The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works
Page 476
STEPHANO We’ll not run, Monsieur Monster.
TRINCULO Nor go, neither; but you’ll lie like dogs and
yet say nothing, neither.
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STEPHANO Mooncalf, speak once in thy life, if thou
be’st a good mooncalf.
CALIBAN How does thy honour? Let me lick thy shoe.
I’ll not serve him; he is not valiant.
TRINCULO Thou liest, most ignorant monster. I am in
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case to jostle a constable. Why thou deboshed fish,
thou, was there ever man a coward that hath drunk so
much sack as I today? Wilt thou tell a monstrous lie,
being but half a fish and half a monster?
CALIBAN Lo, how he mocks me. Wilt thou let him, my lord?
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TRINCULO ‘Lord’, quoth he? That a monster should be
such a natural!
CALIBAN Lo, lo again! Bite him to death, I prithee.
STEPHANO Trinculo, keep a good tongue in your head. If
you prove a mutineer – the next tree! The poor
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monster’s my subject, and he shall not suffer indignity.
CALIBAN I thank my noble lord. Wilt thou be pleased to
hearken once again to the suit I made to thee?
STEPHANO Marry, will I. Kneel and repeat it; I will
stand, and so shall Trinculo.
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Enter ARIEL, invisible.
CALIBAN As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant,
A sorcerer, that by his cunning hath
Cheated me of the island.
ARIEL [in Trinculo’s voice] Thou liest.
CALIBAN Thou liest, thou jesting monkey, thou.
I would my valiant master would destroy thee.
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I do not lie.
STEPHANO Trinculo, if you trouble him any more in’s
tale, by this hand, I will supplant some of your teeth.
TRINCULO Why, I said nothing.
STEPHANO Mum, then, and no more. Proceed.
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CALIBAN 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 dar’st,
But this thing dare not –
STEPHANO That’s most certain.
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CALIBAN Thou shalt be lord of it, and I’ll serve thee.
STEPHANO How now shall this be compassed? Canst
thou bring me to the party?
CALIBAN Yea, yea, my lord, I’ll yield him thee asleep,
Where thou mayst knock a nail into his head.
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ARIEL [in Trinculo’s voice] Thou liest, thou canst not.
CALIBAN
What a pied ninny’s this? 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
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Where the quick freshes are.
STEPHANO Trinculo, run into no further danger.
Interrupt the monster one word further, and by this
hand I’ll turn my mercy out o’doors and make a
stockfish of thee.
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TRINCULO Why, what did I? I did nothing. I’ll go farther off.
STEPHANO Didst thou not say he lied?
ARIEL [in Trinculo’s voice] Thou liest.
STEPHANO Do I so? Take thou that! [Hits Trinculo.] As
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you like this, give me the lie another time!
TRINCULO 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.
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CALIBAN Ha, ha, ha!
STEPHANO Now, forward with your tale. [to Trinculo]
Prithee, stand farther off.
CALIBAN Beat him enough; after a little time,
I’ll beat him too.
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STEPHANO [to Trinculo] Stand farther. [to Caliban]
Come, proceed.
CALIBAN Why, as I told thee, ’tis a custom with him
I’th’ afternoon to sleep. There thou mayst brain him,
Having first seized his books, or with a log
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Batter his skull, or paunch him with a stake,
Or cut his wezand with thy knife. Remember
First to possess his books, for without them
He’s but a sot, as I am, nor hath not
One spirit to command. They all do hate him
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As rootedly as I. Burn but his books.
He has brave utensils (for so he calls them)
Which, when he has a house, he’ll deck withal.
And that most deeply to consider is
The beauty of his daughter; he himself
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Calls her a nonpareil. 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 thy bed, I warrant,
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And bring thee forth brave brood.
STEPHANO Monster, I will kill this man. His daughter
and I will be king and queen – save our graces – and
Trinculo and thyself shall be viceroys. Dost thou like
the plot, Trinculo?
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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.
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ARIEL [aside] This will I tell my master.
CALIBAN Thou mak’st me merry; I am full of pleasure.
Let us be jocund. Will you troll the catch
You taught me but whilere?
STEPHANO At thy request, monster. I will do reason,
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any reason. Come on, Trinculo, let us sing.
[Sings.] Flout ’em and scout ’em,
And scout ’em and flout ’em,
Thought is free.
CALIBAN That’s not the tune.
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[Ariel plays the tune on a tabor and pipe.]
STEPHANO What is this same?
TRINCULO This is the tune of our catch, played by the
picture of Nobody.
STEPHANO If thou be’st a man, show thyself in thy
likeness. If thou be’st a devil, take’t as thou list.
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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.
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CALIBAN Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices,
That if I then had waked after long sleep,
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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,
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where I shall have my music for nothing.
CALIBAN When Prospero is destroyed.
STEPHANO That shall be by and by. I remember the story.
TRINCULO The sound is going away. Let’s follow it, and
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after do our work.
STEPHANO Lead, monster, we’ll follow. I would I could
see this taborer; he lays it on.
TRINCULO [to Caliban] Wilt come? I’ll follow Stephano. Exeunt.
3.3 Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN, FRANCISCO and others.
GONZALO By’r lakin, I can go no further, sir;
My old bones aches. Here’s a maze trod, indeed,
Through forthrights and meanders! By your patience,
I needs must rest me.
ALONSO Old lord, I cannot blame thee,
Who am myself attached with weariness
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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 drowned
Whom thus we stray to find, and the sea mocks
Our frustrate search on land. Well, let him go.
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ANTONIO [aside to Sebastian]
I am right glad that he’s so out of hope.
Do not, for one repulse, forgo the purpose
That you resolved t’effect.
SEBASTIAN [aside to Antonio] The next advantage
Will we take throughly.
ANTONIO Let it be tonight,
For now they are oppressed with travail; they
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Will not, nor cannot, use such vigilance
As when they are fresh.
SEBASTIAN I say tonight. No more.
Solemn and strange music, and PROSPERO on the top,
invisible. Enter several strange shapes, bringing in a
banquet, and dance about it with gentle actions of
salutations, and inviting the King etc. to eat, they depart.
ALONSO
What harmony is this? My good friends, hark!
GONZALO Marvellous sweet music!
ALONSO
Give us kind keepers, heavens! What were these?
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SEBASTIAN A living drollery! Now I will believe
That there are unicorns; that in Arabia
There is one tree, the phoenix’ throne, one phoenix
At this hour reigning there.
ANTONIO I’ll believe both;
And what does else want credit, come to me
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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, these are people of the island),
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Who, though they are of monstrous shape, yet note
Their manners are more gentle, kind, than of
Our human generation you shall find
Many – nay, almost any.
PROSPERO [aside] Honest lord,
Thou hast said well, for some of you there present
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Are worse than devils.
ALONSO I cannot too much muse
Such shapes, such gesture and such sound, expressing
(Although they want the use of tongue) a kind
Of excellent dumb discourse.
PROSPERO [aside] Praise in departing.
FRANCISCO They vanished strangely!
SEBASTIAN No matter, since
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They have left their viands behind, for we have
stomachs.
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
Dewlapped like bulls, whose throats had hanging at ’em
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Wallets 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 will bring us
Good warrant of?
ALONSO I will stand to and feed,
Although my last; no matter, since I feel
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The best is past. Brother, my lord the Duke,
Stand to and do as we.
Thunder and lightning. Enter ARIEL, like a harpy, claps his wings upon the table, and with a quaint device the banquet vanishes.
ARIEL You are three men of sin, whom destiny,
That hath to instrument this lower world
And what is in’t, the never-surfeited sea
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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 such-like valour, men hang and drown
Their proper selves.
[Alonso, Sebastian and Antonio draw their swords.]