Brick Shakespeare: The Comedies—A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Taming of the Shrew (43 page)

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

Farewell master; farewell, farewell!

TRINCULO

A howling monster: a drunken monster!

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?

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.

ACT III. Scene III (1–110).

P
rospero’s plan is moving smoothly on all fronts. He has pressed Ferdinand into servitude, which has given Ferdinand and Miranda time to speak together and fall quickly in love. Ariel is keeping an eye on Caliban and the drunken fools Stephano and Trinculo, who have gotten even drunker and have now decided to kill the master of the island, take the island for their own, and take his daughter as well. Ariel pranks them and makes them fight, but the fools are hardly a threat. Meanwhile, Alonso and the men continue their search for Ferdinand, while Sebastian and Antonio await their chance to kill him and Gonzalo.

GONZALO

By’r lakin, I can go no further, sir;

My old bones ache: here’s a maze trod indeed

Through forth-rights and meanders! By your patience,

I needs must rest me.

ALONSO

Old lord, I cannot blame thee,

Who am myself attach’d with weariness,

To the 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 search on land. Well, let him go.

ANTONIO

I am right glad that he’s so out of hope.

Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose

That you resolved to effect.

SEBASTIAN

The next advantage

Will we take throughly.

ANTONIO

Let it be to-night;

For, now they are oppress’d with travel, they

Will not, nor cannot, use such vigilance

As when they are fresh.

SEBASTIAN

I say, to-night: no more.

ALONSO

What harmony is this? My good friends, hark!

GONZALO

Marvellous sweet music!

ALONSO

Give us kind keepers, heavens! What were these?

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,

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—

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

Honest lord,

Thou hast said well; for some of you there present

Are worse than devils.