SCENE II.
ANOTHER PART OF THE ISLAND.
Enter Boatswain, Trinculo, and Mariners.
BOATSWAIN.
Yare! yare!—bear a hand with that stowage;
here's a fresh breeze sprung up, and as fair
for Italy as heart can wish.
TRINCULO.
And where's the wonder o'that?—did not the
fairy promise old grey-beard as much?—and
your true fairies are no courtiers.
BOATSWAIN.
A fairy promise?—why, what a plague, are
we to be puff'd along by the devil and his imps!
I don't know what to make of this conjuration!
and as for duke Prospero, I'm a lubber if I
think him a jot better than an old wizard!
TRINCULO.
Between ourselves, boatswain, I take him to
be a kind of friar Bacon, or doctor Faustus;
that I heard so many tales about, in England:
and like them, he has sold himself to the devil
in the next world, that he may be able to play
-- 8 --
the devil in this: which he did, with a vengeance,
when he wreck'd us on this isle of
devils!
[Sudden darkness.
BOATSWAIN.
Avast!—I wish he be not at some of his diabolical
tricks again!—'twas as clear a morn as
ever shone but now; and, lo! on a sudden,
how it is overcast!
Lightning, Thunder, Wind, &c.
And see!—and hark!—heigh, how it rumbles!
TRINCULO.
'Mass! I fear mischief's a-foot! and here comes
Stephano in a parlous taking.
Enter Stephano.
STEPHANO.
Oh, oh, oh! deliver me from such a sight
again!—boatswain! Trinculo! I have been so
scared!
BOATSWAIN.
With what, I trow?
STEPHANO.
The conjuring duke has been sinking his
necromancy-book to the bottom of the red-sea
-- 9 --
here—it can be no other!—breaking his magical-stick,
and burying it half-way to Belzebub;
which has caused such a clatter among the elements,
that I thought dooms-day was come, at
least!
BOATSWAIN.
I'm no seaman, if I relish this same witchcraft!
—and the old magick-monger is going
aboard too!—I wish we get safe to port!—I
doubt it:—I'd as lief sail with a corpse as a conjuror!
TRINCULO.
By'r lady, boatswain, I'm of your mind!
I shall never dare to walk the deck after dark,
Stephano, much less keep watch there all night,
as he once said we should, for dread of spirits,
and hobgoblins.
STEPHANO.
The bare thought of it gives me the shaking
palsy, fellow Trinculo!—he were fitter to
watch o'nights himself, and let servant-monster
be his mate: then, if any goblins should board
us, they could gibber with them in their own
infernal dialect.
BOATSWAIN.
He don't intend, I hope, to take that land-shark
-- 10 --
aboard;—an' he do not keep him in an
iron cage, he'll devour all the ship's provisions,
and tear us to pieces for more.
TRINCULO,
Who? Caliban? not he, o'my troth!—though
he be a monster, he's a tame one; and no glutton
neither:—give him but the bottle, you stop
his mouth at once.
STEPHANO.
Now you talk of the bottle, Trinculo, I think
a sup of it would do me no harm, after the panick
I have been in; what say ye to some sack,
boys, before we set sail?
TRINCULO.
Ay, and after too; for I quake horribly with
apprehension.
STEPHANO.
Follow, then;—the rock, my wine-cellar, is
in our way to where the ship rides: and our
word shall be, no night-watching! for fear of
spirits and hobgoblins!
TRINCULO.
Ay, spirits and hobgoblins!—'mercy on us!
say I, and send us all safe to Naples!
Exeunt.
-- 11 --
Francis Godolphin Waldron [1797], The virgin queen, a drama in five acts; attempted as a sequel to Shakspeare's Tempest (Printed for the author, London) [word count] [S38600].
