The Tempest
Act II, Scene 2
Another part of the island.
Caliban is at work on his daily chores when Trinculo, the court jester, arrives. Caliban thinks Trinculo is one of Prospero's spirits. Stephano, the King’s drunken butler, arrives. Caliban takes the butler for a god and swears loyalty to him. The three decide to be sole owners of the island.
Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Caliban
The Tempest at His Majesty's Theatre
Karl August Büchel, 1904
- Enter Caliban with a burden of wood.
- A noise of thunder heard.
Caliban
1 - 18- All the infections that the sun sucks up
- From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall, and make him
- By inch-meal a disease! His spirits hear me,
- And yet I needs must curse. But they’ll nor pinch,
- Fright me with urchin-shows, pitch me i’ th’ mire,
- Nor lead me, like a fire-brand, in the dark
- Out of my way, unless he bid ’em; but
- For every trifle are they set upon me,
- Sometime like apes that mow and chatter at me,
- And after bite me; then like hedgehogs which
- Lie tumbling in my barefoot way, and mount
- Their pricks at my footfall; sometime am I
- All wound with adders, who with cloven tongues
- Do hiss me into madness.
- Enter Trinculo.
- Lo, now lo,
- Here comes a spirit of his, and to torment me
- For bringing wood in slowly. I’ll fall flat,
- Perchance he will not mind me.
Trinculo
19 - 40- Here’s neither bush nor shrub to bear off any weather at
- all. And another storm brewing, I hear it sing i’ th’ wind.
- Yond same black cloud, yond huge one, looks like a foul
- bumbard that would shed his liquor. If it should thunder as
- it did before, I know not where to hide my head. Yond same
- cloud cannot choose but fall by pailfuls. What have we here?
- A man or a fish? Dead or alive? A fish, he smells like a
- fish; a very ancient and fish-like smell; a kind of,
- not-of-the-newest poor-John. A strange fish! Were I in
- England now (as once I was) and had but this fish painted,
- not a holiday fool there but would give a piece of silver.
- There would this monster make a man; any strange beast there
- makes a man. When they will not give a doit to relieve a
- lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian.
- Legg’d like a man; and his fins like arms! Warm, o’ my
- troth! I do now let loose my opinion, hold it no longer:
- this is no fish, but an islander, that hath lately suffer’d
- by a thunderbolt.
- Thunder.
- Alas, the storm is come again! My best way is to creep under
- his gaberdine; there is no other shelter hereabout. Misery
- acquaints a man with strange bedfellows; I will here shroud
- till the dregs of the storm be past.
- Enter Stephano, singing, a bottle in his hand.
Stephano
41 - 54- “I shall no more to sea, to sea,
- Here shall I die ashore—”
- This is a very scurvy tune to sing at a man’s funeral.
- Well, here’s my comfort.
- Drinks.
- Sings.
- “The master, the swabber, the boatswain, and I,
- The gunner and his mate,
- Lov’d Mall, Meg, and Marian, and Margery,
- But none of us car’d for Kate;
- For she had a tongue with a tang,
- Would cry to a sailor, ‘Go hang!’
- She lov’d not the savor of tar nor of pitch,
- Yet a tailor might scratch her where e’er she did itch.
- Then to sea, boys, and let her go hang!”
- This is a scurvy tune too; but here’s my comfort.
- Drinks.
Paul Woodroffe, circa 1908
Caliban
55- Do not torment me! O!
Stephano
56 - 61- What’s the matter? Have we devils here? Do you put tricks
- upon ’s with salvages and men of Inde? Ha? I have not scap’d
- drowning to be afeard now of your four legs; for it hath
- been said, “As proper a man as ever went on four legs cannot
- make him give ground”; and it shall be said so again while
- Stephano breathes at’ nostrils.
Caliban
62- The spirit torments me! O!
Stephano
63 - 68- This is some monster of the isle with four legs, who hath
- got (as I take it) an ague. Where the devil should he learn
- our language? I will give him some relief, if it be but for
- that. If I can recover him, and keep him tame, and get to
- Naples with him, he’s a present for any emperor that ever
- trod on neat’s-leather.
Caliban
69- Do not torment me, prithee. I’ll bring my wood home faster.
Stephano
70 - 74- He’s in his fit now, and does not talk after the wisest. He
- shall taste of my bottle; if he have never drunk wine afore,
- it will go near to remove his fit. If I can recover him, and
- keep him tame, I will not take too much for him; he shall
- pay for him that hath him, and that soundly.
Caliban
75 - 76- Thou dost me yet but little hurt; thou wilt anon, I know it
- by thy trembling. Now Prosper works upon thee.
Stephano
77 - 80- Come on your ways. Open your mouth; here is that which will
- give language to you, cat. Open your mouth; this will shake
- your shaking, I can tell you, and that soundly. You cannot
- tell who’s your friend. Open your chaps again.
- Caliban drinks.
Trinculo
81 - 82- I should know that voice; it should be—but he is drown’d;
- and these are devils. O, defend me!
Stephano
83 - 88- Four legs and two voices; a most delicate monster! His
- forward voice now is to speak well of his friend; his
- backward voice is to utter foul speeches and to detract. If
- all the wine in my bottle will recover him, I will help his
- ague. Come.
- Caliban drinks again.
- Amen! I will pour some in thy other mouth.
Trinculo
89- Stephano!
Stephano
90 - 91- Doth thy other mouth call me? Mercy, mercy! This is a devil,
- and no monster. I will leave him, I have no long spoon.
Trinculo
92 - 93- Stephano! If thou beest Stephano, touch me, and speak to me;
- for I am Trinculo—be not afeard—thy good friend Trinculo.
The Tempest, II, 2, at His Majesty's Theatre
Herbert Beerbohm Tree (Caliban), Lionel Brough (Trinculo), Louis Calvert (Stephano)
Karl August Büchel, 1904.
Stephano
94 - 97- If thou beest Trinculo, come forth. I’ll pull thee by the
- lesser legs. If any be Trinculo’s legs, these are they. Thou
- art very Trinculo indeed! How cam’st thou to be the siege of
- this moon-calf? Can he vent Trinculos?
Trinculo
98 - 102- I took him to be kill’d with a thunder-stroke. But art thou
- not drown’d, Stephano? I hope now thou art not drown’d. Is
- the storm overblown? I hid me under the dead moon-calf’s
- gaberdine for fear of the storm. And art thou living,
- Stephano? O Stephano, two Neapolitans scap’d!
Stephano
103- Prithee do not turn me about, my stomach is not constant.
Caliban
104 - 106- Aside.
- These be fine things, and if they be not sprites.
- That’s a brave god, and bears celestial liquor.
- I will kneel to him.
Stephano
107 - 111- How didst thou scape? How cam’st thou hither? Swear by this
- bottle how thou cam’st hither—I escap’d upon a butt of sack
- which the sailors heav’d o’erboard—by this bottle, which I
- made of the bark of a tree with mine own hands since I was
- cast ashore.
Caliban
112 - 113- I’ll swear upon that bottle to be thy true subject, for the
- liquor is not earthly.
Stephano
114- Here; swear then how thou escap’dst.
Trinculo
115 - 116- Sworn ashore, man, like a duck. I can swim like a duck, I’ll
- be sworn.
Stephano
117 - 119- Here, kiss the book.
- Passing the bottle.
- Though thou canst swim like a duck, thou art made like a
- goose.
Trinculo
120- O Stephano, hast any more of this?
Stephano
121 - 123- The whole butt, man. My cellar is in a rock by th’ sea-side,
- where my wine is hid. How now, moon-calf? How does thine
- ague?
Caliban
124- Hast thou not dropp’d from heaven?
Stephano
125 - 126- Out o’ th’ moon, I do assure thee. I was the Man i’ th’
- Moon, when time was.
Caliban
127 - 128- I have seen thee in her, and I do adore thee.
- My mistress show’d me thee, and thy dog, and thy bush.
Stephano
129 - 130- Come, swear to that; kiss the book. I will furnish it anon
- with new contents. Swear.
- Caliban drinks.
Trinculo
131 - 133- By this good light, this is a very shallow monster! I afeard
- of him? A very weak monster! The Man i’ th’ Moon? A most
- poor credulous monster! Well drawn, monster, in good sooth!
Caliban
134 - 135- I’ll show thee every fertile inch o’ th’ island;
- And I will kiss thy foot. I prithee be my god.
Trinculo
136 - 137- By this light, a most perfidious and drunken monster! When
- ’s god’s asleep, he’ll rob his bottle.
Caliban
138- I’ll kiss thy foot. I’ll swear myself thy subject.
From: Costume sketches for various characters
Gabriel, late 19th or early 20th century
Stephano
139- Come on then; down, and swear.
Trinculo
140 - 141- I shall laugh myself to death at this puppy-headed monster.
- A most scurvy monster! I could find in my heart to beat him—
Stephano
142- Come, kiss.
Trinculo
143- But that the poor monster’s in drink. An abominable monster!
Caliban
144 - 148- I’ll show thee the best springs; I’ll pluck thee berries;
- I’ll fish for thee, and get thee wood enough.
- A plague upon the tyrant that I serve!
- I’ll bear him no more sticks, but follow thee,
- Thou wondrous man.
Trinculo
149 - 150- A most ridiculous monster, to make a wonder of a poor
- drunkard!
Caliban
151 - 156- I prithee let me bring thee where crabs grow;
- And I with my long nails will dig thee pig-nuts,
- Show thee a jay’s nest, and instruct thee how
- To snare the nimble marmazet. I’ll bring thee
- To clust’ring filberts, and sometimes I’ll get thee
- Young scamels from the rock. Wilt thou go with me?
Stephano
157 - 160- I prithee now lead the way without any more talking.
- Trinculo, the King and all our company else being drown’d,
- we will inherit here. Here! Bear my bottle. Fellow Trinculo,
- we’ll fill him by and by again.
Caliban
161- Sings drunkenly.
- Farewell, master; farewell, farewell!
Trinculo
162- A howling monster; a drunken monster!
Caliban
163 - 169- No more dams I’ll make for fish,
- Nor fetch in firing
- At requiring,
- Nor scrape trenchering, nor wash dish.
- ’Ban, ’Ban, Ca-Caliban
- Has a new master, get a new man.
- Freedom, high-day! High-day, freedom! Freedom, high-day, freedom!
Stephano
170- O brave monster! Lead the way.
- Exeunt.
From: Scenes from The Tempest
Alexander Stuart Boyd, circa 1904