STE. Come on your ways; open your mouth; here is that which will give language to you, cat;8 open your mouth: this will fhake your fhaking, I can tell you, and that foundly: you cannot tell who's your friend; open your chaps again. TRIN. I fhould know that voice: It fhould be-But he is drowned; and these are devils: O! defend me !- STE. Four legs, and two voices; a moft delicate monfter! His forward voice now is to fpeak well of his friend; his backward voice is to utter foul fpeeches, and to detract. If all the wine in my bottle will recover him, I will help his ague: Come,- -Amen! I will pour fome in thy other mouth. TRIN. Stephano, STE. Doth thy other mouth call me? Mercy! mercy! This is a devil, and no monfter: I will leave him; I have no long fpoon.2 TRIN. Stephano !-if thou beeft Stephano, touch me, and fpeak to me; for I am Trinculo;-be not afeard,-thy good friend Trinculo. cat;] Alluding to an old proverb, that good liquor will make a cat fpeak. STEEVENS. 9 His forward voice &c.] The perfon of Fame was anciently defcribed in this manner. So, in Penelope's Web, by Greene, 1601 "Fame hath two faces, readie as well to back-bite as to flatter." STEEVENS. I Amen!] Means, ftop your draught: come to a conclufion. I will pour fome, &c. STEEVENS. 2 I have no long Spoon.] Alluding to the proverb, Along Spoon to eat with the devil." STEEVENS. See Comedy of Errors, A&t IV. fc. iii. and Chaucer's Squier's Tale, 10,916 of the late edit. "Therefore behoveth him a full long spoone, TYRWHITT. STE. If thou beeft 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'ft thou to be the fiege of this moon-calf? Can he vent Trinculos? TRIN. I took him to be killed with a thunderftroke-But art thou not drowned, Stephano? I hope now, thou art not drowned. Is the ftorm 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 ftomach is not conftant. CAL. These be fine things, an if they be not fprites. That's a brave god, and bears celestial liquor: STE. How did'ft thou 'fcape? How cam'ft thou hither? fwear by this bottle, how thou cam'st hither. I efcaped upon a butt of fack, which the failors heayed 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. in to be the fege of this moon-calf?] Siege fignifies tool every fenfe of the word, and is here used in the dirtieft. So, in Holinfhed, p. 705: "In this yeare alfo, a house on London Bridge, called the common fiege, or privie, fell downe into the Thames." A moon-calf is an inanimate shapeless mass, fuppofed 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 fcatter moon-calves, and such like false conceptions in the wombe." STEEVENS. STE. Here; fwear then how thou escap'dft.4 TRIN. Swam a-fhore, man, like a duck; I can fwim 5 like a duck, I'll be fworn. STE. Here, kifs the book: Though thou canst fwim like a duck, thou art made like a goofe. 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 feen thee in her, and I do adorę thee; Cal. I'll fwear, upon that bottle, to be thy True fubject; &c. Ste. Here; fwear then how thou efcap'dft.] The paffage fhould probably be printed thus: Ste. [to Cal.] Here, fwear then. [to Trin.] How escap'dft thou? The speaker would naturally take notice of Caliban's proffered allegiance. Befides, he bids Trinculo kifs the book after he has answered the question; a fufficient proof of the rectitude of the propofed arrangement. RITSON. I can fwim-] I believe Trinculo is fpeaking of Caliban, and that we should read—“ 'a can fwim," &c. See the next fpeech. MALONE. I do not perceive how Trinculo could anfwer for Caliban's expertness in swimming, having only lain under his gaberdine for an hour. Ritfon's arrangement of the preceding line is well imagined. M. MASON. Haft thou not dropped from heaven ?] The new-difcovered Indians of the island of St. Salvador, afked, by figns, whether Columbus and his companions were not come down from heaven. TOLLET. My mistress fhewed me thee, thy dog, and bufh.7 STE. Come, fwear to that; kifs the book: I will furnish it anon with new contents: fwear. TRIN. By this good light, this is a very fhallow monfter:-I afeard of him?-a very weak monfter:-The man i' the moon?-a moft poor credulous monster :-Well drawn, monfter, in good footh. . CAL. I'll fhew thee every fertile inch o' the ifland; And kifs thy foot: I pr'ythee, be my god.9 TRIN. By this light, a moft perfidious and drunken monster; when his god's asleep, he'll rob his bottle. CAL. I'll kif's thy foot: I'll fwear myself thy fubject. STE. Come on then; down, and fwear. TRIN. I fhall laugh myfelf to death at this puppyheaded monfter: A moft fcurvy monfter! I could find in my heart to beat him, STE. Come, kifs. My mifirefs fhewed me thee, thy dog, and bush.] The old copy, which exhibits this and several preceding speeches of Caliban as profe, (though it be apparent they were defigned for verfe,) reads "My miftrefs fhewed me thee, and thy dog and thy bush." Let the editor who laments the lofs of the words—and and thy, compofe their elegy. STEEVENS. " I afeard of him ?-a very weak monster: &c.] It is to be obferved, that Trinculo, the fpeaker, is not charged with being afraid; but it was his consciousness that he was so that drew this brag from him. This is nature. WARBURTON. And kifs thy foot: I prythee, be my god.] The old copy redundantly reads: And I will kifs thy foot," &c. RITSON. TRIN. but that the poor monster's in drink: An abominable monster ! CAL. I'll fhew thee the beft fprings; I'll pluck I'll fish for thee, and get thee wood enough. I'll bear him no more sticks, but follow thee, TRIN. A moft ridiculous monfter; 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; To fnare the nimble marmozet; I'll bring thee -fea-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, obferves, that limpets are in fome places called Scams, and therefore I had once fuffered scamels to stand. JOHNSON. Theobald had very reasonably propofed to read fea-malls, or fea-mells. An e, by thefe carelefs printers, was eafily changed into a c, and from this accident, I believe, all the difficulty arifes, the word having been fpelt by the tranfcriber, feamels. Willoughby mentions the bird as Theobald has informed us. Had Mr. Holt told us in what part of England limpets are called fcams, more regard would have been paid to his affertion. I fhould fuppofe, 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 eafily furprised than old ones. Befides, Caliban had already proffered to fish for Trinculo. In Cavendith's fecond voyage, the failors eat young gulls at the ifle of Penguins. STEEVENS. I have no doubt but Theobald's propofed amendment ought to be received. Sir Joseph Banks informs me, that in Willoughby's, or rather John Ray's Ornithology, p. 34, No. 3, is mentioned |