Authors: William Shakespeare
To Trinculo
I do beseech thy greatness give him blows,
To Stephano
And take his bottle from him: when that’s gone
He shall drink nought but brine, for I’ll not show him
Where the quick
freshes
64
are.
STEPHANO
Trinculo, run into no further danger: interrupt the
monster one word further, and by this hand, I’ll
turn my
66
mercy out o’doors
and make a
stockfish
67
of thee.
TRINCULO
Why, what did I? I did nothing. I’ll go further off.
STEPHANO
Didst thou not say he lied?
ARIEL
Thou liest.
STEPHANO
Do I so? Take thou that. As you like this,
give me the
71
lie another time.
Beats Trinculo
TRINCULO
I did not give the lie. Out o’your wits and hearing
too? A pox o’your bottle! This can sack and drinking do: a
murrain
75
on your monster, and the devil take your fingers!
CALIBAN
Ha, ha, ha!
STEPHANO
Now,
forward
77
with your tale.— Prithee, stand
To Caliban/To Trinculo
STEPHANO
Stand further.— Come, proceed.
To Trinculo/To Caliban
CALIBAN
Why, as I told thee, ’tis a custom with him
I’th’afternoon to sleep: there thou mayst
brain
83
him,
Having first seized his books: or with a log
Batter his skull, or
paunch
85
him with a stake,
Or cut his
weasand
86
with thy knife. Remember
First to possess his books; for without them
He’s but a
sot
88
, as I am, nor hath not
One spirit to command: they all do hate him
As
rootedly
90
as I. Burn but his books.
He has brave
utensils
91
— for so he calls them —
Which when he has a house, he’ll
deck withal.
92
And that most deeply to consider is
The beauty of his daughter: he himself
Calls her a
nonpareil
95
: I never saw a woman,
But only Sycorax my dam, and she:
But she as far surpasseth Sycorax
As great’st does least.
STEPHANO
Is it so brave a lass?
CALIBAN
Ay, lord: she will
become
100
thy bed, I warrant,
And bring thee forth brave
brood.
101
STEPHANO
Monster, I will kill this man: his daughter and I will
be king and queen —
’save our graces!
103
— and Trinculo and
thyself shall be
viceroys.
104
Dost thou like the plot, Trinculo?
TRINCULO
Excellent.
STEPHANO
Give me thy hand, I am sorry I beat thee: but, while
thou livest, keep a good tongue in thy head.
CALIBAN
Within this half hour will he be asleep:
Wilt thou destroy him then?
STEPHANO
Ay, on mine honour.
ARIEL
This will I tell my master.
Aside
CALIBAN
Thou mak’st me merry: I am full of pleasure,
Let us be
jocund.
Will you
troll
the
catch
113
You taught me but
while-ere?
114
STEPHANO
At thy request, monster, I will do
reason
115
, any
reason: come on, Trinculo, let us sing.
Sings
And scout ’em and flout ’em,
Thought is free.
CALIBAN
That’s not the tune.
Ariel plays the tune on a
tabor
and pipe
STEPHANO
What is this same?
TRINCULO
This is the tune of our catch, played by the
picture of
122
Nobody.
STEPHANO
If thou be’st a man, show thyself in thy likeness: if
thou be’st a devil,
take’t as thou list.
125
TRINCULO
O, forgive me my sins!
STEPHANO
He that dies pays all debts: I defy thee. Mercy upon
us!
CALIBAN
Art thou afeard?
STEPHANO
No, monster, not I.
CALIBAN
Be not afeard, the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not:
Sometimes a thousand
twangling
133
instruments
Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices,
That if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again, and then in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked
I cried to dream again.
STEPHANO
This will prove a brave kingdom to me, where I shall
have my music for nothing.
CALIBAN
When Prospero is destroyed.
[Exit Ariel, playing music]
TRINCULO
The sound is going away: let’s follow it, and after do
our work.
STEPHANO
Lead, monster: we’ll follow. I would I could see
this
146
taborer: he
lays it on.
147
TRINCULO
Wilt come? I’ll follow Stephano.
To Caliban
Exeunt
running scene 7
Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, Adrian, Francisco and
others
GONZALO
By’r lakin
1
, I can go no further, sir,
My old bones ache. Here’s a
maze
2
trod indeed
Through
forth-rights and meanders.
3
By your patience,
I needs must rest me.
ALONSO
Old lord, I cannot blame thee,
Who am myself
attached
6
with weariness
To th’dulling of my spirits: sit down and rest.
Even here I will
put off
8
my hope, and keep it
No longer
for my flatterer
9
: he is drowned
Whom thus we stray to find, and the sea mocks
Our
frustrate
11
search on land. Well, let him go.
ANTONIO
I am right glad that he’s so out of hope.
Aside to Sebastian
SEBASTIAN
The next advantage will we take thoroughly.
Aside to Antonio
ANTONIO
Let it be tonight:
Aside to Sebastian
For now they are
oppressed
with
travail
17
, they
Will not, nor cannot use such vigilance
As when they are fresh.
Solemn and strange music: and
[
enter
]
Prospero on the top, invisible
.
Enter several strange shapes, bringing in a banquet, and dance about it
with gentle actions of salutations, and inviting the king and others to
eat, they depart
SEBASTIAN
I say tonight: no more.
Aside to Antonio
ALONSO
What harmony is this? My good friends, hark!
GONZALO
Marvellous sweet music.
ALONSO
Give us kind
keepers
23
, heavens. What were these?
SEBASTIAN
A living
drollery.
24
Now I will believe
That there are unicorns: that in Arabia
There is one tree, the
phoenix’
26
throne, one phoenix
At this hour reigning there.
ANTONIO
I’ll believe both:
And what does else
want credit
29
, come to me,
And I’ll be sworn ’tis true: travellers ne’er did lie,
Though fools at home condemn ’em.
GONZALO
If in Naples
I should report this now, would they believe me?
If I should say I saw such islanders —
For
certes
35
these are people of the island —
Who though they are of
monstrous
36
shape, yet note
Their manners are more gentle, kind, than of
Our human
generation
38
you shall find
Many, nay almost any.
Aside
PROSPERO
Honest lord,
Thou hast said well: for some of you there present
Are worse than devils.
ALONSO
I cannot too much
muse
43
Such shapes, such gesture, and such sound, expressing —
Although they want the use of tongue — a kind
Of excellent dumb discourse.
Aside
PROSPERO
Praise in departing.
47
FRANCISCO
They vanished
strangely.
48
SEBASTIAN
No matter, since
They have left their
viands
behind: for we have
stomachs.
50
Will’t please you taste of what is here?
ALONSO
Not I.
GONZALO
Faith, sir, you need not fear. When we were boys,
Who would believe that there were
mountaineers
54
,
Dewlapped
55
like bulls, whose throats had hanging at ’em
Wallets
56
of flesh? Or that there were such men
Whose heads stood in their breasts? Which now we find
Each
putter-out
of five for one
58
will bring us
Good warrant of.
ALONSO
I will
stand to
60
, and feed,
Although
61
my last: no matter, since I feel
The best is past. Brother, my lord the duke,
Stand to, and do as we.
Thunder and lightning. Enter Ariel, like a
harpy
: claps his wings upon
the table, and, with a
quaint device
, the banquet vanishes
ARIEL
You are three men of sin, whom Destiny,
That hath
to instrument
this
lower world
65
And what is in’t, the
never-surfeited
65
sea
Hath caused to belch up you; and on this island,
Where man doth not inhabit — you ’mongst men
Being most unfit to live — I have made you mad;
And even with
suchlike valour
70
men hang and drown
Their
proper selves.
71
You fools: I and my fellows
Alonso, Sebastian
,
and Antonio draw
their swords
Are ministers of Fate: the
elements
72
Of whom your swords are tempered may as well
Wound the loud winds, or with
bemocked-at
74
stabs
Kill the
still-closing waters
75
, as diminish
One
dowl
that’s in my
plume.
76
My fellow ministers
Are
like
77
invulnerable. If you could hurt,
Your swords are now too
massy
78
for your strengths,
And will not be uplifted. But remember —
For that’s my
business
80
to you — that you three
From Milan did supplant good Prospero,
Exposed unto the sea — which hath
requit
82
it —
Him and his innocent child: for which foul deed,
The powers, delaying — not forgetting — have
Incensed the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures
Against your peace. Thee of thy son, Alonso,
They have bereft: and do pronounce by me
Ling’ring
perdition
88
— worse than any death
Can be at once — shall step by step attend
You and your ways:
whose wraths to guard you from
90
,
Which here in this most desolate isle else falls
Upon your heads, is nothing but heart’s sorrow
And a clear life ensuing.