The vanishing banquet; Ariel as harpy

Alonso's party — exhausted from searching the island for Ferdinand — comes upon a clearing. Solemn and strange music plays. Prospero, invisible and standing above the action, watches. Several "strange shapes" enter carrying a banquet, dance around it with gentle gestures of invitation, and depart. The courtiers, hungry and astonished, approach the table. Sebastian, with characteristic dryness, says he will now believe that there are unicorns and that the phoenix throne is in Arabia. Gonzalo notes the gentleness of the islanders. Alonso, more cautious, hesitates — and then, persuaded by hunger, steps forward to eat.

Thunder and lightning. Ariel descends, in the shape of a harpy, claps his wings on the table — and the banquet vanishes. The courtiers draw their swords and find them magically heavy, useless in their hands. Ariel speaks. He calls them three men of sin: "you 'mongst men being most unfit to live, I have made you mad." He recounts, in the king's hearing, what was done to Prospero and his three-year-old daughter twelve years ago. "Therefore the powers, delaying not forgetting, have incensed the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures, against your peace." Ferdinand's apparent death, he says, is the first installment of the price. The only way back is heart's sorrow and a changed life from this day on. He vanishes, leaving the words hanging in the air.

Prospero, watching from above, says aside: "bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou performed, my Ariel." His enemies are now exactly where he wanted them. Alonso, in a trance of guilt, hears the words again as the sound of wind and water — the very sea has accused him; he feels his son's death is the visited weight of his crime, and goes to drown himself beside him. Sebastian and Antonio, less penitent, do not collapse; they react with bravado, drawing swords against the invisible spirits. Gonzalo, who has heard nothing of the accusation but sees its effects, recognizes that the three are in some kind of guilt-induced trance and herds the company off-stage to keep them from harming themselves before whatever is governing this island finishes its business with them.