Enter CALIBAN with a burden of wood A
noise of thunder heard
CALIBAN enters with a load of wood. A
noise of thunder is heard.
CALIBAN
All the infections that the sun sucks up
From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall and make him
By inchmeal a disease! His spirits hear me
And yet I needs must curse. But they'll nor pinch,
5
Fright me with urchin-shows, pitch me i' th'
mire,
Nor lead me like a firebrand in the dark
Out of my way, unless he bid 'em. But
For every trifle are they set upon me,
Sometime like apes that mow and chatter at me,
10
And after bite me, then like hedgehogs which
Lie tumbling in my barefoot way and mount
Their pricks at my footfall. Sometime am I
All wound with adders who with cloven tongues
Do hiss me into madness.
CALIBAN
I hope all the diseases that breed in swamps and marshes infect
Prospero, inch by inch, until he's nothing but a walking
disease! His spirits are listening to me, but I can't
help cursing him anyway. They won't pinch me, frighten
me, push me in the mud, or mislead me unless he tells them to. But
he sends them to punish me for every little thing. Sometimes his
spirits take the form of apes, grimacing and chattering at me and
then biting me; sometimes they come like porcupines, my feet as I
walk. Sometimes snakes wrap around me, hissing at me with their
forked tongues till I go crazy.
Enter TRINCULO
TRINCULO enters.
Lo, now, lo!
15
Here comes a spirit of his, and to torment me
For bringing wood in slowly. I'll fall flat.
Perchance he will not mind me.
(lies down, covered by his gaberdine)
Hey, look over there! Here comes one of his spirits to torture me
for taking so long to bring the wood back. I'll lie down
and hide. Maybe he won't see me.
(he lies down and covers himself with his cloak)
TRINCULO
Here's neither bush nor shrub to bear off any weather
at all.
20
And another storm brewing, I hear it sing i'
th' wind. Yond same black cloud, yond huge one, looks
like a foul bombard that would shed his liquor. If it should thunder
as it did before, I know not where to hide my head. Yond same cloud
cannot choose but fall by pailfuls.
(sees
CALIBAN)
TRINCULO
There are no bushes or shrubs to protect me from the weather here.
And there's another storm brewing—I can hear
it in the way the wind whistles. That huge black cloud over there
looks like a filthy liquor jug that's about to pour out
its contents. It won't be able to help pouring rain down
by the bucket-full. (he sees
CALIBAN)
