FERDINAND O, if a virgin,
And your affection not gone forth, I’ll make you
The Queen of Naples.
PROSPERO Soft, sir, one word more.
[aside] They are both in either’s powers, but this swift business
I must uneasy make, lest too light winning
Make the prize light. [to Ferdinand] One word more.
I charge thee
That thou attend me. Thou dost here usurp
The name thou ow’st not and hast put thyself
Upon this island as a spy, to win it
From me, the lord on’t. (1.2.448-457)
What does virgin mean here? (‘Sentences one sighs to write’.) It could mean virgin in a straightforwardly sexual sense, that is, because Ferdinand is a king (or thinks he is) then he has to be absolutely assured about the legitimacy of his heirs and the ‘honour’ of his wife. It could mean unmarried, which is probably what I’d prefer here – less clinically pragmatic, and also more in keeping with what Ferdinand says next, and your affection not gone forth, that is, provided you’re not in love with someone else, neither married, promised, nor otherwise engaged; I wouldn’t marry you against your will. It’s an offer of marriage, pretty much, I’ll make you the Queen of Naples. But of course Prospero has to complicate things, this swift business I must uneasy make, the twisty syntax emphasising his point. His justification is that if this is all too straightforward, even though they’re clearly infatuated with each other already, in either’s powers, they won’t take it seriously if it’s too easy and, in particular, too light winning might make the prize, Miranda, light, easy in a sexual sense (sigh) as well as simply morally frivolous, both in herself and taken as such by Ferdinand. You’ll value it more if you’ve got to wait and work for it, kids. So Prospero comes up with (another) cunning plan, accusing Ferdinand of usurping the name thou ow’st not, the title of King that he’s not really entitled to. True: his father the King is still alive, but it’s also a sign of Prospero’s paranoid sensitivity to usurpation more generally, even though he knows that’s not the case here. As a bonus, he also accuses Ferdinand of being a spy, coming to take over the island! (Just like Prospero did, with Caliban.)
