Play description

ACT I

Scene 1. A violent storm is lashing the ship on which Alonso, King of Naples, is returning home from

his daughter's wedding in Tunis. Travelling with Alonso are his brother Sebastian, his son Ferdinand,

Antonio, Duke of Milan, and other nobles including Gonzalo, a kind-hearted old courtier. The ship

begins to break up and all on board fear they will be drowned.

Scene 2. Prospero and Miranda, father and daughter, watch the storm from the shore of their island

home. Miranda is touched with pity for the voyagers, but Prospero assures her that thanks to his magic

"Art," they will come to no harm. He then recounts how they came to the island twelve years

previously: Prospero was Duke of Milan, but had become increasingly absorbed in his occult studies,

leaving matters of state to his brother Antonio. Antonio plotted with Alonso to take power, subjecting

Milan to the authority of Naples in return for being named Duke himself. Prospero and Miranda were

taken to sea in a rotten boat and set adrift. The two did not drown as Antonio intended, however, but

were brought "by providence divine" to the island they have lived on ever since. Prospero then reveals

that the ship they have been watching has brought his old enemies within his power. Prospero's spirit

servant Ariel reports that he has brought Alonso's ship safely into harbor.