STEPHANO This will prove a brave kingdom to me, where I shall have my music for nothing.
CALIBAN When Prospero is destroyed.
STEPHANO That shall be by and by. I remember the story.
TRINCULO The sound is going away. Let’s follow it, and after do our work.
STEPHANO Lead, monster, we’ll follow. I would I could see this taborer; he lays it on.
TRINCULO [to Caliban] Wilt come? I’ll follow Stephano. Exeunt. (3.2.144-153)
Such confident writing, ending the spell of Caliban’s gorgeous verse. Stephano could well deliver his line with rapture, but it’s still self-interested, superficial prose: this will prove a brave kingdom to me, where I won’t even need to pay musicians. But it’s Caliban himself who definitively breaks the enchantment: when Prospero is destroyed. It’s a move at which Shakespeare is supremely adept, the swerve from lyricism and soaring inspiration, an appeal to the better nature, into cold pragmatism. Shylock’s ‘Hath not a Jew eyes?’ speech is incomplete without its logical conclusion: ‘And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?’ Caliban is infinitely more complicated and more interesting, more troubling as a character if he is capable of sustaining both poetic beauty and murderous intent, both of them entirely ‘in character’. Daringly, his statement (his last words in this scene) undercuts even his previous speech: was it merely a cynical attempt to reassure Stephano, in order that he not be distracted or deterred from the killing of Prospero? (No, I don’t think so. But it makes the speech vibrate more fraughtly in retrospect.) I’m on message, says Stephano; I haven’t forgotten what you’ve told me. He shall indeed be destroyed by and by, soon, even immediately. But Trinculo is still at least a little enchanted: The sound is going away. Let’s follow it. (And after do our work – that is, murder.) It’s mostly an implicit stage direction for Ariel to begin to make their exit, playing on their drum. Stephano is still, perhaps, a little suspicious of the unseen taborer. But off they go. Both Stephano and Trinculo are now being polite to Caliban; although Trinculo’s Wilt come? to Caliban is given to Stephano by some editors, it can be read simply as Trinculo courteously reinforcing Stephano’s invitation, to Caliban, Lead, monster, we’ll follow. It’s left to the Neopolitan clowns to get the characters offstage, with Ariel’s help – but it’s Caliban’s words that linger. And that’s the end of the scene.
