SCENE II. Another part of the island. The Tempest  Shakespeare homepage  |  The Tempest  | Act 2, Scene 2 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE II. Another part of the island. 

 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, 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' the mire, 

 Nor lead me, like a firebrand, 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  Here's neither bush nor shrub, to bear off 

 any weather at all, and another storm brewing; 

 I hear it sing i' the wind: yond same black 

 cloud, yond huge one, looks like a foul 

 bombard 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 lazy out ten to see a dead 

 Indian. Legged 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 suffered by a 

 thunderbolt. 



 Thunder  Alas, the storm is come again! my best way is to 

 creep under his gaberdine; there is no other 

 shelter hereabouts: 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  STEPHANO  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 

 Loved Mall, Meg and Marian and Margery, 

 But none of us cared for Kate; 

 For she had a tongue with a tang, 

 Would cry to a sailor, Go hang! 

 She loved not the savour of tar nor of pitch, 

 Yet a tailor might scratch her where'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  CALIBAN  Do not torment me: Oh! 

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

 tricks upon's with savages and men of Ind, 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 cannot make him give ground; 

 and it shall be said so again while Stephano 

 breathes at's nostrils. 

 CALIBAN  The spirit torments me; Oh! 

 STEPHANO  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  Do not torment me, prithee; I'll bring my wood home faster. 

 STEPHANO  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 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  Thou dost me yet but little hurt; thou wilt anon, I 

 know it by thy trembling: now Prosper works upon thee. 

 STEPHANO  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. 

 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 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. 

 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 spoon. 

 TRINCULO  Stephano! If thou beest Stephano, touch me and 

 speak to me: for I am Trinculo--be not afeard--thy 

 good friend Trinculo. 

 STEPHANO  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 

 camest thou to be the siege of this moon-calf? can 

 he vent 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? I hid me 

 under the dead moon-calf's gaberdine for fear of 

 the storm. And art thou living, Stephano? O 

 Stephano, two Neapolitans 'scaped! 

 STEPHANO  Prithee, do not turn me about; my stomach is not constant. 

 CALIBAN  [Aside]  These be fine things, an if they be 

 not sprites. 

 That's a brave god and bears celestial liquor. 

 I will kneel to him. 

 STEPHANO  How didst thou 'scape? How camest thou hither? 

 swear by this bottle how thou camest hither. I 

 escaped upon a butt of sack 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 escapedst. 

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

 duck, I'll be sworn. 

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

 duck, thou art made like a goose. 

 TRINCULO  O Stephano. hast any more of this? 

 STEPHANO  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? 

 CALIBAN  Hast thou not dropp'd from heaven? 

 STEPHANO  Out o' the moon, I do assure thee: I was the man i' 

 the moon when time was. 

 CALIBAN  I have seen thee in her and I do adore thee: 

 My mistress show'd me thee and thy dog and thy bush. 

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

 it anon with new contents swear. 

 TRINCULO  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! 

 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 and drunken 

 monster! when 's god's asleep, he'll rob his bottle. 

 CALIBAN  I'll kiss thy foot; I'll swear myself thy subject. 

 STEPHANO  Come on then; down, and swear. 

 TRINCULO  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  Come, kiss. 

 TRINCULO  But that the poor monster's in drink: 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 

 Poor drunkard! 

 CALIBAN  I prithee, let me bring thee where crabs grow; 

 And I with my long nails will dig thee pignuts; 

 Show thee a jay's nest and instruct thee how 

 To snare the nimble marmoset; I'll bring thee 

 To clustering filberts and sometimes I'll get thee 

 Young scamels 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 drowned, we will inherit here: here; 

 bear my bottle: fellow Trinculo, we'll fill him by 

 and by again. 

 CALIBAN  [Sings drunkenly] 

 Farewell master; farewell, farewell! 

 TRINCULO  A howling monster: a drunken monster! 

 CALIBAN  No more dams I'll make for fish 

 Nor fetch in firing 

 At requiring; 

 Nor scrape trencher, nor wash dish 

 'Ban, 'Ban, Cacaliban 

 Has a new master: get a new man. 

 Freedom, hey-day! hey-day, freedom! freedom, 

 hey-day, freedom! 

 STEPHANO  O brave monster! Lead the way. 



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