Thou thirty leagues, off and on, by this light. fhalt be my lieutenant, monfter, or my standard. TRIN. Your lieutenant, if you lift; he's no ftandard. 4 STE. We'll not run, monfieur monster. TRIN. Nor go neither: but you'll lie, like dogs; and yet fay nothing neither. STE. Moon-calf, fpeak once in thy life, if thou beeft a good moon-calf. CAL. How does thy honour? Let me lick thy fhoe: I'll not serve him, he is not valiant. TRIN. Thou lieft, moft ignorant monfter; I am in cafe to justle a constable: Why, thou debofh'd fish thou,' was there ever man a coward, the escape of a failor yet more incredible. Perhaps, in both inftances, a fneer was meant at the Voyages of Ferdinando Mendez Pinto, or the exaggerated accounts of other lying travellers: five days I was under water; and at length 4 "Got up and fpread myself upon a cheft, or my fandard. A& III. fc. v. Trin. Your lieutenant, if you lift; he's no ftandard.) Meaning, he is fo much intoxicated, as not to be able to stand. The quibble between standard, an enfign, and standard, a fruit-tree that grows without fupport, is evident. STEEVENS. thou debofh'd fish thou, ) I meet with this word, which I fuppose to be the fame as debauch'd, in Randolph's Jealous Lowersy 1634: -See, your house be ftor'd "With the deboifheft roarers in this city. Again, in Monfieur Thomas, 1639: faucy fellows, debofh'd and daily drunkards. » The fubftantive occurs in the Partheneia Sacra, 1633 : 66 manners. 1 A hater of men, rather than the deboifhments of their that hath drunk fo much fack as I to-day? Wilt thou tell a monftrous lie, being but half a fish, and half a monfter? CAL. Lo, how he mocks me ! wilt thou let him, my lord? TRIN. Lord, quoth he!-that a monfter fhould be fuch a natural ! CAL. Lo, lo again! bite him to death, I pr'ythee. STE. Trinculo, keep a good tongue in your head; if you prove a mutineer, the next tree-The poor monfter's my fubject, and he fhall not suffer indignity. CAL. I thank my noble lord. Wilt thou be pleas'd To hearken once again the fuit I made thee ?6 STE. Marry will I: kneel, and repeat it; I will ftand, and fo fhall Trinculo. Enter ARIEL, invifible. CAL. As I told thee Before, I am fubject to a tyrant ; When the word was firft adopted from the French language, it appears to have been fpelt according to the pronunciation, and therefore wrongly; but ever fince it has been fpelt right, it has been uttered with equal impropriety. ŠTEEVENS. 6 I thank my noble lord. Wilt thou be pleas'd To hearken once again the fuit I made thee?) The old copy, which erroneously prints this and other of Caliban's speeches as prose, reads — But the elliptical mode of expreffion in the text, has already occurred in the second scene of the firfl act of this play: a tyrant;) Tyrant is here employed as a trifyllable. STEEVENS. A forcerer, that by his cunning hath ARI. Thou lieft. CAL. Thou lieft, thou jefting monkey, thou; I would, my valiant master would destroy thee: I do not lie. STE. Trinculo, if you trouble him any more in his tale, by this hand, I will fupplant some of your teeth. TRIN. Why, I faid nothing. STE. Mum then, and no more. (To CALIBAN.) Proceed. CAL. I fay, by forcery he got this isle; From me he got it. Revenge it on him If thy greatnefs will for, 1 know, thou dar'ft; But this thing dare not, STE. That's moft certain. CAL. Thou shalt be lord of it, and I'll ferve thee. STE. How now fhall this be compass'd? Canft thou bring me to the party? CAL. Yea, yea, my lord; I'll yield him thee afleep, Where thou may'ft knock a nail into his head." CAL. What a py'd ninny's this? Thou scurvy I'll yield him thee asleep, Where thou may't knock a nail into his head.) Perhaps Shakfpeare caught this idea from the 4th Chapter of Judges, v. 21, Then Jael, Heber's wife, took a nail of the tent, and took a hammer in her hand, and went foftly unto him, and Smote the nail into his temples, &c. for he was fast asleep,» &c. STEEVENS. 8 What a py'd ninny's this?) It should be remembered that VOL. IV. H I do befeech thy greatness, give him blows, Where the quick freshes are. STE. Trinculo, run into no further danger: interrupt the monfter one word further, and, by this hand, I'll turn my mercy out of doors, and make a ftock-fifl of thee. TRIN. Why, what did I? I did nothing; I'll go further off. STE. Didft thou not fay, he lied? ARI. Thou lieft. STE. Do I fo? take thou that. (trikes him.) As you like this, give me the lie another time. A TRIN. I did not give the lie; - Out o' your wits, and hearing too? o' pox your bottle! this can fack, and drinking do. A murrain on your monfter, and the devil take your fingers! CAL. Ha, ha, ha! STE. Now, forward with your tale. Pr'ythee. ftand further off. CAL. Beat him enough: after a little time, I'll beat him too. STE. Stand further. Come, proceed. Trinculo is no failor, but a jefter; and is fo called in the ancient dramatis perfona. He therefore wears the party-colour'd drefs of one of thefe chara&ers. See fig. XII. in the plate annexed to the firft part of K. Henry IV. and Mr. Tollet's explanation of it. So, in the Devil's Law Cafe, 1623: "Unless I wear a py'd fool's coat." STEEVENS. Dr. Johufon obferves, that Caliban could have no knowledge of the ftriped coat ufually worn by fools: and would therefore transfer this fpeech to Stephano. But though Caliban might not know this circumftance, Shakspeare did. Surely he who has given to all countries and all ages the manners of his own, might forget himself here, as well as in other places. MALONE. CAL. Why, as I told thee, 'tis a cuftom with him I'the afternoon to fleep: there thou may'ft brain him, Having firft feiz'd his books; or with a log Batter his skull, or paunch him with a flake, Or cut his wezand with thy knife: Remember, Firft to poffefs his books; for without them He's but a fot, as I am, nor hath not One spirit to command: They all do hate him, As rootedly as I: Burn but his books; 9 Remember, First to poffefs his books; for without them He's but a fot, as I am, nor hath not One fpirit to command:) Milton, in his Mafque at Ludlot Caftle, feems to have caught a hint from the foregoing paffage: "Oh, ye miftook ye fhould have fnatch'd his wand, "And bound him faft; without his rod revers'd, And backward mutters of diffevering power, "We cannot free the lady. STEEVENS. And deeper than did ever plummet found, "I'll drown my book." In the old romances the forcerer is always furnished with a book, by reading certain parts of which he is enabled to fummou to his aid whatever dæmons or spirits he has occafion to employ. When he is deprived of his book, his power ceases. Our author might have obferved this circumftance much infifted on in the Orlando Innamorato of Boyardo, (of which, as the Rev. Mr. Bowle informs me, the first three Cantos were tranflated and published in 1598,) and alfo in Harrington's tranflation of the Orlando Furiofo, 1591. A few lines from the former of these works may prove the best illuftration of the paffage before us. Angelica, by the aid of Argalia, having bouud the enchanter Malagigi: The damfel fearcheth forthwith in his breast, But fpirits of th' ayre, earth, sea, came out of hand, |