The second scene is primarily comic nonsense. It begins with Caliban carrying some firewood that he had collected for Prospero. The dark spirit however hates the task that he has to perform, throws down the wood in disgust, and curses the magician. On stage alone, Caliban delivers a short speech, a soliloquy, wherein he voices his complaint against his master. A noise of thunder is produced offstage, and Caliban assumes the noise is Prospero’s warning to him to stop his cursing and complete his task. Caliban then complains how lesser spirits take the shape of apes or hedgehogs or snakes and hinder Caliban by getting in his way and by making noises at him.
At this point Trinculo enters the stage. Trinculo is King Alonso’s court jester or fool, and he believes that he is the only survivor of the shipwreck. However, Trinculo is not one of Shakespeare’s really clever or witty fools (like the Fool in the tragedy of King Lear or like Feste in the comedy entitled Twelfth Night). Rather, Trinculo is occasionally dull. When Caliban first sees Trinculo coming toward him, the earthy spirit thinks he is one of Prospero’s lesser spirits who has come to pester him. So, Caliban lies down and pretends to be dead.
Trinculo has also heard the thunder, and he realizes that the dark clouds in the sky indicate that soon a storm will be upon him. Trinculo describes one particularly dark and menacing cloud as “a foul bombard that would shed his liquor” (20-21). Despite some signs of dullness, Trinculo does make some witty remarks. A bombard is (1) a form of cannon, but the word was also used to signify (2) a large drinking vessel to hold wine or some other alcoholic beverage. Thus, the dark cloud is both (1) dangerous, like a cannon, and (2) full of liquid that will soon be poured down upon him. At the end of his speech, Trinculo continues his metaphor of the bombard when he comments that he needs to hide until “the dregs of the storm be past” (38). The word, dregs, refers to the sediment or residue that appears at the bottom of a bottle of wine. The dregs come out of the bottle last; and, so, Trinculo’s comment is a clever way of indicating that he will stay under shelter until the storm has ended.
However, Trinculo has no clue what to make of Caliban when he sees him lying on the ground. Trinculo asserts that Caliban smells like a stale fish. Yet he looks like neither fish nor man. Nevertheless, Trinculo believes that he could make money by going to England, painting a billboard to advertise Caliban, and charging customers to come view the curiosity in person. Trinculo then makes another witty remark:
There would this monster make a man. (28-29)
The line means both of the following: (1) there in England displaying the monster Caliban would make a man wealthy, and (2) there in England the monster Caliban would pass for a man. With the second line Shakespeare is making a little reproach about the appearance of certain people in London.