Page images
PDF
EPUB

derbolt. [Thunder.] Alas! the storm is come again: my best way is to creep under his gaberdine 5; there is no other shelter hereabout: Misery acquaints a man with strange bed-fellows. I will here shroud, till the dregs of the storm be past.

Enter STEPHANO, singing; a Bottle in his hand. Ste. I shall no more to sea, to sea,

[graphic]
[ocr errors]

Here shall I die ashore;
This is a very scurvy tune to sing at a man's funeral:
Well, here's my comfort.
[Drinks.
The master, the swabber, the boatswain, and I,
The gunner, and his mate,

Lov'd Mall, Megg, 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 savour 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.

Cal. Do not torment me: 0!

Ste. What's the matter? Have we devils here? Do you put tricks upon us with savages, 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.

[graphic]

5 A gaberdine was a coarse outer garment. "A shepherd's pelt, frock, or gaberdine, such a coarse long jacket as our porters wear over the rest of their garments," says Cotgrave. "A kind of rough cassock or frock like an Irish mantle," says Philips. It is from the low Latin Galvardina, whence the French Galvardin and Gaban. One would almost think Shakspeare had been acquainted with the following passage in Chapman's version of the fourth Book of the Odyssey:

Cal. The spirit torments me: 0!

Ste. 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.

Cal. Do not torment me, pr'ythee; I'll bring my wood home faster.

Ste. 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 6, 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.

Cal. Thou dost me yet but little hurt: thou wilt Anon, I know it by thy trembling:

Now Prosper works upon thee.

Ste. 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.

Trin. I should know that voice: It should beBut he is drowned; and these are devils: O! defend me!

Ste. 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,

-Amen! I will pour some in thy other mouth. Trin. Stephano,

Ste. Doth thy other mouth call me? Mercy!

6 No impertinent hint to those who indulge in the constant use of wine. When it is necessary for them as a medicine, it produces no effect.

Any sum, ever so much, an ironical expression implying that he would get as much as he could for him.

mercy! This is a devil, and no monster: I will leave him; I have no long spoon 8.

Trin. Stephano!-If thou beest Stephano, touch me, and speak to me; for I am Trinculo; be not afeard, thy good friend Trinculo.

Ste. 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 9 of this mooncalf? Can he vent Trinculos?

Trin. I took him to be killed with a thunderstroke-But art thou not drowned, Stephano? I hope now, thou art not drowned. Is the storm overblown? I hid me under the dead moon-calf's 10 gaberdine, for fear of the storm: And art thou living, Stephano? O Stephano, two Neapolitans 'scap'd!

Ste. Pr'ythee, do not turn me about; my stomach is not constant.

Cal. These be fine things, an if they be not sprites. That's a brave god, and bears celestial liquor: I will kneel to him.

Ste. 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, which the sailors heaved over-board, by this bottle! which I made of the bark of a tree, with mine own hands, since I was cast a-shore.

Cal. I'll swear, upon that bottle, to be thy true subject; for the liquor is not earthly.

Ste. Here; swear then how thou escap'dst.

Trin. Swam a-shore, man, like a duck; I can swim like a duck, I'll be sworn.

[graphic]

8 Shakspeare gives his characters appropriate language, "They belch forth proverbs in their drink," "Good liquor will make a cat speak," and "he who eats with the devil had need of a long spoon." The last is again used in The Comedy of Errors, Act iv. Sc. 2.

9 Siege for stool, and in the dirtiest sense of the word,

10 The best account of the moon-calf may be found in Drayton's poem with that title.

Ste. Here, kiss the book: Though thou canst swim like a duck, thou art made like a goose. Trin. O Stephano, hast any more of this?

Ste. The whole butt, man; my cellar is in a rock by the sea-side, where my wine is hid. How now, moon-calf? how does thine ague?

Cal. Hast thou not dropped from heaven 11? Ste. Out o' the moon, I do assure thee: I was man in the moon 12, when time was.

Cal. I have seen thee in her, and I do adore thee; my mistress shewed me thee, and thy dog, and thy bush.

Ste. Come, swear to that: kiss the book: I will furnish it anon with new contents: swear.

Trin. By this good light, this is a very shallow monster:-I afeard of him?-a very weak monster: -The man i the moon?-a most poor credulous monster:-Well drawn, monster, in good sooth. Cal. I'll shew thee every fertile inch o' the island; And I will kiss thy foot: I pr'ythee, be my god. Trin. By this light, a most perfidious and drunken monster; when his god's asleep, he'll rob his bottle. Cal. I'll kiss thy foot: I'll swear myself thy subject. Ste. Come on then; down, and swear.

Trin. I shall laugh myself to death at this puppyheaded monster: A most scurvy monster! I could find in my heart to beat him,

Ste. Come, kiss.

[ocr errors]

Trin. but that the poor monster's in drink: An abominable monster!

Cal. I'll shew thee the best springs: I'll pluck thee berries:

thee wood enough.

I'll fish for thee, and get t

11 The Indians of the Island of S. Salvador asked by signs whether Columbus and his companions were not come down from heaven.

The reader may consult a curious note on this passage in Mr. Dauce's very interesting Illustrations of Shakspeare; where it is observed that Dante makes Cain the man in the moon with his bundle of sticks; or in other words describes the moon by the periphrasis "Caino e le spine.".

Vol. I.

A plague upon the tyrant that I serve!

I'll bear him no more sticks, but follow thee,
Thou wondrous man.

Trin. A most ridiculous monster; to make a wonder of a poor drunkard.

Cal. I pr'ythee, let me bring thee where crabs grow; And I with my long nails will dig thec pig-nuts; Shew thee a jay's nest, and instruct thee how To snare the nimble marmozet; I'll bring thee To clust'ring filberds, and sometimes I'll get thee Young sea-mells 13 from the rock: Wilt thou go

[graphic]

with me?

Ste. I pr'ythee now, lead the way, without any more talking.-Trinculo, the king and all our company else being drowned, we will inherit here. -Here; bear my bottle. Fellow Trinculo, we'll fill him by and by again.

Cal. Farewell, master; farewell, farewell.

[Sings drunkenly.

Trin. A howling monster; a drunken monster.
Cal. No more dams I'll make for fish;
Nor fetch in firing

[graphic]
[ocr errors]

1 Pope changed and to but here, without authority; we must read and in the sense of and yet.

« PreviousContinue »