STE. If thou beest Trinculo, come forth; I'll pull thee by the leffer legs: if any be Trinculo's legs, these are they. Thou art very Trinculo, indeed: How cam'st thou to be the fiege of this moon-calf?3 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 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 conftant. 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 did'st thou 'scape? How cam'st thou hither? swear by this bottle, how thou cam'st hither. I escaped upon a butt of fack, which the failors heaved over-board, by this bottle! which I made of the bark of a tree, with mine own hands, fince I was caft a-fhore. CAL. I'll fwear, upon that bottle, to be thy True fubject; for the liquor is not earthly. 3 - to be the fiege of this moon-calf?] Siege fignifies stool in every sense of the word, and is here used in the dirtiest. So, in Holinshed, p. 705: " In this yeare also, a house on London Bridge, called the common flege, or privie, fell downe into the Thames." A moon-calf is an inanimate shapeless mass, supposed by Pliny to be engendered of woman only. See his Nat. Hift. B. X. ch. 64. Again, in Philemon Holland's Tranflation of Book XXX. ch. 14. edit. 1601 : there is not a better thing to diffolve and scatter moon-calves, and such like false conceptions in the wombe." STEEVENS. STE. Here; swear then how thou escap'dst.4 TRIN. Swam a-fhore, man, like a duck; I can swim 5 like a duck, I'll be sworn. STE. Here, kiss the book: Though thou canft swim like a duck, thou art made like a goose. TRIN. O Stephano, haft any more of this? STE. The whole butt, man; my cellar is in a rock by the fea-fide, where my wine is hid. How now, moon-calf? how does thine ague? CAL. Haft thou not dropped from heaven ?6 STE. Out o' the moon, I do affure thee: I was the man in the moon, when time was. CAL. I have seen thee in her, and I do adore thee; Cal. I'll fwear, upon that bottle, to be thy True Subject; &c. Ste. Here; fwear then how thou escap'dst.] The passage should probably be printed thus : Ste. [to Cal.] Here, swear then. (to Trin.] How escap'dst thou ? The speaker would naturally take notice of Caliban's proffered allegiance. Befides, he bids Trinculo kiss the book after he has anfwered the question; a fufficient proof of the rectitude of the proposed arrangement. RITSON. 5 I can swim-) I believe Trinculo is speaking of Caliban, and that we should read-"'a can swim," &c. See the next speech. MALONE. I do not perceive how Trinculo could answer for Caliban's expertness in swimming, having only lain under his gaberdine for an hour. Ritson's arrangement of the preceding line is well imagined. M. MASON. • Haft thou not dropped from heaven?] The new-discovered Indians of the ifland of St. Salvador, asked, by figns, whether Columbus and his companions were not come down from heawen. TOLLET. My mistress shewed me thee, thy dog, and bush.7 STE. Come, swear to that; kifs the book: I will furnish it anon with new contents: fwear. 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 footh. CAL. I'll shew thee every fertile inch o' the ifland; And kiss thy foot: I pr'ythee, be my god. 9 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 fwear myself thy fubject. STE. Come on then; down, and swear. TRIN. I fhall laugh myself to death at this puppyheaded monster: A most fcurvy monfter! I could find in my heart to beat him, STE. Come, kiss. 7 My mistress Shewed me thee, thy dog, and bush.] The old copy, which exhibits this and feveral preceding speeches of Caliban as profe, (though it be apparent they were defigned for verse,) reads" My mistress shewed me thee, and thy dog and thy bush." Let the editor who laments the lofs of the words-and and thy, compose their elegy. STEEVENS. 8 I afeard of him? a very weak monster: &c.] It is to be obferved, that Trinculo, the speaker, is not charged with being afraid; but it was his confciousness that he was so that drew this brag from him. This is nature. WARBURTON. • And kiss thy foot: I prythee, be my god.] The old copy redundantly reads: " And I will kiss thy foot," &c. RITSON. 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; I'll fish for thee, and get thee wood enough. 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 thee pig-nuts; 1 me? -Sea-mells-) This word has puzzled the commentators: Dr. Warburton reads shamois; Mr. Theobald would read any thing rather than fea-mells. Mr. Holt, who wrote notes upon this play, observes, that limpets are in some places called Scams, and therefore I had once fuffered scamels to stand. JOHNSON. Theobald had very reasonably proposed to read fea-malls, or fea-mells. An e, by these careless printers, was easily changed into a c, and from this accident, I believe, all the difficulty arises, the word having been spelt by the transcriber, feamels. Willoughby mentions the bird as Theobald has informed us. Had Mr. Holt told us in what part of England limpets are called Scams, more regard would have been paid to his affertion. I should suppose, at all events, a bird to have been design'd, as young and old fish are taken with equal facility; but young birds are more easily surprised than old ones. Besides, Caliban had already proffered to fish for Trinculo. In Cavendish's second voyage, the failors eat young gulls at the ifle of Penguins. STEEVENS. I have no doubt but Theobald's proposed amendment ought to be received. Sir Jofeph Banks informs me, that in Willoughby's, or rather John Ray's Ornithology, p. 34, No. 3, is mentioned STE. I pr'ythee now, lead the way, without any more talking.-Trinculo, the king and all our company elfe 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 At requiring, 2 Nor Scrape trenchering, nor wash dish; Has a new master-Get a new man.4 the common sea mall, Larus cinereus minor; and that young fea gulls have been esteemed a delicate food in this country, we learn from Plott, who, in his History of Staffordshire, p. 231, gives an account of the mode of taking a species of gulls called in that country pewits, with a plate annexed, at the end of which he writes, "they being accounted a good dish at the most plentiful tables." To this it may be added, that Sir Robert Sibbald in his Ancient State of the Shire of Fife, mentions, amongst fowls which frequent a neighbouring ifland, several forts of fea-malls, and one in particular, the katiewake, a fowl of the Larus or mall kind, of the bigness of an ordinary pigeon, which fome hold, says he, to be as favoury and as good meat as a partridge is. REED. 2 Nor fcrape trenchering,] In our author's time trenchers were in general use; and male domesticks were sometimes employed in cleansing them. "I have helped (fays Lyly, in his History of his Life and Times, ad an. 1620,) to carry eighteen tubs of water in one morning; -all manner of drudgery I willingly performed; Scrape-trenchers," &c. MALONE. 3 'Ban 'Ban, Ca-Caliban,] Perhaps our author remem bered a fong of Sir P. Sidney's: 4 Da, da, da-Daridan." Aftrophel and Stella, fol. 1627. MALONE, - Get a new man.] When Caliban fings this last part of his ditty, he must be supposed to turn his head scornfully toward the cell of Profpero, whose service he had deferted. STEEVENS. |