Act 4, Scene 1

Before PROSPERO'S cell

[Enter PROSPERO! FERDINAND, and MIRANDA]
Prospero
1602 If I have too austerely punish'd you,
1603 Your compensation makes amends: for
1604 Have given you here a third of mine own life,
1605 Or that for which I live; who once again
1606 I tender to thy hand: all thy vexations
1607 Were but my trials of thy love, and thou
1608 Hast strangely stood the test: here, afore Heaven,
1609 I ratify this my rich gift. O Ferdinand!
1610 Do not smile at me that I boast her off,
1611 For thou shalt find she will outstrip all praise,
1612 And make it halt behind her.
Ferdinand
1613 I do believe it
1614 Against an oracle.
Prospero
1615 Then, as my gift and thine own acquisition
1616 Worthily purchas'd, take my daughter: but
1617 If thou dost break her virgin knot before
1618 All sanctimonious ceremonies may
1619 With full and holy rite be minister'd,
1620 No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall
1621 To make this contract grow; but barren hate,
1622 Sour-ey'd disdain, and discord, shall bestrew
1623 The union of your bed with weeds so loathly
1624 That you shall hate it both: therefore take heed,
1625 As Hymen's lamps shall light you.
Ferdinand
1626 As I hope
1627 For quiet days, fair issue, and long life,
1628 With such love as 'tis now, the murkiest den,
1629 The most opportune place, the strong'st suggestion
1630 Our worser genius can, shall never melt
1631 Mine honour into lust, to take away
1632 The edge of that day's celebration,
1633 When I shall think, or Phoebus' steeds are founder'd,
1634 Or Night kept chain'd below.
Prospero
1635 Fairly spoke:
1636 Sit, then, and talk with her, she is thine own.
1637 What, Ariel! my industrious servant, Ariel!
[Enter ARIEL]
Ariel
1638 What would my potent master? here I am.
Prospero
1639 Thou and thy meaner fellows your last service
1640 Did worthily perform; and I must use you
1641 In such another trick. Go bring the rabble,
1642 O'er whom I give thee power, here to this place;
1643 Incite them to quick motion; for I must
1644 Bestow upon the eyes of this young couple
1645 Some vanity of mine art: it is my promise,
1646 And they expect it from me.
Ariel
1647 Presently?
Prospero
1648 Ay, with a twink.
Ariel
1649 Before you can say 'Come' and 'Go,'
1650 And breathe twice; and cry 'so, so,'
1651 Each one, tripping on his toe,
1652 Will be here with mop and mow.
1653 Do you love me, master? no?
Prospero
1654 Dearly, my delicate Ariel. Do not approach
1655 Till thou dost hear me call.
Ariel
1656 Well, I conceive.
[Exit]
Prospero
1657 Look, thou be true; do not give dalliance
1658 Too much the rein: the strongest oaths are straw
1659 To th' fire i' the blood: be more abstemious,
1660 Or else good night your vow!
Ferdinand
1661 I warrant you, sir;
1662 The white-cold virgin snow upon my heart
1663 Abates the ardour of my liver.
Prospero
1664 Well.—
1665 Now come, my Ariel! bring a corollary,
1666 Rather than want a spirit: appear, and pertly.
1667 No tongue! all eyes! be silent.
[Soft music]
[A Masque. Enter IRIS]
Iris
1668 Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas
1669 Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats, and peas;
1670 Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep,
1671 And flat meads thatch'd with stover, them to keep;
1672 Thy banks with pioned and twilled brims,
1673 Which spongy April at thy hest betrims,
1674 To make cold nymphs chaste crowns; and thy broom groves,
1675 Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves,
1676 Being lass-lorn: thy pole-clipt vineyard;
1677 And thy sea-marge, sterile and rocky-hard,
1678 Where thou thyself dost air: the Queen o' the sky,
1679 Whose watery arch and messenger am I,
1680 Bids thee leave these; and with her sovereign grace,
1681 Here on this grass-plot, in this very place,
1682 To come and sport; her peacocks fly amain:
1683 Approach, rich Ceres, her to entertain.
[Enter CERES]
Ceres
1684 Hail, many-colour'd messenger, that ne'er
1685 Dost disobey the wife of Jupiter;
1686 Who with thy saffron wings upon my flowers
1687 Diffusest honey drops, refreshing showers:
1688 And with each end of thy blue bow dost crown
1689 My bosky acres and my unshrubb'd down,
1690 Rich scarf to my proud earth; why hath thy queen
1691 Summon'd me hither to this short-grass'd green?
Iris
1692 A contract of true love to celebrate,
1693 And some donation freely to estate
1694 On the blest lovers.
Ceres
1695 Tell me, heavenly bow,
1696 If Venus or her son, as thou dost know,
1697 Do now attend the queen? Since they did plot
1698 The means that dusky Dis my daughter got,
1699 Her and her blind boy's scandal'd company
1700 I have forsworn.
Iris
1701 Of her society
1702 Be not afraid. I met her deity
1703 Cutting the clouds towards Paphos and her son
1704 Dove-drawn with her. Here thought they to have done
1705 Some wanton charm upon this man and maid,
1706 Whose vows are, that no bed-rite shall be paid
1707 Till Hymen's torch be lighted; but in vain.
1708 Mars's hot minion is return'd again;
1709 Her waspish-headed son has broke his arrows,
1710 Swears he will shoot no more, but play with sparrows,
1711 And be a boy right out.
Ceres
1712 Highest Queen of State,
1713 Great Juno comes; I know her by her gait.
[Enter JUNO.]
Juno
1714 How does my bounteous sister? Go with me
1715 To bless this twain, that they may prosperous be,
1716 And honour'd in their issue.
[SONG]
Juno
1717 Honour, riches, marriage-blessing,
1718 Long continuance, and increasing,
1719 Hourly joys be still upon you!
1720 Juno sings her blessings on you.
Ceres
1721 Earth's increase, foison plenty,
1722 Barns and gamers never empty;
1723 Vines with clust'ring bunches growing;
1724 Plants with goodly burden bowing;
1725 Spring come to you at the farthest,
1726 In the very end of harvest!
1727 Scarcity and want shall shun you;
1728 Ceres' blessing so is on you.
Ferdinand
1729 This is a most majestic vision, and
1730 Harmonious charmingly; may I be bold
1731 To think these spirits?
Prospero
1732 Spirits, which by mine art
1733 I have from their confines call'd to enact
1734 My present fancies.
Ferdinand
1735 Let me live here ever:
1736 So rare a wonder'd father and a wise,
1737 Makes this place Paradise.
[JUNO and CERES whisper, and send IRIS on employment.]
Prospero
1738 Sweet now, silence!
1739 Juno and Ceres whisper seriously,
1740 There's something else to do: hush, and be mute,
1741 Or else our spell is marr'd.
Iris
1742 You nymphs, call'd Naiads, of the windring brooks,
1743 With your sedg'd crowns and ever-harmless looks,
1744 Leave your crisp channels, and on this green land
1745 Answer your summons: Juno does command.
1746 Come, temperate nymphs, and help to celebrate
1747 A contract of true love: be not too late.
[Enter certain NYMPHS]
Iris
1748 You sun-burn'd sicklemen, of August weary,
1749 Come hither from the furrow, and be merry:
1750 Make holiday: your rye-straw hats put on,
1751 And these fresh nymphs encounter every one
1752 In country footing.
[Enter certain Reapers, properly habited: they join]
Iris
1753 with the Nymphs in a graceful dance; towards the
1754 end whereof PROSPERO starts suddenly, and speaks;
1755 after which, to a strange, hollow, and confused
1756 noise, they heavily vanish.]
[Aside]
Prospero
1757 I had forgot that foul conspiracy
1758 Of the beast Caliban and his confederates
1759 Against my life: the minute of their plot
1760 Is almost come.
[To the Spirits.]
Prospero
1761 Well done! avoid; no
1762 more!
Ferdinand
1763 This is strange: your father's in some passion
1764 That works him strongly.
Miranda
1765 Never till this day
1766 Saw I him touch'd with anger so distemper'd.
Prospero
1767 You do look, my son, in a mov'd sort,
1768 As if you were dismay'd: be cheerful, sir:
1769 Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
1770 As I foretold you, were all spirits and
1771 Are melted into air, into thin air:
1772 And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
1773 The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
1774 The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
1775 Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
1776 And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
1777 Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
1778 As dreams are made on, and our little life
1779 Is rounded with a sleep.—Sir, I am vex'd:
1780 Bear with my weakness; my old brain is troubled.
1781 Be not disturb'd with my infirmity.
1782 If you be pleas'd, retire into my cell
1783 And there repose: a turn or two I'll walk,
1784 To still my beating mind.
Prospero
1785 FERDINAND, MIRANDA.
1786 We wish your peace.
[Exeunt.]
Prospero
1787 Come, with a thought.—
[To them.]
Prospero
1788 I thank thee:
1789 Ariel, come!
[Enter ARIEL.]
Ariel
1790 Thy thoughts I cleave to. What's thy pleasure?
Prospero
1791 Spirit,
1792 We must prepare to meet with Caliban.
Ariel
1793 Ay, my commander; when I presented Ceres,
1794 I thought to have told thee of it: but I fear'd
1795 Lest I might anger thee.
Prospero
1796 Say again, where didst thou leave these varlets?
Ariel
1797 I told you, sir, they were red-hot with drinking;
1798 So full of valour that they smote the air
1799 For breathing in their faces; beat the ground
1800 For kissing of their feet; yet always bending
1801 Towards their project. Then I beat my tabor;
1802 At which, like unback'd colts, they prick'd their ears,
1803 Advanc'd their eyelids, lifted up their noses
1804 As they smelt music: so I charm'd their ears,
1805 That calf-like they my lowing follow'd through
1806 Tooth'd briers, sharp furzes, pricking goss and thorns,
1807 Which enter'd their frail shins: at last I left them
1808 I' the filthy-mantled pool beyond your cell,
1809 There dancing up to the chins, that the foul lake
1810 O'erstunk their feet.
Prospero
1811 This was well done, my bird.
1812 Thy shape invisible retain thou still:
1813 The trumpery in my house, go bring it hither
1814 For stale to catch these thieves.
Ariel
1815 I go, I go.
[Exit]
Prospero
1816 A devil, a born devil, on whose nature
1817 Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains,
1818 Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost;
1819 And as with age his body uglier grows,
1820 So his mind cankers. I will plague them all,
1821 Even to roaring.
[Re-enter ARIEL, loaden with glistering apparel, &c.]
Prospero
1822 Come, hang them on this line.
[PROSPERO and ARIEL remain invisible. Enter CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO, all wet]
Caliban
1823 Pray you, tread softly, that the blind mole may not
1824 Hear a foot fall: we now are near his cell.
Stephano
1825 Monster, your fairy, which you say is a harmless
1826 fairy, has done little better than played the
1827 Jack with us.
Trinculo
1828 Monster, I do smell all horse-piss; at which my
1829 nose is in great indignation.
Stephano
1830 So is mine.—Do you hear, monster? If I should
1831 take a displeasure against you, look you,—
Trinculo
1832 Thou wert but a lost monster.
Caliban
1833 Good my lord, give me thy favour still:
1834 Be patient, for the prize I'll bring thee to
1835 Shall hoodwink this mischance: therefore speak softly;
1836 All's hush'd as midnight yet.
Trinculo
1837 Ay, but to lose our bottles in the pool!—
Stephano
1838 There is not only disgrace and dishonour in
1839 that, monster, but an infinite loss.
Trinculo
1840 That's more to me than my wetting: yet this is
1841 your harmless fairy, monster.
Stephano
1842 I will fetch off my bottle, though I be o'er
1843 ears for my labour.
Caliban
1844 Prithee, my king, be quiet. Seest thou here,
1845 This is the mouth o' the cell: no noise, and enter.
1846 Do that good mischief which may make this island
1847 Thine own for ever, and I, thy Caliban,
1848 For aye thy foot-licker.
Stephano
1849 Give me thy hand: I do begin to have bloody
1850 thoughts.
Trinculo
1851 O King Stephano! O peer! O worthy Stephano!
1852 Look what a wardrobe here is for thee!
Caliban
1853 Let it alone, thou fool; it is but trash.
Trinculo
1854 O, ho, monster! we know what belongs to a
1855 frippery.—O King Stephano!
Stephano
1856 Put off that gown, Trinculo; by this hand, I'll
1857 have that gown.
Trinculo
1858 Thy Grace shall have it.
Caliban
1859 The dropsy drown this fool! What do you mean
1860 To dote thus on such luggage? Let's along,
1861 And do the murder first. If he awake,
1862 From toe to crown he'll fill our skins with pinches;
1863 Make us strange stuff.
Stephano
1864 Be you quiet, monster.—Mistress line, is not
1865 this my jerkin? Now is the jerkin under the line: now,
1866 jerkin, you are like to lose your hair, and prove a bald
1867 jerkin.
Trinculo
1868 Do, do: we steal by line and level, an't like
1869 your Grace.
Stephano
1870 I thank thee for that jest: here's a garment
1871 for't: wit shall not go unrewarded while I am king of
1872 this country: 'Steal by line and level,' is an excellent
1873 pass of pate: there's another garmet for't.
Trinculo
1874 Monster, come, put some lime upon your fingers,
1875 and away with the rest.
Caliban
1876 I will have none on't. We shall lose our time,
1877 And all be turn'd to barnacles, or to apes
1878 With foreheads villainous low.
Stephano
1879 Monster, lay-to your fingers: help to bear this
1880 away where my hogshead of wine is, or I'll turn you out
1881 of my kingdom. Go to; carry this.
Trinculo
1882 And this.
Stephano
1883 Ay, and this.
[A noise of hunters beard. Enter divers Spirits, in shape of hounds, and hunt them about; PROSPERO and ARIEL setting them on]
Prospero
1884 Hey, Mountain, hey!
Ariel
1885 Silver! there it goes, Silver!
Prospero
1886 Fury, Fury! There, Tyrant, there! hark, hark!
[CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO are driven out.]
Prospero
1887 Go, charge my goblins that they grind their joints
1888 With dry convulsions; shorten up their sinews
1889 With aged cramps, and more pinch-spotted make them
1890 Than pard, or cat o' mountain.
Ariel
1891 Hark, they roar.
Prospero
1892 Let them be hunted soundly. At this hour
1893 Lies at my mercy all mine enemies;
1894 Shortly shall all my labours end, and thou
1895 Shalt have the air at freedom; for a little
1896 Follow, and do me service.
[Exeunt]

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Notes

TLN 1602archaic vocab
“too austerely punish'd you”
'Austerely' means harshly or severely. Prospero admits he may have been too strict in the log-bearing labour he set Ferdinand — the tasks were a deliberate test, not malice, which he now reveals.
TLN 1604syntax grammar
“a third of mine own life, Or that for which I live”
Prospero calls Miranda a 'third' of his own life — one of his three dearest things. Editors read the three as his dukedom, his books of learning, and his daughter. The compressed syntax ('for which I live') makes Miranda equal to his whole reason for living.
TLN 1606archaic vocab
“I tender to thy hand”
'Tender' here is a verb meaning to offer formally or present. Prospero is solemnly giving Miranda's hand in marriage to Ferdinand — a legal and ceremonial act, not merely a gesture.
TLN 1617cultural context
“break her virgin knot before All sanctimonious ceremonies”
Prospero forbids Ferdinand to have sex with Miranda before a full church wedding. The 'virgin knot' means her chastity; 'sanctimonious ceremonies' means sacred, duly performed rites. Elizabethan custom distinguished a betrothal (which could be secret) from the church ceremony — Prospero insists on the full public rite, not just a private contract.
TLN 1620archaic vocab
“No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall”
'Aspersion' here means a sprinkling or shower of blessing — literally, rain from heaven. Prospero warns that if Ferdinand breaks this condition, the skies will withhold their fertile dew. The word still survives (in 'casting aspersions') but its original sense is a sprinkling of liquid.
TLN 1625classical allusion
“As Hymen's lamps shall light you”
Hymen was the Roman god of marriage, traditionally invoked at weddings. His 'lamps' or torches were carried in the wedding procession; a torch that burned brightly and cleanly was an omen of a happy marriage, while one that smoked or went out foretold misfortune. Prospero is saying: 'as truly as your wedding torches will burn.'
TLN 1629cultural context
“the strong'st suggestion Our worser genius can”
In classical and Renaissance belief every person had two attendant spirits: a good genius guiding toward virtue and an evil one tempting toward sin. Ferdinand's 'worser genius' is his inner tempter — the impulse toward lust. Even the most powerful suggestion that spirit could make, he says, will not break his vow.
TLN 1633classical allusion
“or Phoebus' steeds are founder'd, Or Night kept chain'd below”
Phoebus (Apollo) was the sun-god, believed to drive a chariot drawn by four horses ('steeds') across the sky each day. Ferdinand says he will wish his wedding night were already here so intensely that he would imagine either that the sun-horses had gone lame ('founder'd') or that Night herself were chained underground — both impossible events that would make the day last forever, to his frustration.
TLN 1641archaic vocab
“Go bring the rabble, O'er whom I give thee power”
'Rabble' here does not mean a disorderly mob of people but Prospero's lower-ranking spirits — the lesser sprite-servants, a step below Ariel. He gives Ariel authority over them to marshal them for the masque.
TLN 1644archaic vocab
“Bestow upon the eyes of this young couple Some vanity of mine art”
'Vanity' here means a display or spectacle — something that shows off skill, not something morally empty. Prospero is calling the masque a demonstration of his magical powers. The word had a range of senses in Shakespeare's time, from 'trifle' to 'spectacle' to 'illusion.'
TLN 1648archaic vocab
“Ay, with a twink”
A 'twink' is a twinkling, the time it takes to blink once. Prospero means 'instantly.' The word is a shortened form of 'twinkling' (as in 'in the twinkling of an eye'), used for extreme speed.
TLN 1651archaic vocab
“tripping on his toe, Will be here with mop and mow”
'Mop and mow' means grimaces and mocking faces — the contorted expressions spirits were imagined to make. Ariel is describing the lesser sprites dancing in, making funny faces. A 'mow' is a grotesque grimace; 'mop' appears to be a variant.
TLN 1665archaic vocab
“bring a corollary, Rather than want a spirit”
A 'corollary' here means an extra one, a surplus — 'bring one too many rather than come up short.' The word normally means an additional conclusion in logic or mathematics; Shakespeare uses it here for 'a spare, an overflow.' Prospero is telling Ariel to bring more spirits than strictly needed rather than risk having too few for the masque.
TLN 1668classical allusion
“Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas”
The betrothal masque opens with Iris, goddess of the rainbow and Juno's messenger, summoning Ceres, goddess of grain and harvest, to join in blessing Ferdinand and Miranda. Iris's speech catalogues Ceres's domains — grain-fields, mountains, vineyards, the seashore — before conveying Juno's invitation. This is a formal Jacobean court masque, a genre of sung allegory with gods as characters, commissioned for great aristocratic occasions.
classical Iris, goddess of the rainbowclassical Ceres and the rape of Proserpina
TLN 1671archaic vocab
“flat meads thatch'd with stover”
'Stover' is winter fodder for cattle — hay or other dried grass stored to feed animals through the cold months. The image is of flat meadows covered so thickly with fodder-grass that they look thatched. It is a deliberately pastoral, agricultural picture of Ceres's domain.
TLN 1675archaic vocab
“dismissed bachelor loves, Being lass-lorn”
A 'dismissed bachelor' is a rejected suitor — a man whose love has been turned away. 'Lass-lorn' means abandoned or bereft of his lass (girl). The deserted lover shelters in the shade of broom-bushes, a detail that quietly humanizes the natural world Iris is describing as Ceres's realm.
TLN 1686classical allusion
“thy saffron wings upon my flowers Diffusest honey drops, refreshing showers: And with each end of thy blue bow”
Ceres greets Iris by describing her visual attributes: saffron-yellow wings (the warm color of sunrise), blue rainbow-bow, and the rain she scatters like honey-drops. Iris was the goddess of the rainbow and this description maps the actual rainbow's colors onto her body. 'Each end of thy blue bow' means each foot of the rainbow arch.
classical Iris, goddess of the rainbow
TLN 1697classical allusion
“Since they did plot The means that dusky Dis my daughter got, Her and her blind boy's scandal'd company I have forsworn”
Ceres explains why she fears the company of Venus and Cupid: Venus ('her') and Cupid ('her blind boy') conspired with Dis — the dark god of the underworld (Greek Pluto, Roman Dis) — to arrange the abduction of Ceres's daughter Proserpina. Dis seized Proserpina and made her queen of the dead; her mother's grief blighted the earth. Ceres has sworn off Venus and Cupid ever since. 'Scandal'd' means disgraced, shameful.
classical Ceres and the rape of Proserpinaclassical Cupid's golden and leaden arrows
TLN 1702classical allusion
“I met her deity Cutting the clouds towards Paphos”
Paphos was a city on Cyprus that was the chief seat of worship of Venus; her most famous temple there made the place synonymous with the goddess herself. Iris says she saw Venus flying toward Paphos, which means Venus is heading home rather than meddling in the island's betrothal. Her absence safely clears the masque of erotic desire.
TLN 1708classical allusion
“Mars's hot minion is return'd again; Her waspish-headed son has broke his arrows, Swears he will shoot no more, but play with sparrows”
Iris calls Venus 'Mars's hot minion' — his passionate favorite or darling, referring to their famous adulterous love affair. Her 'waspish-headed' (irritable, stinging) son Cupid has broken his bow and arrows in frustration because Ferdinand and Miranda have pledged chastity before marriage and his enchantments could not take hold. Cupid will now play with sparrows (the birds sacred to Venus) like an ordinary boy, not a god of love.
classical Cupid's golden and leaden arrows
TLN 1712classical allusion
“Highest Queen of State, Great Juno comes; I know her by her gait”
Juno, queen of the gods, is identified by the stately majesty of her walk — her 'gait.' In Virgil, Aeneas recognizes goddesses by their heavenly manner of walking; here Ceres identifies Juno the same way. Juno presides over the masque as goddess of marriage, making her the appropriate deity to bless the betrothal.
classical Juno, queen of the gods
TLN 1742classical allusion
“You nymphs, call'd Naiads, of the windring brooks”
Naiads were the fresh-water nymphs of Greek and Roman mythology — semi-divine beings who inhabited springs, rivers, and streams. Iris summons them from their winding ('windring') channels to dance with the harvest reapers. 'Windring' is a variant of 'winding'; the Naiads' brooks twist and meander as they flow.
TLN 1769rhetorical device
“Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air”
This speech, one of the most famous in Shakespeare, uses the sudden collapse of the masque to meditate on impermanence. The theatrical metaphor — actors, spirits, the 'baseless fabric of this vision' — dissolves outward from the masque to every great human structure ('cloud-capp'd towers,' 'gorgeous palaces,' 'the great globe itself') to human life. The rhetorical figure is amplificatio or gradatio: each phrase expands the scale of the dissolution, building from a performance to the entire world.
TLN 1793cultural context
“when I presented Ceres”
Ariel reveals that he personally 'presented' Ceres in the masque — that is, he played the role of the goddess. This collapses the theatrical frame: the divine figures the audience and Ferdinand saw were Prospero's spirits in costume, including Ariel himself. 'Present' in Elizabethan and Jacobean usage meant to perform or impersonate a character on stage.
TLN 1801rhetorical device
“I beat my tabor; At which, like unback'd colts, they prick'd their ears, Advanc'd their eyelids, lifted up their noses As they smelt music: so I charm'd their ears, That calf-like they my lowing follow'd through”
Ariel's account of leading Stephano, Trinculo, and Caliban uses sustained animal comparisons. They respond to his tabor (small drum) like 'unback'd colts' — young horses never yet ridden, skittish and uncontrolled — then follow him 'calf-like' to his 'lowing' (a cow's moan). The degradation of the conspirators to livestock is deliberate: their drunkenness makes them behave like beasts, and Ariel herds them like cattle.
TLN 1814archaic vocab
“For stale to catch these thieves”
A 'stale' is a lure or decoy — something used to attract prey into a trap. Prospero plans to use the glittering clothes ('trumpery') hanging on the line as bait to distract and delay the conspirators. The word comes from falconry and hunting: a 'stale' was a bird or animal used to lure game within range.
TLN 1816cultural context
“A devil, a born devil, on whose nature Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains, Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost”
Prospero's soliloquy over Caliban is the play's sharpest statement of the nature-versus-nurture debate: Caliban's 'nature' (his inborn, inherited character) cannot be altered by 'nurture' (education, civilization, care). The effort to teach Caliban — language, knowledge, care — has been 'all lost.' This was the central question in Elizabethan and Jacobean colonial writing: could indigenous peoples be 'civilized' by European culture, or was their nature fixed?
historical Montaigne, 'Of the Cannibals'
TLN 1826wordplay
“has done little better than played the Jack with us”
To 'play the Jack' means to play the knave, trick or swindle someone. 'Jack' was a common name for a rogue, a low fellow, or a mischief-maker (as in 'flapjack,' 'jack-knave,' 'jack-a-napes'). Stephano is complaining that Ariel's music led them into the filthy pond instead of to Prospero's cell.
TLN 1851rhetorical device
“O King Stephano! O peer! O worthy Stephano!”
Trinculo's exclamation echoes the popular ballad 'King Stephen Was a Worthy Peer,' a drinking song about a monarch who valued plain cloth over fine velvet. Here the irony is sharp: Trinculo sings the refrain of a song celebrating contempt for fine clothes at the exact moment they are both distracted by fine clothes. 'Peer' means a noble — he is hailing Stephano as king and nobleman at once.
TLN 1854archaic vocab
“we know what belongs to a frippery”
A 'frippery' was a secondhand-clothes shop — a place that sold worn or cast-off garments. Trinculo is boasting that he and Stephano know their way around a clothes-dealer's stall, implying they are experienced with fine or stolen clothes. The word also meant cheap finery or old rags, adding a layer of comic self-deprecation.
TLN 1859archaic vocab
“The dropsy drown this fool! What do you mean To dote thus on such luggage?”
Caliban curses Trinculo with 'the dropsy' — a disease involving the body swelling with fluid (now called oedema). It was an apt curse for a drunkard (the swelling was associated with excess liquid). 'Luggage' means cumbersome baggage or rubbish — Caliban scorns the fine clothes as worthless junk that will get them caught.
TLN 1874archaic vocab
“put some lime upon your fingers, and away with the rest”
To 'lime' someone's fingers means to make them sticky for theft, like bird-lime — a sticky substance smeared on branches to catch birds. It was a common metaphor for sticky-fingered thieves. Trinculo is telling Caliban to help steal the remaining clothes by picking them up; the birdlime image mocks Caliban as a birdbrain caught in his own trap.
TLN 1877cultural context
“turn'd to barnacles, or to apes With foreheads villainous low”
Caliban fears Prospero will transform them as punishment. 'Barnacles' here likely means barnacle geese — birds that, in popular Elizabethan belief, hatched from barnacle shells on driftwood, and were seen as a low or degraded form of life. 'Apes with foreheads villainous low' invokes the belief that low foreheads indicated stupidity or brutishness — apes were the type of the senseless, imitative animal.
TLN 1884cultural context
“Hey, Mountain, hey! Silver! there it goes, Silver! Fury, Fury! There, Tyrant, there!”
Mountain, Silver, Fury, and Tyrant are the names of Prospero's spirit-hounds. Naming hounds was standard practice, and the names chosen — Mountain (rough terrain), Silver (speed or color), Fury (ferocity), Tyrant (absolute dominance) — reflect the qualities desired in a hunting pack. The scene mimics the sensory chaos of a real hunt, with two voices calling hounds by name.
TLN 1889archaic vocab
“more pinch-spotted make them Than pard, or cat o' mountain”
A 'pard' is a leopard or panther, and a 'cat o' mountain' (mountain cat) is a wildcat or possibly a lynx — both spotted animals. Prospero orders that the conspirators' skin be left covered with 'pinch-spots' (bruises from the goblin-pinches he commands) more densely spotted than the patterned coats of these wild cats. 'Pinch-spotted' is his coinage for a bruised, blotched hide.