Enter CALIBAN, STEPHANO and TRINCULO, all wet.

CALIBAN        Pray you tread softly, that the blind mole may

Not hear a footfall. We are now near his cell.

STEPHANO    Monster, your fairy, which you say is a harmless fairy, has done little better than played the jack with us.

TRINCULO      Monster, I do smell all horse piss, at which my nose is in great indignation.

STEPHANO    So is mine. Do you hear, monster? If I should take a displeasure against you, look you!

TRINCULO      Thou wert but a lost monster.

CALIBAN        Good my lord, give me thy favour still.

Be patient, for the prize I’ll bring thee to

Shall hoodwink this mischance. Therefore speak softly;

All’s hushed as midnight yet. (4.1.194-207)

We have to remember that Caliban earlier assured Trinculo and Stephano that Prospero always has an afternoon nap; that’s why they’ve waited to sneak up to his cell, and why Caliban is exhorting them to tread softly, quietly. Prospero is not the blind mole here (this is not a suggestion that he wears glasses, although I’d enjoy seeing Prospero putting his magic book on the ground to read it because his arms aren’t long enough anymore); rather, Caliban is telling them that their footsteps must be so delicate as to not even disturb moles, living underground and proverbially sensitive to sounds and vibrations in the soil. Stephano and Trinculo, however, are somewhat woebegone, and all three of them are wet, as per the stage direction: this may well be the second drenching for these actors, if they were among the Mariners who entered, wet, in the play’s opening scene. Here, however, what soaks them is not sea-water but the stinking, slimy pondwater just described by Ariel. The idea that Ariel could ever be described as a harmless fairy is laughable, and the sense here is that Stephano is repeating Caliban’s own words, calling Ariel a fairy rather than a spirit, as they’re usually described by Prospero. To play the jack is to be a trickster: we’ve been led a merry dance by a fairy, says Stephano, resentfully, annoyed at having been made a fool of, as well as because of his smelly soaking. Trinculo is once again especially offended by how appalling he now smells, just as he was repulsed by Caliban’s smell: I do smell all horse piss (a smell which would be entirely familiar to everyone in the audience; there’s perhaps an additional joke if you know that stale, the word that Prospero used to describe the bait that Ariel has laid out, the glistering apparel, also means horse piss). He seems to take the terrible smell personally: my nose is in great indignation; it’s an insult, an affront. Look out that I don’t blame you, monster, says Stephano, and again the repetition of monster is striking here; this is still the only way they can think of Caliban. Trinculo, as ever, affirms, yes, you’ll be a lost monster, as good as dead, if we take against you. But the monster – as previously – replies politely, and in verse. He’s apparently not worried by the smell or the soaking: please continue to do as I ask, and be patient; the reward, the prize that you’ll gain will be ample recompense for this mischance, this unfortunate mess that we’re currently in. Ssssssshhh. Be quiet, it’s hushed, and still as midnight around here: Prospero must be asleep…