Tempest full text, Hyperlink 17

This song is written to sound like a traditional sea shanty. Woolfenden directs the actor to sing it ‘like a shanty’, and he uses dotted rhythms which are so associated with this kind of song.

This scene between Stephano, Trinculo, and Caliban is full of physical theatre. The prompt books are filled with directions like ‘Stephano pushes Caliban’s head down’, ‘Trinculo goes to grab bottle, Stephano pushes him’, and ‘Stephano pulls Trinculo out from gaberdine’. Compared to the stately, physically detached interactions between Prospero, Ariel, and Ferdinand, and the more loving relationships between Miranda and both Prospero and Ferdinand, this immediately establishes these characters as having a rougher, more slapstick relationship.

The prompt book diagram showing the on-stage position of the characters during the scene.