Caliban, Miranda, and Prospero by C. W. Sharpe (1875)
Because the storm is coming quickly, Trinculo hides beneath the long gabardine cloak that Caliban is wearing.
Stefano, who is King Alonso’s butler, enters the stage. He also believes that he is the only survivor. Stefano is carrying a bottle of wine and is already quite drunk. As he enters, he is singing a bawdy sailor song.
Caliban, who now has Trinculo hiding in the back of his cloak, yells at him to stop pestering him. Caliban still believes that Trinculo is a spirit sent by Prospero to annoy him.
The drunken Stefano, hearing Caliban speak and seeing the creature with his two legs and Trinculo’s two legs sticking out beneath the cloak, believes that Caliban is a four-legged devil or monster. Hearing Caliban cry out about being tormented, Stefano believes that the monster has an ague or illness. So, the drunken butler gives Caliban some of his wine so that he will recover. Like Trinculo, Stefano believes that he can make money with the monster. So, he plans to help Caliban recover from his torment and bring him back to Italy. Still beneath the cloak, Trinculo recognizes Stefano’s voice. The jester calls out to Stefano, and the butler pulls Trinculo out by the legs.
Stefano is surprised to see his fellow Neapolitan (an inhabitant of Naples), and he asks the following:
How cam’st thou to be the siege of this moon-calf? Can he vent Trinculos? (99-100)
Even during the Renaissance scatological humor (humor about bodily functions) was popular with the coarser commoners. By siege Stefano means excrement, and by the word vent he means the act of defecating. The word mooncalf (used to refer to Caliban) formally refers to the abortive fetus of a cow, but in Renaissance slang (as Stefano uses it) the word means a foolish person. The word is appropriate given Caliban’s monstrous appearance.
Stefano offers Trinculo some of his wine and tells his countryman that he has saved an entire butt (or cask) of the precious liquid.
Meanwhile Caliban, who has never tasted wine before, has become exceedingly drunk. The foolish spirit then believes that Stefano is a god who is far more powerful than Prospero. So, Caliban swears his allegiance to serve only Stefano; and he sings and rejoices in what he believes to be his freedom from Prospero.