The Tempest (11 page)

CALIBAN
    What a
pied
ninny’s this? Thou scurvy
patch
⁶⁰
—

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

further off.

CALIBAN
    Beat him
enough
⁷⁹
: after a little time,

I’ll beat him too.

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.

          
Flout ’em and scout ’em
¹¹⁷

          And scout ’em and flout ’em,

          Thought is free.

CALIBAN
    That’s not the tune.

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.

STEPHANO
    That shall be
by and by
: I remember the
story.
¹⁴³

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.

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.

Do not
for
one
repulse
forgo
¹³
the purpose

That you resolved t’effect.

SEBASTIAN
    The next advantage will we take thoroughly.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.