Chess Match (9)
By:
February 2, 2010
Here PROSPERO discovers FERDINAND and MIRANDA playing at chess
MIRANDA: Sweet lord, you play me false.
FERDINAND: No, my dearest love,
I would not for the world.
MIRANDA: Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should wrangle,
And I would call it fair play.
ALONZO: If this prove
A vision of the island, one dear son
Shall I twice lose.
SEBASTIAN: A most high miracle!
FERDINAND: Though the seas threaten, they are merciful;
I have curs’d them without cause. [Kneels.]
ALONZO: Now all the blessings
Of a glad father compass thee about!
Arise, and say how thou cam’st here.
MIRANDA: O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in ’t!
PROSPERO: ’Tis new to thee.
— William Shakespeare, The Tempest (Act V, Scene I)
Ninth in an occasional series.