Read The Tempest Online

Authors: William Shakespeare

The Tempest (9 page)

Act 2 Scene 2

running scene 4

Enter Caliban with a burden of wood. A noise of thunder heard

CALIBAN
    All the infections that the sun sucks up

From bogs, fens,
flats
2
, on Prosper fall, and make him

By
inch-meal
3
a disease. His spirits hear me,

And yet I needs must curse. But they’ll
nor
pinch
4
,

Fright me with
urchin-shows
5
, pitch me i’th’mire,

Nor lead me like a
firebrand
6
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
9
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
13
tongues

Do hiss me into madness.

Enter
Trinculo

For bringing wood in slowly. I’ll fall flat:

Lies down and covers
himself with his cloak

Perchance he will not
mind
18
me.

TRINCULO
    Here’s neither bush nor shrub to
bear off
19
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
bombard
22
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

Sees Caliban

have we here? A man or a fish? Dead or alive?

A fish, he smells like a fish: a very ancient and fishlike

smell: a kind of not-of-the-newest
poor-John.
27
A strange fish!

Were I in England now — as once I was — and had but

this
fish painted
29
, not a holiday fool there but would give a

piece of silver: there would this monster
make a man
30
: any

strange beast there makes a man: when they will not give a

doit
32
to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a

dead Indian.
Legged
33
like a man and his fins like arms! Warm,

o’my troth! I do now
let loose
34
my opinion, hold it no longer:

this is no fish, but an islander that hath lately suffered by

Thunder

a thunderbolt. Alas, the storm is come again! My

best way is to creep under his
gaberdine
37
: there is no other

shelter hereabout. Misery acquaints a man with strange

bedfellows: I will here
shroud
39
till the dregs

Trinculo gets under
Caliban’s cloak

of the storm be past.

Enter Stephano, singing

STEPHANO
    I shall no more to sea, to sea:

With a bottle in his hand

Here shall I die ashore—

This is a very
scurvy
43
tune to sing at a man’s funeral: well,

here’s my comfort.

Drinks

Sings

   The master, the
swabber
45
, the boatswain and I,

   The gunner and his mate,

   Loved Mall, Meg and Marian and Margery,

   But none of us cared for Kate.

   For she had a tongue with a
tang
49
,

   Would cry to a sailor, ‘Go hang!’

   She loved not the
savour
51
of tar nor of pitch,

   Yet a
tailor might scratch her where’er she did itch
52
:

   Then to sea, boys, and let her go hang!

Drinks

   This is a scurvy tune too: but here’s my comfort.

CALIBAN
    Do not torment me: O!

STEPHANO
    What’s
the matter?
56
Have we devils here? Do you put

tricks upon’s with savages and men of
Ind
57
, ha? I have not

scaped drowning to be afeard now of your four legs: for it

hath been said, ‘As
proper
a man as ever went on
four legs
59
,

cannot make him
give ground
60
’: and it shall be said so again,

while Stephano breathes
at’nostrils.
61

CALIBAN
    The spirit torments me: O!

STEPHANO
    This is some monster of the isle with four legs, who

hath got, as I take it, an
ague.
64
Where the devil should he

learn our language? I will give him some
relief
65
, if it be but for

that. If I can
recover
66
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.
68

CALIBAN
    Do not torment me, prithee: I’ll bring my wood

home faster.

STEPHANO
    He’s in his fit now, and does not talk
after
71
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
73

and keep him tame, I will not take too much for him: he shall

pay for him that hath him, and that soundly.

CALIBAN
    Thou dost me yet but little hurt: thou wilt
anon
76
, I

know it by thy trembling. Now Prosper works upon thee.

STEPHANO
    
Come on your ways
78
: open your mouth: here is that

which will give
language to you, cat.
79
Open your mouth: this

Gives Caliban a drink

will
shake
80
your shaking, I can tell you,

and that soundly: you cannot tell who’s your friend: open

your
chaps
82
again.

Caliban spits it out

TRINCULO
    I should know that voice: it should be— but he is

drowned, and these are devils. O, defend me!

STEPHANO
    Four legs and two voices: a most
delicate
85
monster!

His forward voice now is to speak well of his friend: his

backward voice is to utter foul speeches and to
detract.
87
If all

the wine in my bottle will recover him, I will help his ague.

Come. Amen! I will pour some in thy other mouth.

TRINCULO
    Stephano!

STEPHANO
    Doth thy other mouth call me? Mercy, mercy! This is

a devil, and no monster: I will leave him, I have no
long
92

spoon.

TRINCULO
    Stephano! If thou be’st Stephano, touch me and

speak to me, for I am Trinculo — be not afeard — thy good

friend Trinculo.

STEPHANO
    If thou be’st Trinculo, come forth: I’ll pull thee by

the
lesser legs.
98
If any be Trinculo’s legs,

Pulls him out

these are they. Thou art very Trinculo indeed! How cam’st

thou to be the
siege
of this
moon-calf?
Can he
vent
100

Trinculos?

TRINCULO
    I took him to be killed with a thunder-stroke: but art

thou not drowned, Stephano? I hope now thou art not

drowned: is the storm
overblown?
104
I hid me under the dead

moon-calf’s gaberdine for fear of the storm: and art thou

living, Stephano? O Stephano, two

Trinculo and Stephano
embrace or dance

Neapolitans scaped!

STEPHANO
    Prithee, do not turn me about: my stomach is not

constant.

Aside

CALIBAN
    These be fine things,
an if
110
they be not sprites.

That’s a brave god and bears celestial liquor:

I will kneel to him.

STEPHANO
    How didst thou scape? How cam’st thou hither?

Swear by this bottle how thou cam’st hither. I escaped upon

a
butt of sack
115
which the sailors heaved o’erboard, by this

bottle which I made of the bark of a tree with mine own

hands since I was cast ashore.

CALIBAN
    I’ll swear upon that bottle to be thy true subject, for

the liquor is not earthly.

STEPHANO
    Here: swear then how thou escap’dst.

TRINCULO
    Swum ashore, man, like a duck: I can swim like a

duck, I’ll be sworn.

STEPHANO
    Here,
kiss the book.
123
Though thou canst swim like a

duck, thou art made like a
goose.
124

Gives Trinculo the bottle

TRINCULO
    O Stephano, hast any more of this?

STEPHANO
    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?

To Caliban

CALIBAN
    Hast thou not dropped from heaven?

STEPHANO
    Out o’th’moon, I do assure thee: I was the man

i’th’moon
when time was.
131

CALIBAN
    I have seen thee in her, and I do
adore
132
thee: my

mistress
showed me thee, and thy
dog, and thy bush.
133

STEPHANO
    Come, swear to that: kiss the book: I will furnish it

Gives Caliban the bottle

Swear.

Caliban drinks

TRINCULO
    By this
good light
, this is a very
shallow
137
monster! I

Aside?

afeard of him? A very weak monster! The man

i’th’moon? A most poor, credulous monster! Well
drawn
139
,

monster, in good
sooth!
140

CALIBAN
    I’ll show thee every fertile inch o’th’island: and I

will kiss thy foot. I prithee, be my god.

TRINCULO
    By this light, a most
perfidious
143
and drunken

monster! When’s god’s asleep, he’ll rob

Aside?

his bottle.

CALIBAN
    I’ll kiss thy foot: I’ll swear myself thy subject.

STEPHANO
    Come on then: down, and swear.

Caliban kneels

TRINCULO
    I shall laugh myself to death at this
puppy-headed
148

monster. A most scurvy monster! I could find in my heart to

beat him—

Aside?

STEPHANO
    Come, kiss.

To Caliban

TRINCULO
    —But that the poor monster’s
in drink
152
: an

abominable monster!

CALIBAN
    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
    A most ridiculous monster, to make a wonder of a

Aside?

poor drunkard!

CALIBAN
    I prithee, let me bring thee where
crabs
160
grow: and I

with my long nails will dig thee
pignuts
161
: show thee a jay’s

nest and instruct thee how to snare the nimble
marmoset
162
:

I’ll bring thee to clust’ring
filberts
163
, and sometimes I’ll get

thee young
scamels
164
from the rock. Wilt thou go with me?

STEPHANO
    I prithee, now lead the way without any more

talking. Trinculo, the king and all our company else being

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