The act opens on another part of the island in which the remaining members of the fleet have been marooned. Lines 4553 are a comical interchange between four of the characters concerning their impressions, both positive and negative, of the island. The following entry describing Puerto Rico from Columbus’ journal might be discussed here:
This said island of Juana is exceedingly fertile . . . it is surrounded by many bays . . . surpassing any that I have ever seen; numerous large and healthful rivers intersect it, and it also contains many very lofty mountains . . . all these islands are very beautiful . . . they are filled with a great variety of trees of immense height . . . some of them were blossoming, some bearing fruit . . . The nightingale and various birds were singing in countless numbers, and that in November, the month in which I arrived there. There are . . . seven or eight kinds of palm trees . . .
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Students could be asked to draw these different varieties of palm trees from memory and also to compare the flora and fauna of Puerto Rico with the mainland. A dialogue might be improvised in which one actor paints a favorable picture of the new environment while another gives an unfavorable one.
The scene has several costume references (L. 59,66,93, 266), and the following illustrations adapted from original codices paintings by Alberto Beltrán can be pointed out to students at this time, paying particular attention to the depiction of the Spaniards. From the point of view of the costume designer, students might consider the alterations the characters would make to their garments now that weather conditions have probably changed from what they experienced in Italy:
(figure available in print form)
(figure available in print form)
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Lines 143151 describe Gonzalo’s idea of a Utopian life style on the island and the pronouncements he would make if he were king. Students could consider their own suggestions for an ideal world and come up with a personal list.
There is a kind of undersea atmosphere in the play, a dreamy unreality in which the characters are under the spell of one illusion or another, and Shakespeare gives us several of these references between lines 180320. Students might search this section independently in order to list these phrases. In their reading (L. 295-300) they will once again happen upon Ariel working his magic through song as he attempts to awaken Gonzalo from slumber. There is no musical notation available for this particular piece, thus providing students interested in sound with the opportunity to develop their own accompaniment which best corresponds to the sense of the words.
