Steph. Trinculo, if you trouble him any more in's tale, by this hand, I will supplant some of your teeth.

Trin. Why, I said nothing.

Steph. Mum, then, and no more. — [To CAL.] Proceed. Cal. I say, by sorcery he got this isle ; From me he got it. If thy Greatness will Revenge it on him, — for, I know, thou darest, But this thing dare not,

Steph.

That's most certain.

Cal. Thou shalt be lord of it, and I will serve thee. Steph. How now shall this be compass'd? Canst thou bring me to the party?

Cal. Yea, yea, my lord; I'll yield him thee asleep, Where thou mayst knock a nail into his head.

Ari. Thou liest; thou canst not.

Cal. What a pied ninny's this !8—Thou scurvy patch!

I do beseech thy Greatness, give him blows,

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 are.

Steph. Trinculo, run into no further danger: interrupt the monster one word further, and, by this hand, I'll turn my mercy out of doors, and make a stock-fish 10 of thee.

off.

Trin. Why, what did I? I did nothing.

Steph. Didst thou not say he lied?

Ari. Thou liest.

I'll go further

8 Pied is dappled or diversely-coloured. Trinculo is "an allowed Fool" or jester, and wears a motley dress. Patch refers to the same circumstance. 9 Quick freshes are living springs of fresh water.

10 A stock-fish appears to have been a thing for practising upon with the fist, or with a cudgel. Ben Jonson has it in Every Man in his Humour, iii. 2: "'Slight, peace! thou wilt be beaten like a stock-fish."

Steph. Do I so? take thou that. [Strikes him.] As you like this, give me the lie another time.

Trin. I did not give thee the lie. Out o' your wits and hearing too? A pox o' your bottle! this can sack and drinking do. A murrain on your monster, and the Devil

take your fingers!

Cal. Ha, ha, ha !

Steph. Now, forward with your tale. - Pry'thee stand further off.

Cal. Beat him enough: after a little time,

I'll beat him too.

Steph. Stand further. Come, proceed.

Cal. Why, as I told thee, 'tis a custom with him
I' the afternoon to sleep: then thou mayst brain him,11
Having first seized his books; or with a log
Batter his skull, or paunch him with a stake,
Or cut his weazand 12 with thy knife. Remember,
First to possess his books; for without them
He's but a sot,13 as I am, nor hath not
One spirit to command: they all do hate him
As rootedly as I. Burn but his books.

He has brave útensils, 14. - for so he calls them,
Which, when he has a house, he'll deck't withal :

11 That is, knock out his brains. So, in 1 Henry the Fourth, ii. 3, Hotspur says, "Zwounds! an I were now by this rascal, I could brain him with his lady's fan."

12 Weazand is windpipe or throat. So Spenser has weazand-pipe.

13 Sot, from the French, was frequently used for fool; as our word besotted sometimes is. The Poet has it repeatedly so.

14 Here utensils has the accent on the first and third syllables. Such, it is the English pronunciation of the word. So Wordsworth has it; and so Milton, in Paradise Regained, iii. 336:—

seems,

Mules after these, camels, and dromedaries,

And wagons, fraught with utensils of war.

And that most deeply to consider is

The beauty of his daughter; he himself
Calls her a nonpareil: I ne'er saw woman,
But only Sycorax my dam and she;

But she as far surpasseth Sycorax

As great'st does least.

Steph.

Cal. Ay, lord.

Is it so brave a lass?

Steph. Monster, I will kill this man: his daughter and 1 will be king and queen, save our Graces! - and Trinculo

and thyself shall be viceroys. — Dost thou like the plot, Trinculo?

Trin. Excellent.

Steph. Give me thy hand: I am sorry I beat thee; but, while thou livest, keep a good tongue in thy head.

Cal. Within this half-hour will he be asleep:

Wilt thou destroy him then?

Steph. Ay, on mine honour.

Ari. This will I tell my master.

Cal. Thou makest me merry; I am full of pleasure: Let us be jocund: will you troll the catch

You taught me but while-ere? 15

Steph. At thy request, monster, I will do reason,16 any Come on, Trunculo, let us sing.

reason.

Flout 'em and scout 'em, and scout'em and flout 'em;
Thought is free.

[Sings.

15 While-ere is awhile since. Milton has another form of it in the opening of Paradise Regained: "I who erewhile the happy garden sung," &c.A catch is a song in parts, where all the singers sing the same notes, but in such order as to make harmony, and where each in turn catches the others; sometimes called a round.-To troll is to roll or round out glibly or volubly, 16 That is, will do what is reasonable. See Hamlet, page 58, note 13.

Cal. That's not the tune.

[ARIEL plays the tune on a tabor and pipe

Steph. What is this same?

Trin. This is the tune of our catch, play'd by the picture of Nobody.17

Steph. If thou be'st a man, show thyself in thy likeness: if thou be'st a devil, — take't as thou list.18

Trin. O, forgive me my sins!

Steph. He that dies pays all debts: I defy thee. — Mercy upon us!

Cal. Art thou afeard?

Steph. No, monster, not I.

Cal. Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not.
Sometime 19 a thousand twangling 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.

Steph. This will prove a brave kingdom to me, where I shall have my music for nothing.

Cal. When Prospero is destroy'd.

Steph. That shall be by-and-by: I remember the story. Cal. The sound is going away; let's follow it,

And after do our work.

17 The picture of Nobody was a common sign, and consisted of a head upon two legs, with arms. There was also a wood-cut prefixed to an old play of Nobody and Somebody, which represented this personage.

18 Here Stephano probably shakes his fist at the invisible musician, or the supposed devil, by way of defiance or bravado.

19 Sometime, again, for sometimes. See page 92, note 4.

Steph. Lead, monster; we'll follow.

-I would I could

see this taborer ! 20 he lays it on. - Wilt come?

Trin. I'll follow, Stephano.

SCENE III.

- Another part of the Island.

[Exeunt.

Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN, FRANCISCO, and Others.

Gonza. By'r lakin,' I can go no further, sir;

My old bones ache: here's a maze trod, indeed,
Through forth-rights and meanders !2 by your patience,
I needs must rest me.

Alon.

Old lord, I cannot blame thee,

Who am myself attach'd with weariness,

To th' dulling of my spirits: sit down, and rest.
Even here I will put off my hope, and keep it
No longer for my flatterer: he is drown'd
Whom thus we stray to find; and the sea mocks
Our frustrate 3 search on land. Well, let him go.

20 "You shall heare in the ayre the sound of tabers and other instruments, to put the travellers in feare, by evill spirites that makes these soundes, and also do call diverse of the travellers by their names." Travels of Marcus Paulus, 1579. To some of these circumstances Milton also alludes in Comus:

Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire;

And aery tongues that syllable men's names

On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses.

1 By'r lakin is a contraction of by our ladykin, which, again, is a diminutive of our Lady. A disguised or softened form of swearing by the Blessed Virgin.

2 Forth-rights are straight lines; meanders, crooked ones.

3 Frustrate for frustrated, meaning baffled; in accordance with the usage remarked in note 43, page 56. Shakespeare has many preterite forms made in the same way, such as confiscate, consecrate, articulate, and suffocate. The usage still holds in a few words, as in situate.