The Tempest Caliban Quotes

As wicked dew as e’er my mother brushed
With raven’s feather from unwholesome fen
Drop on you both. A southwest blow on you
And blister you all o’er.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. The first words spoken by Caliban in the play shows his hatred and extreme anger towards Prospero and Miranda. Showing his rebelliousness and disobedience when called, he curses them in two different ways, invoking the name of his dead sorceress mother Sycorax. He references her witchcraft, calling on her "wicked dew" to drop on them. Caliban believes the island is rightfully his and was stolen by Prospero. This level of extreme hatred foreshadows Caliban’s plot to hurt Prospero and Miranda.

For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have cramps,
Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up. Urchins
Shall, for that vast of night that they may work,
All exercise on thee. Thou shalt be pinched
As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging
Than bees that made ’em.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. Just after Caliban showers curses on him and his daughter, Prospero issues this threat to his unruly and disobedient slave. Prospero is a sorcerer and his powerful magic can indeed inflict this kind of physical pain that he describes on Caliban in order to control him. He uses nature as a threat to cause him pain, urchins being spirits in the form of hedgehogs. There is an unforgiving relationship between the master and servant. The deformed Caliban is usually seen as the monster in the play, but Prospero could also be seen as part monster in the things he does to control and manipulate the other characters.

This island’s mine, by Sycorax my mother,
Which thou tak’st from me. When thou cam’st first,
Thou strok’st me and mad’st much of me, wouldst give me
Water with berries in ‘t, and teach me how
To name the bigger light and how the less,
That burn by day and night. And then I loved thee,
And show’d thee all the qualities o’ th’ isle,
The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile.
Cursed be I that did so! All the charms
Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you,
For I am all the subjects that you have,
Which first was mine own king; and here you sty me
In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me
The rest o’ th’ island.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. Caliban asserts his rights through his mother to the island, which he claims Prospero took from him by flattering him, giving him berries, teaching him about the sun and stars and then betraying him. He admits that he loved Prospero at first. He showed the magician all the qualities of the island with its freshwater springs and saltwater pits, Caliban being a native inhabitant and close to nature. But he curses himself for doing so, and Prospero as well, who now confines him in a cave on the island. Invoking the name of his witch mother Sycorax, Caliban once again calls on her wicked magic charms to curse his captor. He is unforgiving about how Prospero has mistreated and enslaved him. All of this raises the question of who is the monster here – Caliban or Prospero? Perhaps both!

Thou most lying slave,
Whom stripes may move, not kindness, I have used thee,
Filth as thou art, with human care, and lodged thee
In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate
The honour of my child.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. Prospero is unforgiving towards his slave Caliban for his attempt to violate his daughter Miranda. He calls him a piece of filth, but he did allow him to live in his Prospero’s own dwelling until he tried to rape his daughter. He tells Caliban that he only responds to whipping, not kindness.

Abhorred slave,
Which any print of goodness wilt not take,
Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee,
Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour
One thing or other. When thou didst not, savage,
Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like
A thing most brutish, I endowed thy purposes
With words that made them known. But thy vile race,
Though thou didst learn, had that in ‘t which good natures
Could not abide to be with. Therefore wast thou
Deservedly confined into this rock,
Who hadst deserved more than a prison.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. Miranda tells Caliban that he has such an evil nature he cannot be shaped into anything good. Taking pity on him at first, she said that she spent much time educating him and teaching him to speak, but because of his evil nature no good person could abide to be with him. So he deserves to be confined to this rock prison, she believes. Prospero’s colonizer attitude to the "savage" slave who needs to be rescued from his "brutish" nature comes across loud and clear in Miranda’s words about Caliban. He is depicted as sub-human, a monster.

Hag-seed, hence!
Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou’rt best,
If thou neglect’st or dost unwillingly
What I command, I’ll rack thee with old cramps,
Fill all thy bones with aches, make thee roar
That beasts shall tremble at thy din.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. Prospero uses dehumanizing and demeaning language to Caliban – "hag-seed" (metaphor) – and threatens to employ his magic to inflict pain on him, if he does not willingly obey his commands to fetch in the fuel, and do it quickly. He will rack him with cramps, make his bones ache, and cause him to roar so much that beasts will tremble, he threatens. Prospero shows his own monstrously vindictive and imperialistic side here in his dealings with his slave.

You taught me language; and my profit on ‘t
Is, I know how to curse: the red plague rid you,
For learning me your language.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. The monster bites back! Caliban is reacting angrily to Miranda’s attack on him as a savage that she tried to educate. He says that he gained nothing of value from the education, except that he learned how to curse. He hopes that she dies of the plague for teaching him her language. Ironically Caliban is also capable of using beautiful, poetic language, as in his "Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises" speech (Act 3, Scene 2). At the heart of The Tempest is the vexed and toxic relationship between the colonized and colonizer, Caliban and Prospero. Caliban deeply resents Prospero’s and Miranda’s attempts to "civilize" him and sees them only as oppressors. He is rebelling against the use of language as a tool of colonization and repression. His threatening words in this passage are foreshadowing of his plot later in the play to kill Prospero and take his daughter.

Were I in England now, as once I was, and had but this fish painted, not a holiday fool there but would give a piece of silver: there would this monster make a man. When they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 2. Here Trinculo imagines that if he were in England, he could exploit Caliban’s monstrous appearance for economic profit. He cynically remarks that the English would not give a penny to help a blind beggar, but they would give ten to see a dead Indian. Trinculo is echoing Prospero’s imperialistic nature here.

Legg’d like a man! and his fins like arms! Warm, o’ my troth! I do now let loose my opinion, hold it no longer: this is no fish, but an islander, that hath lately suffer’d by a thunder-bolt. [Thunder.] Alas, the storm is come again! My best way is to creep under his gaberdine; there is no other shelter hereabout: misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. I will here shroud till the dregs of the storm be past.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 2. Some of The Tempest’s best humor is provided by the two comic sidekicks Trinculo and Stephano and nowhere is this more evident than in this scene where they meet the strange looking Caliban. Here Trinculo spots the monstrous looking creature sheltering under his cloak and decides to join him after hearing a loud burst of thunder.

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.

Thou does me yet but little hurt. Thou wilt anon, I know it by thy trembling: now Prosper works upon thee.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 2. Caliban says this to Trinculo, who is hiding under Caliban’s garment to protect himself from the storm. Caliban thinks that Trinculo is one of Prospero’s spirits coming to torture him because he is not working hard enough. This is further insight into Prospero the cruel master, who is apparently accustomed to tormenting his slave Caliban with pain if he doesn’t work hard – in this instance bringing his wood home fast enough.

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.
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