new love and of her pride in the beautiful masque, she shows her 

 solicitude touchingly. 



In the last scene Alonzo discovers his long-sought Ferdinand playing chess with 

 Miranda in the cell. The lovers are playing and gaily quarreling, enjoying their 

 amusement better for the reflection that the logs are piled. Nothing can ruffle their 

 tempers; Ferdinand's greatest right is to jield his rights to Miranda, and Miranda says: 



" Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should wrangle, 

 And I should call it fair play." 



This, says the ironical scientist, is the usual love-story tone; the central theme of 

 Shakespeare's deepest play can hardly lie in this. 



Miranda's last speech provokes Prospero's only cynical, playfully cynical, remark: 



"O, wonder! 

 How many goodly creatures are there here! 

 How beauteous mankind is! O, brave new world, 

 That has such people in it!" 



" 'Tis new to thee!" 



remarks Prospero, sententiously. 



Miranda is a broad type, not loaded with details of character, yet rich in force 

 and brightness, of the ideal feminine character at the age of selection; she appears 

 in every love-storj' from the earliest mythology to the present novel. 



Ferdinand: Adolescent Hero of Romance 



In the shipwreck scene Ferdinand is mentioned as at prayers with his father, 

 King Alonzo of Naples. 



