Now Profper works upon thee. 2 STE. Come on your ways; open your mouth; here is that which will give language to you, cat; open your mouth: this will shake 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 should beBut he is drown'd; and thefe are devils: O! defend me! STE. Four legs, and two voices; a moft delicate monfter! His forward voice' now is to speak 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 spoon." reprefented as the effect of being poffefs'd by the devil. So, in the Comedy of Errors: 2 "Mark how he trembles in his extacy!" STEEVENS. -cat;] Alluding to an old proverb, that good liquor will make a cat fpeak. STEEVENS. 3 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. -Amen!] Means, ftop your draught: come to a conclufion. I will pour fome," &c. STEEVENS. I have no long Spoon.] Alluding to the proverb, A long Spoon to eat with the devil. STEEVENS. See Comedy of Errors, Act IV. fc. iii. and Chaucer's Squier's Tale, 10916 of the late edit. "Therefore behoveth him a full long spone, TYRWHITT. TRIN. Stephano!-if thou beeft Stephano, touch me, and speak to me; for I am Trinculo;-be not afeard,-thy good friend Trinculo. 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 kill'd with a thunderftroke-But art thou not drown'd, Stephano? I hope now, thou art not drown'd. Is the storm over-blown? I hid me under the dead moon-calf's gaberdine, for fear of the ftorm: And art thou living, Stephano? O Stephano, two Neapolitans 'fcap'd! STE. Pr'ythee, do not turn me about; my ftomach is not constant. CAL. Thefe be fine things, an if they be not fprites. That's a brave god, and bears celeftial liquor: STE. How did❜ft thou 'fcape? How cam'ft thou hither? fwear by this bottle, how thou cam'st hither. I efcap'd upon a butt of fack, which the failors heav'd over-board, by this bottle! which I made of the bark of a tree, with mine own hands, fince I was caft a-shore. 6to be the fiege of this moon-calf?] Siege fignifies flool in every fenfe of the word, and is here used in the dirtieit. 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 shapelefs mafs, fuppofed by Pliny to be engendered of woman only. See his Nat. Hift. b. x. ch. 64. STEEVENS, CAL. I'll fwear, upon that bottle, to be thy True fubject; for the liquor is not earthly. STE. Here; fwear then how thou escap'dft. TRIN. Swam a-fhore, man, like a duck; I can fwim' 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 dropp'd from heaven? 8 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 adore thee: My mistress fhew'd me thee, thy dog, and bush. 6 Cal. I'll fwear, upon that bottle, to be thy True fubject, &c. Ste. Here; fwear then how thou efcap'dft.] The paffage should probably be printed thus: Ste. [to Cal.] Here, fwear then. [to Trin.] How efcap'dft thou? The fpeaker would naturally take notice of Caliban's proffered allegiance. Befides, he bids Trinculo kifs the book after he has anfwered the queftion; a fufficient proof of the rectitude of the propofed arrangement. RITSON. ? I can frim-] I believe Trinculo is fpeaking of Caliban, and that we should read-" 'a can fwim," &c. See the next fpeech. MALONE. Haft thou not dropp'd 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. 9 My mifirefs fhew'd me thee, thy dog, and bufb.] The old copy, which exhibits this and feveral preceding fpeeches of Caliban as 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 shallow monster:-I afeard of him?-a very weak monfter:-The man i' the moon?-a most poor credulous monfter:-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.' TRIN. By this light, a moft perfidious and drunken monster; when his god's afleep, he'll rob his bottle. CAL. I'll kifs thy foot: I'll fwear myself thy fubject. STE. Come on then; down, and swear. TRIN. I fhall laugh myself to death at this puppy-headed monfter: A moft fcurvy monfter! I could find in my heart to beat him,— STE. Come, kifs. TRIN. but that the poor monfter's in drink: An abominable monfter! CAL. I'll fhew thee the beft fprings; I'll pluck thee berries; profe (though it be apparent they were defigned for verfe,) readsMy mitrefs fhew'd 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. 2 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 fo tl at drew this brag from him. This is nature. WARBURTON. 3 And kifs thy foot: I pr'ythee be my god.] The old copy redundantly reads: "And I will kifs thy foot," &c. RITSON. I'll fish for thee, and get thee wood enough. I'll bear him no more fticks, but follow thee, TRIN. A moft ridiculous monfter; to make a wonder of a poor drunkard. CAL. I pry'thee, let me bring thee where crabs grow; And I with my long nails will dig thee pig-nuts; Shew thee a jay's neft, and inftruct thee how To fnare the nimble marmozet; I'll bring thee To cluft'ring filberds, and fometimes I'll get thee Young fea-mells from the rock: Wilt thou go with me? —fea-mells—] This word has puzzled the commentators: Dr. Warburton reads fhamois; 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 fcamels to ftand. JOHNSON. Theobald had very reasonably proposed to read fea-malls, or fea-mells. An e, by thefe carelefs printers, was easily changed into a c, and from this accident, I believe, all the difficulty arifes, the word having been spelt 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 defign'd, as young and old fish are taken with equal facility; but young birds are more easily furprifed than old ones. Befides, Caliban had already proffered to fish for Trinculo. In Cavendifh'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 Jofeph Banks informs me, that in Willoughby's, or rather John Ray's Ornithology, p. 34, No. 3, is mentioned the common fea mall, Larus cinereus minor; and that young fea gulls have been esteemed a delicate food in this country, we learn from Plott, who, in his Hiftory of Staffordshire, p. 231, gives an account of the mode of taking a fpecies of gulls called in that country pewits, with a plate annexed, at the end of which he writes, "they being accounted a good difh at the moft plentiful tables." To this it |