The Tempest Stephano Quotes

The master, the swabber, the boatswain and I,
The gunner and his mate
Loved Mall, Meg and Marian and Margery,
But none of us cared for Kate;
For she had a tongue with a tang,
Would cry to a sailor, Go hang!

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 2. A drunken Stephano with a bottle in his hand sings a saucy song about sailors and the women they fancied and the one woman no sailor liked. As with his sidekick Trinculo, the comic character of Stephano adds a generous slice of comic relief to the play.

This is some monster of the isle with four legs, who hath got, as I take it, an ague. Where the devil should he learn our language? I will give him some relief, if it be but for that. If I can recover him and keep him tame and get to Naples with him, he’s a present for any emperor that ever trod on neat’s leather.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 2. Stephano calls Caliban a monster when he sees him, because of his deformed shape, having been born to a witch. He plans to take him to Naples and make him a present for some king.

Four legs and two voices: a most delicate monster! His forward voice now is to speak well of his friend; his backward voice is to utter foul speeches and to detract. If all the wine in my bottle will recover him, I will help his ague. Come. Amen! I will pour some in thy other mouth.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 2. A drunken Stephano provides some comic relief as he reacts to the four-legged, two-voiced "monster" of Caliban and Trinculo hiding under Caliban’s cloak. The forward voice is that of Trinculo speaking well of Stephano. The backward voice is Caliban shouting curses and abuse. Stephano goes to pour some wine into Caliban’s mouth.

These be fine things, an if they be not sprites.
That’s a brave god and bears celestial liquor.
I will kneel to him.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 2. Caliban thinks that Stephano and Trinculo are gods after he is given some liquor by Stephano, probably his first experience of alcohol. It is no surprise that Caliban, who feels mistreated and and enslaved by Prospero, would seek to align himself to the first new humans that he meets on the island. This desperation speaks to his desire for revenge against his master. But it is also ironic that he wishes to break away from the power of one master, only to give himself to another.

I’ll show thee the best springs; I’ll pluck thee berries;
I’ll fish for thee and get thee wood enough.
A plague upon the tyrant that I serve!
I’ll bear him no more sticks, but follow thee,
Thou wondrous man.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 2. In this humorous scene, Caliban promises to follow his new "god" and master, the drunken Stephano. He will show him the best springs, pick berries, fish and fetch wood for him – being a native inhabitant, Caliban knows the island well and is close to nature. There is an irony in Caliban cursing his enslaver Prospero with plague, while switching allegience to Stephano who has branded him a monster and is hardly going to treat him much better.

And that most deeply to consider is
The beauty of his daughter; he himself
Calls her a nonpareil: I never saw a woman,
But only Sycorax my dam and she;
But she as far surpasseth Sycorax
As great’st does least.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 2. Caliban tells Stephano that he should consider the beauty of Prospero’s daughter Miranda. He goes on to suggest that after killing her father they take her, as she will be a perfect fit for Stephano’s bed and provide him with excellent children.

Give me thy hand. I am sorry I beat thee; but, while thou livest, keep a good tongue in thy head.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 2. Stephano takes Trinculo’s hand and tells him that he is sorry he beat him. But he warns him that while he lives to be more polite when he speaks. The three conspirators have been getting drunk together, Stephano saying he will declare himself king of the island with Miranda his queen after killing her father and he will make the other two his viceroys.

Flout ’em and scout ’em
And scout ’em and flout ’em
Thought is free.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 2. The farsical scene between the drunken trio continues, as Stephano sings this song for Caliban about treating others with contempt and insults because speaking your mind is freedom. Caliban had asked him to perform the song he taught him and protests that this isn’t it. Just then an invisible Ariel begins a tune on his flute and Trinculo recognizes it as Stephano’s song. So the comic confusion carries on.

FERDINAND: This is strange: your father’s in some passion
That works him strongly.
MIRANDA: Never till this day
Saw I him touched with anger so distempered.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1. Ferdinand remarks about Prospero’s strong mood and Miranda tells him that she has never seen her father in such an angry state. Their puzzlement is an example of dramatic irony. Prospero’s anger is over the treachery plotted against him by Caliban with the aid of co-conspirators Stephano and Trinculo – which the audience already knows, but the young couple do not.

I told you, sir, they were red-hot with drinking;
So fun of valour that they smote the air
For breathing in their faces; beat the ground
For kissing of their feet; yet always bending
Towards their project. Then I beat my tabour;
At which, like unbacked colts, they pricked their ears,
Advanced their eyelids, lifted up their noses
As they smelt music: so I charm’d their ears
That calf-like they my lowing followed through
Toothed briers, sharp furzes, pricking goss and thorns,
Which entered their frail shins.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1. Ariel reports to Prospero that Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo were "red-hot with drinking" – intoxicated – when he left them. So much so that they beat the wind for blowing in their faces and the ground for touching their feet. Ariel said he beat his tabor, cast a spell on their ears and they followed the music through briers and thorns, which entered their frail shins.

A devil, a born devil, on whose nature
Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains,
Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost;
And as with age his body uglier grows,
So his mind cankers. I will plague them all,
Even to roaring.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1. Prospero calls Caliban a born devil and no amount of education or nurture can change his basic nature. And as he grows older, his body as well as his mind grows uglier. This speaks to the colonizer mentality Prospero holds in that he sees creatures like Caliban as inferior beings who need to be civilized. Prospero vows to put Caliban and his fellow plotters Stephano and Trinculo in agony until they roar in pain.

[A noise of hunters heard. Enter divers spirits, in shape of dogs and hounds, hunting them about, Prospero and Ariel setting them on.]
PROSPERO: Go charge my goblins that they grind their joints
With dry convulsions, shorten up their sinews
With aged cramps…
Let them be hunted soundly.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1. It’s punishment time for Stephano, Trinculo and Caliban as Prospero lets slip the dogs of vengeance. Spirits, disguised as dogs and hounds, are conjured up by Prospero and Ariel to chase the three about. The hounds are urged on by Prospero and Ariel. As the trio are driven off, Prospero orders Ariel to make sure that the dogs inflict pain and suffering on them.

Mark but the badges of these men, my lords
Then say if they be true. This mis-shapen knave,
His mother was a witch, and one so strong
That could control the moon, make flows and ebbs,
And deal in her command without her power.
These three have robb’d me; and this demi-devil –
For he’s a bastard one – had plotted with them
To take my life. Two of these fellows you
Must know and own; this thing of darkness!
Acknowledge mine.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1. Prospero tells Alonso to take note of the stolen apparel of the two drunks Stephano and Trinculo who have stumbled in with Caliban, and then say if they are honest. The pair are lackeys of their master Antonio and with them Caliban has plotted to murder Prospero. When speaking of Caliban, Prospero dehumanizes him and adds to his monster image by referring to his deformed physical appearance and the fact that he is the bastard offspring of a devil and a witch. He also describes him as a "thing of darkness." But he does acknowledge Caliban as his. And in a sense Caliban’s monster is Prospero’s creation for he has treated Caliban monstrously. There are clear parallels here between Prospero and Caliban, and Victor Frankstein and his monster.
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